MR MOM

US, 1983, 91 minutes, Colour.
Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Martin Mull, Jeffrey Tambor, Ann Jillian.
Directed by Stan Dragoti.

Mr. Mom is an entertaining comedy. It has many laughs. It takes as its subject unemployment in the '80s ? and presents it with role reversal. Michael Keaton plays the husband who loses his job. Teri Garr is the wife who goes back to work and becomes a successful advertising executive. There is a parody on men and women in each other's traditional roles, especially the husband looking after the home.

Teri Garr is a competent actress and comedienne (Oh God, Tootsie). Michael Keaton was introduced in the Henry Winkler comedy Nightshift and made very strong impact. There is a good supporting cast including Martin Mull as a smug executive and Ann Gillian as a sexy neighbour. Direction is by Stan Dragotti (Dirty Little Billy, Love at First Bite). The film does not intend to make profound comment on '80s social situations ? but makes effective comment via comedy.

1. An entertaining and funny comedy? Broad and comic styles, U.S. style? Verbal humour, visual? A parody on situation comedies? On the tradition of domestic comedies on television and film? A topical comedy of the early '80s?

2. The background of Detroit, car manufacturing, business advertising? The city, homes? (The contrast with California and TV Land.) An authentic contemporary style?

3. The musical score - quiet, jokey? References to the scores of, for example, Jaws, The Young and the Restless, soap opera films, science fiction films, Rocky and Patton?

4. The visual jokes and references to other films: the sporting achievement of Rocky, the vacuum cleaner as Jaws, soap operas and The Young and the Restless, E.T., the clip from the Cary Grant film I Was a Male War Bride where Cary Grant was disguised as a woman?

5. The ordinary family, their names, ordinary way of life, parents, children, the house? Scenes of getting up, breakfast, washing? The ordinary and comic situations of domestic comedies? Disasters and smiles? The reaction to Jack losing his job? The support of wife, of children? The bet about who would get a job first? Role reversal? The enjoyment of ordinary situations and role reversal: dialogue, Jack trying to cope, treating the kids as adults, the cliches of family life?

6. Detroit: car manufacturing, the plant, the executives, the tour, with the Rocky overtones? Jobs, the men talking recipes, at the unemployment bureau? Jack going back, clashing with his friends, the fights? His being reappointed ? the conditions, the happy ending? The glimpse of troubles in the car industry in the U.S. of the '80s?

7. The comparisons with the advertising world: slick, the secretaries, stern tones, the executives and their effectiveness and ineffectiveness? The humour with the campaign advertising tuna? The meetings and ideas, Caroline and her opinions, her success? The ploy of selling tuna more cheaply, tuna with a heart! Ron and his attraction to Caroline, the yes men around him? The importance of the sports meeting at his place and everybody having to let him win, the threat from Jack and his still allowing Ron to win? The smooth smug advertising executive, the plane trip. his advances? The phone calls and Jack's reaction? The punch at the end? The film's sending up the executive?

8. Caroline as wife, as mother? Efficient and effective? Getting a job - but still cutting Ron's meat as if he were a child! Her success, busy life, working all hours, Jack's jealousy, the trip to Los Angeles, the phone calls and the ambiguity, the return and discovering the neighbour in the bedroom, the happy ending?

9. Jack as 'a regular guy'? With his friends going to work, the sackings, the reaction and going berserk and being sacked, glum return home. the bet about the job and his losing? Trying to cope with the day - the mess in the kitchen, trying to clean the house and the machines going berserk, having to get all the repair people in, the mess in the supermarket, trying to get the meals ready, the washing machine, the television? His having to realise what his wife dealt with? The kids and the laughs? Taking the kids to school - going in the wrong entry, the rain? His reaction to Caroline's job, to Ron and pretending to be tough with him? The sports outing and his winning - but letting Ron win? His going to seed, growing the beard, becoming a slob, fat, watching the soap operas and commenting on them? Joan and his girlfriends, their visits, playing cards, ringing one another about the soap operas? The effect of the strain on him of the children? His fantasies ? Joan and her sexiness, getting caught, getting shot? Reality and fantasy? His reaction and the Rocky transformation and achievement? The Halloween night, Caroline going to Los Angeles, the phone calls, Joan and her arrival, the 'A to Z reasons'? The final punch-up and the happy ending?

10. The serious point about job-sharing?

11. The cut-throat attitudes of the business world and the effect on families?

12. Joan as the sex-pot neighbour, the other women, the babysitter and the gossiping,, playing cards? The compromising scenes with Joan?

13. The portrait of the kids and their contribution to plot, to comedy?

14. A humorous mirror to issues in American society? Universal appeal?