The longest running joke among my friends and family is to work Mrs. Doubtfire dialogue into everyday conversation. On a particularly hot day, scream, "I'm melting like a snow come in Phoenix!" If somebody important is coming over for dinner, announce, "I'll put on a chicken." When somebody presents swimming as a good idea, yell, "Oh no, dear. I think they outlawed whaling!" Or, if you ever had a brief stint in drag, like me, complain, "If I ever find the misogynistic bastard who invented heels, I'll kill him!" You get the idea.
I was first introduced to Mrs. Doubtfire when I saw ads of Robin Williams as an old lady rocking out to "Dude, looks like a lady" while using a sweeping brush as a guitar. I thought I have to see immediately. It played on British television around Xmas time when my family was staying, we all watched it and laughed, and laughed. I suppose the adults understood all the humour, but for me, at the time, it was just a funny movie starring an actor that I liked in a funny costume.
Years later, when I watched it again as a teenager, it was a totally different movie. I was gobsmacked that they let Robin Williams get away with saying such hilarious but inappropriate lines in a children's movie. When Mrs. Doubtfire is taunting fancy man Pierce Broanan about his relationship with his now ex-wife Sally Field, he says "Well I hope you're up for a little competition. She's got a power tool in the bedroom, dear. She uses it and the lights dim, it's like a prison movie. It's a wonder she hasn't chipped her teeth."
At the time of its release, my parents were having problems. Divorce was such a terrifying concept growing up. They stayed together, but the movie communicated to me what it meant to live in separate households. Although it relays its message in a saccharine monologue at the end, the movie is not afraid to talk openly about divorce, in the early 90s too, at a time when Disney, while enjoying a successful comeback, wouldn't have gone anywhere near divorce. The impact that the divorce has on the family, is realistic, and at times, heartbreaking.
The movie also introduced me to the possibility of seeing gay characters on screen. Robin Williams' brother, played by Harvey Fierstein, is gay. Their chemistry is incredible. Fierstein equals Williams with his quick wit. He is certainly not cast to be laughed at but laughed with. When Williams asks "Can you make me a woman?" Fierstein says "Honey I'm so happy!" It is progressive that the gay characters' sexuality is incidental to the plot, it is not the plot.
The gay characters are accepted by their family, in fact, it is the gay characters who welcome Williams into their home when his marriage is ending, which is an amusing contrast, the homosexuals have their shit together when the heterosexuals are falling apart. When Mrs. Doubtfire reveals to the children who she really is, they ask "Who did this?" referring to her convincing disguise. "Uncle Frank and Aunt Jack." They nod as if it was normal, and again, incidental.
What is even more progressive is that when Robin Williams' boss, at the television station, finds out that Mrs. Doubtfire is a man, he doesn't run in horror or fire her on the spot, he gives her her own show. "Why in god's name are you dressed like a woman?" "I would like to introduce you to the host of your new show." It is hard to believe that a TV executive these days would greenlight a children's television show hosted by a transvestite, but there you have it.
It is this progressive attitude toward traditional gender roles that is smuggled into what is otherwise the kind of Hollywood children's movie has become known for. Once Robin Williams embraces his feminine side and walks a mile in his wife's shoes, so to speak, he becomes a better Dad. "I cook, I clean, I bake, I sow." It even goes as far to suggest that good parents do not assign all the domestic chores to just one parent, a good father must sometimes play housekeeper.
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