BEFORE: I had some internal debate about where to put this film in my chain - should I save it for Robin Williams week? Build a chain around movie transvestitism? Nah, seeing as how films like "Big Momma's House" and "White Chicks" will NEVER make the cut, I guess I'll use it to cap off a trilogy of divorce-based comedies.
THE PLOT: After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend secret time with his children.
AFTER: I'm split down the middle on this one - because taken one way, it's a heartwarming story of a man (Robin Williams, last seen in "August Rush") who goes to extremes to spend more time with his kids, get his life back together, and prevent his wife from dating a cad. But looked at from a more cynical viewpoint, it's the story of a deranged actor who disguises himself to stalk his own family. There, I said it...
I've got a host of nitpick points, mostly built around the "disguise" aspect - obviously the audience needs to recognize Robin Williams in granny drag, but none of the other characters are supposed to - so that's a visual conundrum right there. And then we're supposed to believe that the man's own wife of 14 years (!!) doesn't recognize him as a woman of similar height and shape. It's awful convenient that his brother is an expert make-up artist, but 99.9% of men who put on a dress, Robin Williams included, will NOT pass as a woman, merely that same man in a dress. (Case in point: Dame Edna, Flip Wilson as Geraldine, Eddie Izzard, etc.) I did it one Halloween (never again!) so I also speak from some experience.
Then we get to the voice - it's a smart idea casting Williams as a voice-over artist, it's something he has experience with (me, too...). But most v.o. people have a stock set of characters, so if he lived with a woman for 14 years, chances are she would have heard all of his voices over time, so she'd recognize his fake British accent, as well as all the voices he used when answering the nanny ad by phone. Even putting caller I.D. aside, I bet my wife would recognize one of my character voices right away (and even if she didn't, she knows the kind of prank call I'd make).
So he gets the job as the kids' nanny, and then slapstick comedy (the lowest form...) ensues, and since we know the improbable situation can't last forever, it's just a matter of time before his cover is blown - but first there's a restaurant scene where two situations converge, and he has to switch outfits a dozen times (now we know what old ladies carry in their oversized purses - a different identity), leading to a cross-dressing farce of Shakespearean size (note: I said size, not quality...).
Even if I suspend disbelief about the gender disguise, since it is just a movie, I've still got to question the character's actions from a legal and moral angle, and I'm not sure there's any way his actions can be justified, except as an attempt to entertain the audience (note: I said "attempt"). Yes, we want this well-intentioned man-child to grow up, succeed, and get his kids and marriage back - but is that really what's best for everyone involved? I appreciate them leaving the marriage status ambiguous - but I question whether that was done to appeal to both fractured families and reconnected ones.
NITPICK POINT #1: At the time of the make-up session, he'd already applied for the nanny job by phone, so the fake voice had already been established - so why was he trying out different voices? He couldn't use them - was he channeling the spirit of the different looks? Maybe so, but that seems a little odd.
NITPICK POINT #2: It's not relevant to the story, but with two older characters who were presumably unattached - the spinsterish social worker and the polite lonely bus driver - there needed to be a scene where these two characters fell for each other, or at least met. From a screenwriting angle, there shouldn't be two loose ends left dangling like that.
NITPICK POINT #3: So this man's day includes a film archiving job, a nanny job (cooking, cleaning, etc.) travel between the two jobs AND a (presumed) 4-hour make-up session? I call shenanigans - there aren't enough hours in the day. When does he sleep?
Movies depict impossible/improbable situations all the time - so I'm not sure what it says about me if I'm more willing to believe in a superhero's powers or an alien invasion than a man disquised as a woman - but that seems to be the state of things.
Also starring Sally Field (last seen in "Absence of Malice"), Pierce Brosnan (last seen in "The Fourth Protocol"), Mara Wilson (last seen in "Miracle on 34th St."), with cameos from Harvey Fierstein, Robert Prosky, Polly Holliday and Martin Mull (very underused here). Also Rick Overton and Paul Guilfoyle glimpsed during the restaurant scene.
RATING: (A very ambiguous) 5 out of 10 double-scotches
And here I thought you'd point out the technical problem with the opening scenes of the flick, where the voice artist is dubbing dialogue onto completed animation. That hasn't been done since the Max Fleischer days, right?
ReplyDelete(Or was he doing the English dub of a foreign film?)
There's an interesting (and necessary progression) to Robin Williams' character, here. The character evolves. His problem is "How can I get to spend more time with my kids?" The movie, and the viewers, acknowledge that the only sane answer is "Do whatever the court tells you to do, even if it's not particularly fair." By the end of the movie, Williams' character probably understands that pretending to be an elderly Scottish woman was insane.
Any idea can work, potentially. The outlandish ones only work under certain conditions. "Mrs. Doubtfire" wouldn't have worked if the ex-wife were a meanspirited b**** who was divorcing the lead character and seeking sole custody of the kids out of pure spite. Instead, it's established early on that she's a long-suffering wife and that her husband's hippie, live-in-the-moment attitude was wearing thin as they entered middle age. We like her. We're not disappointed when she winds up with a different fella at the end.
I'm not certain that a modern producer, making this movie today, would have the had same kind of faith in the intelligence of the audience. The story would collapse down to a tidy case of "Good Guy, Bad Guy."
re: Guys In Drag -- I think the key is to get close enough that nobody would want to risk guessing wrong. I've seen some very dude-ey sort of ladies in my day.
Check out the "Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians" blog:
http://menwholooklikeoldlesbians.blogspot.com/
And I think your own Halloween costume would have been marginally more effective if you'd shaved your beard. :)
Re: Dubbing dialogue onto completed animation - not impossible, nor is it unlikely. I've seen it done, of course some of the productions I've worked on have been a little backwards. I recently did some voice-work where an old silent animated film from the 1920's was being re-worked, and while the director didn't play the animation sequence for my reference, he certainly could have.
ReplyDeleteWhat's unusual to me is that Robin Williams was voicing both the bird and the cat characters, and switching back and forth, instead of recording them one at a time.
It was suggested on the IMDB "goofs" list that this might not be a mistake - it's possible that there was something wrong with the original recorded voice-track, and the film is depicting a last-minute recording to create a replacement. Which would explain why the sound engineer acted so desperate, and was complaining about the cost.
And I DID shave my beard - however, as they say about Robin Williams' character, my 5 o'clock shadow shows up around 10 am.
ReplyDeleteAnd I also did shave my legs - that was a nightmare that I don't care to repeat.