Product Description

A divorced man takes a job in disguise as his ex-wife's housekeeper to be near his children.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 27-AUG-2002
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13187 in DVD
• Brand: WILLIAMS,ROBIN
• Released on: 2003-10-14
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 125 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
This huge 1993 hit for Robin Williams and director Chris Columbus (Home Alone), based on a novel called Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine, stars Williams as a loving but flaky father estranged from his frustrated wife (Sally Field). Devastated by a court order limiting his time with the children, Williams's character disguises himself as a warm, old British nanny who becomes the kids' best friend. As with Dustin Hoffman's performance in Tootsie, Williams's drag act--buried under layers of latex and padding--is the show, and everything and everyone else on screen serves his sometimes frantic role. Since that's the case, it's fortunate that Williams is Williams, and his performance is terribly funny at times and exceptionally believable in those scenes where his character misses his children. Playing Williams's brother, a professional makeup artist, Harvey Fierstein has a good support role in a bright sequence where he tries a number of feminine looks on Williams before settling on Mrs. Doubtfire's visage. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker
Robin Williams impersonates a stocky, middle-aged female housekeeper, and he's too inventive an actor not to get a few gigantic laughs out of the stunt. (His makeup and wardrobe may remind alert viewers of Burt Lancaster's drag cameo in "The List of Adrian Messenger.") But the picture as a whole isn't in the class of "Tootsie" and "Some Like It Hot," mostly because its premise is sentimental, not cynical: Williams's character, a divorced man, becomes Mrs. Doubtfire in order to get around a court-ordered custody arrangement and spend more time with his adorable children. Lessons are learned, loved ones are hugged, and personal growth is achieved-as usual, at the expense of comedy. Some, apparently including Williams, like it warm and cuddly, too. Nobody's perfect. Also with Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Prosky, and Harvey Fierstein. Directed-with a very heavy hand-by Chris Columbus, from a script by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

The funniest movie around!!
This is truly the funniest movie I have ever seen in my life! Robin Williams is hilarious as Daniel Hillard and Mrs. Doubtfire. His saucy performance makes this a classic that many people will watch again and again. Sally Field is also terrific, and the children (Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, and Mara Wilson) are all fantastic as well. This movie is constantly played over and over at my house.

Great Movie for the Whole Family
Mrs. Doubtfire is a comical film following the life of an actor, named Daniel, played by
Robin Williams. The audience enjoys in watching Daniel's quite amusing attempts at
getting his life back in order after loosing both his job and his marriage in the same day.

Excellently directed, Mrs. Doubtfire is the perfect combination of both humor and
heartache. Dealing with issues of a broken home, the movie allows many Americans to
relate to the lives of the characters.

The viewer watches as a father is torn away from his kids, whom he loves dearly. One can
not help but feel compassion for him as he struggles to find a way back into his children's
lives. Viewers will feel like they really know Daniel after watching him grow as both a
person and a father.

In desperation, Daniel takes on another identity in effort to spend more time with his
beloved children. One's stomach will split with laughter watching him jump from one
identity to the other in attempt to remain unidentified. The humor involved is clean, yet
hilarious. Something both kids and their parents can enjoy together.

Mrs. Doubtfire will grip one's heart and hold on tight, until the very end when tears of joy
will slowly well up in every eye. A perfect film for the whole family, Mrs. Doubtfire is
definitely worth one's time.

It's not widescreen
I ordered this thinking it's widescreen. Just got it. It's not widescreen. It's 1:33: 1 (fullscreen).

It's going back.