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COMEDY: THE FORMS, PART II: MRS. DOUBTFIRE, THREE OF HEARTS

© Sean Gallagher

In Part I, I mentioned two of the most durable forms of comedy are the family comedy and the romantic comedy. I also mentioned some would say overused, not just because there have been so many family and romantic comedies, but because many of these films have been so obsessed with following the rules that they forget to be funny. Either that, or they try and tack on some sentimental message at the end. Chris Columbus' MRS. DOUBTFIRE is an example of the latter problem, while Yurek Bogayevicz's THREE OF HEARTS is an example of the former problem, though they both have other problems as well.

Columbus' film featured the prospect of Robin Williams appearing in drag - as a middle-aged Scottish housekeeper - and giving him his most unleashed comic role since GOOD MORNING VIETNAM. However, that film showcased his improvisational talents in the context of a character. Here, the unthinkable happens - it becomes shtick.

Williams plays Daniel Hillard, an actor who does voice-over work for cartoons. He gets fired in the opening scene when he moralizes about a bird having to smoke a cigarette (which right away defies logic - what kids cartoon would feature that?). To compound matters, when he comes home to celebrate his son Chris' (Matthew Lawrence) birthday, he makes it into a real house party, complete with zoo animals. His long-suffering wife Miranda (Sally Field) finally has had enough, and divorces him. Because he doesn't have a job, Daniel is only allowed to see his kids - who also include Lydia (Lisa Jakob), the oldest, and Natalie (Mara Wilson), the youngest - once a week. This is not acceptable to Daniel, so when he sees Miranda is hiring a housekeeper (she's an architect), he pretends on the phone to be a good one (after pretending to be several bad ones), and then gets his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein) to turn him into one Mrs. Doubtfire.

Now, when you're doing drag comedy, there are two ways to go. The first is complete farce, as Billy Wilder did memorably with SOME LIKE IT HOT. The second is to go serious - still getting laughs, but through character as much as through the situation. This is the route Sydney Pollack took with TOOTSIE. Both films are stellar examples of their respective genres. The problem here is Columbus and writers Leslie Dixon and Randi Mayem Singer (adapting the children's book "Alias Mrs. Doubtfire" by Anne Fine) try to have it both ways, and neither really works. For starters, there's something desperate about Daniel's behavior, and the film never really acknowledges it. And Columbus' idea of seriousness is speeches preaching to us, as with Daniel's speech at the end. About the only thing that does work is Columbus refusing to turn Miranda's new boyfriend Stu (Pierce Brosnan), a fellow architect, into a villain - Daniel may hate him on principle, but he's a genuinely nice guy, he cares for Miranda, and he's good with the kids. He's also mature, while Columbus and Williams seem to lack that.

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