"Doing What It Takes"

As a little kid, a lot of what I said and did came from my favorite movies. I had gotten in trouble one time for calling my dad a bad word and of course he asked where I had heard that word from. I simply replied "Kindergarden Cop," my favorite movie as a child. Nevertheless, I was grounded and the movie was taken away. Movies today show a lot of what goes on in the real world. Children tend to feed off their role models. What they see in movies is how they act in every day life. They'd never think that what happens in movies could really happy to them.

A favorite movie of mine that portrays divorce in a rather entertaining, odd way is, "Mrs. Doubtfire." Daniel Hillard, or as we all know him Robin Williams is an out-of-work voice actor whose wife Miranda is fed up with his irresponsibility and demands a divorce. Since Miranda is the main provider in the family, she gets primary custody of all three children, Lydia, Chris, and Natalie. Daniel only had visitation rights on Saturday evenings. This news is obviously heart breaking to Daniel or any father as a matter of fact.

When he sees that Miranda had put an add in the paper for a housekeeper, he changes the phone number so that he is the only applicant. He changes his voice several times, disguising himself as different older women. But, finally he finds the perfect one for the job, Mrs. Doubtfire. He had them all fooled for a while, until Chris saw him going to the bathroom "the wrong way." It was then that he let out his secret. That night Miranda and her new boyfriend, Stuart Dunmeyer invite Mrs. Doubtdfire out for dinner. This is where Daniel's cover was blown. He had secretively put pepper in Stuart's dinner (he's allergic) and had to perform abominal thrusts to stop him from dying. As he was doing so, his mask fell off and his real identity was revealed.

All he wanted was to spend more time with his children and he went to all lengths to make sure that was done. Of course the court felt that his behavior was absurd and sole custody was given to Miranda. She saw how upset the children were and asked Daniel to watch them after school, allowing for them to spend some time together without the supervision of a court liasion. This is a man who fought for his children, as any father should. I feel that this movie showed great determination and strong will. Any man should put their life on the line for the best things that ever walked into their lives. This was a good transition from all the other facts that I have provided; breaks the ice and shows what a real father would do!

Images are from flikr.