TikiSoo wrote: ↑February 27th, 2023, 1:35 pm
I just saw a news article on Sally Field speaking about her Mrs Doubtfire co-star Robin Williams. Sally Field was in that?
Amazingly, it's one of those universally loved movies I still have never seen.
There's always those movies that just don't appeal to you personally that no matter how great everyone says it is you avoid it. Or that movie you're holding off viewing for whatever reason, your age or the circumstances.
I waited until the '90s to see 2001 A Space Odyssey on the big screen because I only see Kubrick's in theaters first time around!
What is the most famous, commonly loved movie that you would like to see but just haven't gotten around to yet?
I realize I'm a few months late with this response, but yes, Sally Field was in Mrs. Doubtfire, although it was a pretty thankless role. I recently took a look at it again, and in some respects it is remarkable that it was such a large hit at the time because although the film had some lengthy slapstick sequences and some of Robin Williams' rapid-fire comedy, its hard to think of another "comedy" of recent decades that was so melancholy.
That is because the main topic of the film, in spite of some jokes, was about the pain of divorce on all concerned, especially on children. The film started with the marriage of polar opposites Williams and Field ending: he was like an overgrown, constantly joking 12 year old, she was extremely serious and very uptight, it simply wasn't going to end well. When he mostly loses visitation rights to his three children, he disguised himself as an older British female nanny just so he could see more of his children....and well to try to scare off the competition, namely Field's new beau Pierce Brosnan (stuck in a Ralph Bellamy in Awful Truth/His Girl Friday role, in between his years as Remington Steele and James Bond)
Its not a bad film, if you adjust to the fact that its not as comic as many might claim, and if you can take the sentimentality. But at the same time, neither lead is really very likable: we feel Williams' desire to be near his kids, but his manipulation of his ex-wife's new romance is quite nasty, and his behavior toward Brosnan's character is downright abominable (there was also another subplot, left on the cutting room floor, which had Williams take revenge on a nosy neighbor played by Polly Holliday. It was cut because it was mean spirited and tacky, and while Holliday is listed in the opening credits, her role is only about 45 seconds in the finished film), and Field, aside from a scene or two when she reveals her regrets over her crumbled marriage, is rarely allowed to have any drop of sympathy at all in her hard-charging characterization (you don't want to know what some twenty and thirtysomethings who grew up with this film say about her character). And aside from the basic family members, all of the other characters have a tendency to just disappear from the film after just about two or three scenes.
So, basically, the call on whether to watch it comes down to your overall feeling on Williams' brand of comedy, as well as how you feel about a quite unflinching treatment of the weighty subject of divorce ( it's actually one of the more honest mainstream films concerning that). I do feel that the ending of the film hits precisely the right note needed for such an enterprise, and its very moving actually, and earlier moments do work quite well at times. I wouldn't call it a modern classic exactly, but as far as family entertainment goes, you could do far worse.