Mrs. Doubtfire

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Mrs. Doubtfire
• a review of Mrs. Doubtfire completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 October 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is an actor who has three children with his wife Miranda Hillard (Sally Field). After quitting his job, Daniel throws a loud and messy party for his son Chris (Matthew Lawrence). When Miranda gets home from work, she gets into an argument with Daniel over the party, where she asks for a divorce. In the divorce proceedings, Daniel is only granted visitation rights on Saturdays, leaving him distraught.

When Miranda puts out a job for a housekeeper, Daniel creates a false alias, “Mrs Doubtfire”, to apply for the position and spend more time with his children. The children begin to connect with ‘Mrs Doubtfire’, and he becomes a more competent and mature parent. However, he must also manage being around Miranda’s new partner Stu (Pierce Brosnan), who he clearly does not like. When Chris catches Mrs Doubtfire standing to urinate, Daniel reveals to his eldest children that he has been in disguise all along, and they agree to work with Daniel to conceal his identity from Miranda.

Over a dinner for Miranda’s birthday Daniel’s secret identity is revealed, as he fails to juggle his role as Mrs Doubtfire and an important business dinner for a television job. Later, Daniel lands the television job as a children’s entertainer, a role that inadvertently draws his family together and enables the parents to reach an agreement about what is best for their children.

Divorce; Family breakdown; Racism; Transphobia.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• While calling Miranda under a fake alias for the housekeeper position, Daniel asks, “are your kids well-behaved or do they need a few light slams now and then?”
• While calling Miranda under another fake alias for the housekeeper position, Daniel says, “Leyla, get back in your cell! Don’t make me get the hose!”
• A newspaper headline reads, “Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental”, suggesting an arson attack had occurred.
• While dressed as Mrs Doubtfire, Daniel says, “If I find the misogynistic bastard who invented heels, I’ll kill him.”
• Daniel as Mrs Doubtfire fights off a man who attempts to steal his handbag.
• Daniel as Mrs Doubtfire says under his breath to Stu, “touch me again and I’ll drown you, you bastard”.
• Daniel sneaks into the kitchen to add pepper to Stu’s food after finding out he is allergic, threatening his life.
• Miranda motions to slit her throat after a poor interview with a replacement nanny.

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• Daniel swiftly puts his hand in a social worker woman’s face while making a loud exclamation. This may startle some children.
• Daniel puts on some voices that may frighten younger children.
• There are some plastic dinosaurs shown that may frighten younger children.
• Mrs Doubtfire’s dentures fall into her wine glass, which may disturb younger audiences.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Children of divorce may be triggered by Miranda gaining a new partner so shortly after separation.
• The family graphically describes amoebic dysentery, stating, “you get diarrhoea forever and die.”
• Daniel as Mrs Doubtfire says that her husband was killed by a Guinness Truck, which may trigger children with a deceased parent, or a parent injured in a motor accident.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• Daniel and Miranda are shown to be arguing angrily before separating, which could trigger children of divorce or of family violence.
• Daniel shouts at his kids to stay in his new home when Miranda arrives an hour early to pick them up. This could also trigger children of divorce or of family violence.

• Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Parody of Looney Tunes characters Tweety Bird and Sylvester.
• Reference to Porky the Pig (Looney Tunes).
• Vehicles, including an Acura Vigor, Chevrolet Astro, Dodge Shadow, Ford Mustang, Honda Civic, Mercedes Benz SL, Nissan 240SX, Volkswagen Super Beetle, and Volvo 850.
• Jump Around by House of Pain is played during the birthday party.
• Luck Be a Lady by Frank Sinatra is played while Daniel has his Mrs Doubtfire disguise constructed.
• Stuart Little is referenced.
• Dude (Looks Like A Lady) by Aerosmith is played over a montage of Daniel as Mrs Doubtfire.
• Reference to Guinness Beer.
• Reference to Planet of the Apes.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Miranda asks, “Is there anything else you wanna see?” after showing Daniel the newspaper advertisement for the nanny position. He glances at her breasts and says, “Are you offering?”
• Mrs Doubtfire accidentally sets ‘her’ chest and fake breasts alight, beating them with pot lids to put the fire out.
• Mrs Doubtfire says that Stu’s Mercedes must be compensating for small genitals.
• Miranda asks Mrs Doubtfire for relationship advice, where they talk about desire and celibacy.
• Mrs Doubtfire says that the water must be cold by the look of Stu, implying that his manhood had shrunk from the cold.
• Mrs Doubtfire says to Miranda, “The red one (dress) is the traditional colour for streetwalkers (prostitutes).” “The black one is much too short, I hope you waxed”, implying that Miranda’s private region would be visible due to the length of the dress. “They both say to me I’m easy”, implying that Miranda is being sexually promiscuous by choosing one of those dresses.
• Mrs Doubtfire says to Stu that the gift he bought Miranda for her birthday is a “bit of a going down payment”. He follows this with multiple sexual innuendos, including “humpty dumpty”, “jack horny”, “horizontal mumbo”, “rumple foreskin” and “cunning linguistics”.
• Mrs Doubtfire says to Stu that Miranda’s “got a power tool in the bedroom”.
• A character says, “I got the stretch outside. Does your girlfriend have a lady friend for me?”

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• Daniel undresses out of his Mrs Doubtfire disguise down to his underwear.
• Stu and Miranda kiss.
• Chris catches Daniel as Mrs Doubtfire urinating.
• Multiple women are in bikinis while at a public pool.
• Stu is shirtless, wearing only swimming shorts, and comments are made about his physical shape.
• Daniel makes up a cover story for smelling of women’s perfume and wearing lipstick, saying to a character that an ex-partner of his was working as a waitress and couldn’t keep her hands (and lips) off him.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Cigarette use by Pudgy the Parrot (Tweety Bird Parody).
• Alcohol is consumed by multiple characters, and in excess by Daniel and a television CEO while at dinner.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Piss off.
• What the hell.
• Bitch.
• Smart ass.
• Goddamn.
• Misogynistic bastard.
• Oh shit.
• Daniel as Mrs Doubtfire sticks the middle finger up at Miranda’s new partner.
• Harlot.
• Fuck.

In a nutshell

Mrs. Doubtfire is a 90’s family comedy movie, and Golden Globe winner, about overcoming the struggles of family separation. Despite the well-intentioned primary message of love prevailing through conflict, many of the jokes and messages have not aged well. There are racial jokes and transphobic themes. Furthermore, Daniel is painted to be a character we should resonate and sympathise with, despite his immoral and illegal activities. The movie sends a worrying message about the positive rewards of committing such actions, with Daniel landing a major TV deal and improved custody arrangements. Due to the frequent sexual references, coarse language, violence, and questionable underlying messages, the film is unsuited to children under 10, and parental guidance is recommended for children aged 10 to 14.

The main message from this movie is that love will persist no matter the circumstances.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Family
• Love
• Perseverance
• Courage.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• While well intentioned, Daniel disguising himself to infiltrate his previous home is unethical and illegal. Daniel’s actions would not lead to him landing a television role. Instead, it is likely to land him in a prison cell.
• Daniel’s character is painted in a sympathetic light, however, he refers to Miranda as “the old battle axe” when talking to his children after the divorce, and he gets his older children to promise not to reveal his true identity to their mum. Furthermore, he blames her at the end of the movie for taking his kids from him. This seems to show that he has zero remorse or accountability for his actions, which the movie seems to praise and rewards him for.
• There are multiple instances of racial jokes. For example, Daniel saying “I’m not a Muslim” while holding a tea towel over his face and “Do you know what language they speak in England? Pakistani? In many stores they do.” Parents may wish to condemn these jokes rather than allowing the racism to be normalised.
• Transphobia is also common throughout, beginning with a fake alias Daniel uses to lower Miranda’s hopes of finding a suitable nanny. On the call he says, “I don’t work with the males because I used to be one”. Miranda hangs up in disgust. Additionally, when Chris discovers that Mrs Doubtfire has male genitalia, he freaks out and tells Lydia that they must call the police. This moment could teach fear towards transgender individuals and implies that genitalia and gender must align.
• The health risks of cigarettes.
• The risk of driving while holding a phone.