Review of Mr. Mom

Introduction

It`s interesting to see which comedies will date and which become timeless. The subject usually provides a guideline. Pure slapstick never dates, and hence audiences will be enjoying Laurel and Hardy or The Pink Panther for decades if not centuries. If you couple comedy with social comment however, you run the risk of your movie becoming redundant as soon as society changes. Some films transcend this through a sharp script or great performances, but most vanish into the mists of the back catalogue, destined to be the last resort on a Saturday night in your local DVD rental emporium. Mr Mom harks back to that golden age, when a household would have one breadwinner (male) and the missus (female) would stay home and look after the larvae (assorted genders), while cooking, cleaning and waiting eagerly for that "Hi Honey! I`m Home!" Suddenly I have the urge to watch the Flintstones.

Jack is the breadwinner in the Butler family, while wife Caroline stays at home to raise their three children. However times are hard at the car plant where Jack works as an engineer, and pretty soon he gets the short end of the stick when the time comes for redundancies. They don`t have to worry about how the bills will be paid though, as Caroline soon finds a lucrative job in an advertising agency. When Jack is left at home holding the babies, it`s time for some role reversal shenanigans.

Video

Mr Mom gets a bog standard 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer on a typically average back catalogue disc from MGM. The image is a little grainy, a little dull, and there are a few signs of print damage. There may also be the occasional digital artefact. It`s just like a hundred other back catalogue discs that have been released with little effort or fanfare. In other words, the picture is satisfactory.

Audio

Similarly the sound is adequately reproduced on a disc destined for the European market. DD 2.0 English is joined by DD 2.0 French, German, Italian and Spanish dubs, as well as a DD 2.0 Polish narrated version. The dialogue is clear enough, and should you have problems anyway, there are subtitles in a plethora of languages.

Features

Insert pithy comment about bare bones, back catalogue releases here.

Conclusion

I`m afraid that Mr Mom has dated considerably in the 20 years since it was released. Modern families are likely to see either or both parents working, and people are more likely to slave over a pre-packed TV dinner, rather than a roast. The gender distinction where mother stayed home to raise the kids is really a 1960s concept. Even in the 80s when this film was made, the housewife was an endangered species. Today, when men are expected to attend the birth of their children, share the pre-natal classes, and the postnatal nappy changes, the sight of a white collar worker `reduced` to a life of domestic servitude is hardly shocking. I spent most of the film wondering what all the fuss was about. So when the raison d`être of the film ceases to be relevant, all it has to fall back on is the script and the performances.

Fortunately, Mr Mom is as about as inoffensive a film as you could imagine, with the comedy veering from the gentle to the tame. There may be a minor profanity or two, a hint of sexual tension, but most of the humour comes from seeing Michael Keaton`s fish out of water, as he acts as mother to three children, and has to deal with the difficult tasks such as cooking, vacuuming and doing the laundry. It is actually funnier than it sounds, and there is some amusement value in seeing a previously undomesticated man coming to grips with a Hoover called Jaws, as well as becoming ensnared by the hypnotic attraction of daytime soaps. Similarly Teri Garr as Caroline has to re-enter the workplace and has to lose her tendency to mother, such as once during a working lunch, when she begins cutting up her boss`s steak for him.

There are a few too many clichés though, although the ending is a little more satisfying than a simple return to the status quo, signalling that the characters have grown somewhat and learned from their experiences. I could have done without the decent into farce though. Mr Mom is humorous certainly, but it isn`t funny enough to raise any laughs. It`s your typical back catalogue fare from MGM, an average disc for an average movie.