To think the mum in Mrs Doubtfire was the victim of a prick manchild ex?

[KarenNotAKaren]

Watching Mrs Doubtfire. Haven’t watched this is years, it’s such a favourite! As a child I remember thinking how mean Sally Field’s character is, and how cool Robin Williams is.

As a mother, I now have 100% changed my mind.

Williams’s character is a pathetic man child who can’t hold down a job. I’d have had it off with Pierce Brosnan too and probably would have done everything in my power to keep custody while Disney Dad, who can’t even keep a clean house until he ‘becomes a woman’, tells inappropriate jokes.

Tbf the OP doesn't sound like she's looking for an interesting or fun discussion, she just sounds like she wants to sound off about how awful it is which is tedious.

It's film, for entertainment. Why waste head space giving a line by line analysis? Either watch and enjoy it, or switch it off !!

Yep doesn't really sound like she's having fun analysing it etc.

I actually find it quite dull hearing people tear to shreds old films, they aren't necessarily politically or morally correct and may not be made now but actually films and TV will become extremely dull if everything made is giving perfect messages and so on.

I’ve always hated this film. Thought I was the only one. Also really hate Drop Dead Fred, makes me really angry!

@MaryHinges it was a book first. I haven't read it in years though so don't know how well it compares (well the book is British and the film American so that's a big change).
It's published under Puffin Modern Classics these days. I've been collecting a few of those recently so I will have to look out for Madame Doubtfire (the original name) and give it a read.
A lot of 90s films seem a bit crap watching them now. Kindergarten Cop was on TV earlier. I loved that film as a child - my god it was cringe watching it now.

I think the judge at the end was spot on saying he wasn’t fit to be with his kids due to his cross dressing behavior and offering him councelling and a review of his suitability in a years time. Back in the good old days when kids were protected, now it would probably be the kids offered therapy to accept their new “mother” while he is applauded for being so brave! (Yes I know Daniel had other motives but just seeing it as the judge did)

That whole movie pissed me right off. Why did he have to dress up as an elderly woman to become a good father? Why couldn’t he just be one?!

Was too distracted watching Pierce Brosnan to pay much attention to the storyline through an adult lens.

Oh it's completely unwatchable now. Look at it through a different lens these days, as with many other things. I did love it at the time though.

Recently watched crocodile dundee 2, which was mainly sexism, with a dash of so homophobic he threw himself off a building rather than comfort a man who said he had just split up with his boyfriend. Sixteen candles is completely racist with the exchange student. Tried watching Big, and that is traumatising watching as a parent. Her son just vanishes without a trace, an adult man is in her house, then calls her about "kidnapping" him. Then the 12 year old starts a relationship with an adult woman.

Still, was all good fun hey! Just different times, can't apply the same things we would now.

I still really like Mrs Doubtfire. I find it really entertaining with some outstanding performances. I saw an extended director's cut with more Robin Williams riffing and improv. It was hilarious

Why do you hate DDF?

Prison sentence??! Are you for real? The character loved his children so much he couldn't live without them, did you not see the court room scene at the end. He literally moves heaven and earth to be able to see them, my dad has never bothered his arse about seeing me and tbh I don’t know many dads that would have bothered fighting the courts to see their kids. I don't get some of these comments at all, it's a comedy, of course he's a crap husband but honestly!

Because it was the only way he could se his kids after he got kicked out!

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon - exactly this. Get a job, show a stable environment, get to spend time with your kids......nope that's too hard, get drunk, develop a plan to dress like a woman, doing all the things you needed to do as a husband and father, and et viola- so much easier this way.......

This is what I can't get past. The ex that you've thrown out of the house creeps back in by wearing a really creepy disguise, and lying, lying, lying to you and your kids. Real nightmare fuel.

Well he could have cleaned his house and got a job rather than ‘moved heaven and earth’. But then I guess that wouldn’t make a very good comedy would it 😂

I think I can forgive the film because I absolutely adore Robin Williams. But still, Daniel is a prick and Pierce Brosnan is a god!

No it isn’t, he shared custody. He just apparently wanted to see them every day. Which he could have done had he not been a shit husband

But he loves his kids 🤣

It's fucking terrible. So many films and TV shows of the era were woman hating crap, and yes it does matter because kids watch it and absorb the values.

I remember thinking 'what a mean/boring mum' or 'oh that mum only cares about her job' when I was too young to fully grasp the ins and outs. I was a teenager when I thought wait, this is actually shite.

There's a Jim Carrey film where the crap dad does win his wife back despite being a bellend, because he makes her laugh. And everyone cheers. Boak.

You think cross-dressing is legitimate grounds for stopping contact? Really?!

I love drop dead fred!! SNOTFACE

This idea that any behaviour is permissable if you can hide behind loving your kids is at the root of the problem with this film. He had the opportunity to be a good father but didn't bother. As a married parent, he was useless. As a single parent, whiny and self involved. He could only be an effective and responsible father when, in a fit of pique and self pity, he concocted a plan to invade his ex wife's home and control her living situation. Creepy, abusive stuff.

I think Liar Liar is the Jim Carey film. He does change, and they don’t get back together until some time later. And mum in that is a bit shit - intending to move the boy across the country following a boyfriend that she isn’t even that keen on.

"I'll never not crack up at the bus driver admiring 'her' hairy legs!"

He liked that "Mediterranean look" in women.

I was a struggling single mum with a mortgage a fledgling business and a Disney Dad ex when this film came out. I hated it then and seeing Robin Williams faking womanhood still enrages me now. It's an awful film.