‘I watched it endlessly as a teen’: why Mrs Doubtfire is my feelgood movie
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<p>The latest in our series of writers singling out their go-to comfort watches is a look back at a complicated comedy showcase for Robin Williams</p><p>I can’t think of another film that pulls at my heartstrings while making me chuckle as reliably as Mrs Doubtfire does. It has that rare tonal elasticity: genuine sadness, even grief, followed almost immediately by absurdity and welcome comic relief. You might feel your throat tighten one minute, only to find yourself laughing o
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‘I watched it endlessly as a teen’: why Mrs Doubtfire is my feelgood movie The latest in our series of writers singling out their go-to comfort watches is a look back at a complicated comedy showcase for Robin Williams I can’t think of another film that pulls at my heartstrings while making me chuckle as reliably as Mrs Doubtfire does. It has that rare tonal elasticity: genuine sadness, even grief, followed almost immediately by absurdity and welcome comic relief. You might feel your throat tighten one minute, only to find yourself laughing out loud the next. Few films manage that without emotional whiplash, but this one does it with warmth. I watched it endlessly as a teenager on video tape on a tiny TV in my bedroom as I grappled with the peculiarities of my own ultimately loving family life. I adored Mrs Doubtfire for the obvious reasons: all of Robin Williams’s voices, the slapstick and the sheer range of comedic force that the late actor unleashes. At the time, I didn’t realise what a moving experience watching the movie is. But rewatching it as an adult, I now know why I kept watching it over and over. Seen today, Williams’ character Daniel Hillard’s elaborate (and yes, slightly unhinged) transformation – prosthetic face, breast-like padding and all – into British Mrs Doubtfire becomes less a ridiculous gag and more a portrait of how far a father will go not to lose his beloved children – a dynamic that was playing out more quietly in my own home. What hits harder now is beginning to understand just how desperate Daniel was not to have his children ripped away from him outside of a few scheduled hours on a Saturday. As a kid, his transformation into Mrs Doubtfire registered as more of an elaborate joke. As an adult, it reads less like farce and more like compulsion. When he tells a judge that he is “addicted” to his children and can’t breathe without them, it seems hyperbolic. But the truth underneath it is raw and human, though often overlooked in favour of t...
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