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Fathers' Day (1997 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Fathers' Day' is a 1997 American comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Nastassja Kinski. It is a remake of the 1983 French film 'Les Compres'.
In the film, Collette Andrews (Kinski) enlists two former lovers, cynical lawyer Jack Lawrence (Crystal) and lonely, ex-hippie, suicidal writer Dale Putley (Williams) to help her search for her runaway teenage son Scott by telling each man that he is the father. When Jack and Dale run into each other and find out what is happening, they work together to find Scott and determine the identity of the actual father.
The film features an appearance by the musical group Sugar Ray. It was a major critical and commercial failure.
Plot
16-year-old Scott Andrews runs away from home with his girlfriend, Nikki. His mother Collette visits her ex-boyfriend, lawyer Jack Lawrence, telling him that Scott is really his son and wants him to find the boy: Jack refuses at first, but changes his mind when work keeps him in San Francisco overnight.
Meanwhile, writer Dale Putley is planning suicide when he gets a phone call from Collette, of whom he is another ex, and she tells him the same story.
Both men start their search with Russ, Nikki's father. Dale and Jack get little help from him, but it does lead to them meeting each other. Mistakenly assuming that they each have a different missing son, they think "both boys" are mixed up with Nikki. They decide to team up.
Jack and Dale visit Nikki's mother, Shirley, learning Nikki went on the road to follow rock band Sugar Ray. When she asks to see pictures of their sons, they finally discover Collette has told them both the same story about being Scott's father. They call her, who confesses she doesn't know which is the father, but begs them to find Scott.
The two agree and they head for Sacramento, finding Scott, drunk, lovestruck and dumped by Nikki. They bring him back to their hotel room, and when he wakes the next day, he is not pleased by the news that one of them might be his father and that Nikki is following Sugar Ray. Jack leaves Dale to watch over Scott, but he escapes by pouring coffee on Dale's lap. Dale finds Jack and they head to Reno, to Sugar Ray's next gig.
In Reno, Scott meets up with Nikki and the other groupies. Bumping into two drug dealers that he scammed out of $5,000 to buy a necklace for Nikki, he escapes, only to be accidentally run down by Jack and Dale. Now with a broken arm, Scott demands they leave him alone.
That night, the three finally bond when Scott opens up to Jack and Dale—Nikki is his first love, but his parents disapprove of her, so he ran away. When Scott tells him about the drug dealers, they try to help him. They drive to Nikki's hotel, but when Jack and Dale go inside, the drug dealers spot Scott in the car and plan to kidnap and kill him. Scott escapes in Jack's rental car.
When the two fathers emerge from the hotel, Jack assumes Scott had been lying to them the whole time and quits, deciding to go home. Just then, his wife Carrie appears, following him (and Dale) because she's been confused and concerned over Jack's odd behavior. He tells her the truth about Scott, that he could be the father.
Dale departs while Jack and Carrie argue about Jack's negative feelings for Scott, making her fear how he'll react with his own child. Seeing her point, he heads to the Sugar Ray concert, finding Dale there also looking for Scott. They find him as he confronts Nikki, who breaks up with him. Heartbroken, Scott is suddenly grabbed by the drug dealers, whom Dale and Jack attack, resulting in a huge fight erupting in the concert crowd.
Freed from jail the next day, Jack, Dale, and Scott head home where Collette and his father Bob embrace their son. She tells Scott that neither Jack nor Dale is his dad, but he is touched that his parents wanted him home so badly. Before Jack and Dale go, Scott lies to both, separately and privately, that they're the father. Jack realises Scott lied, but is happy as he now has a new view of having children.
Dale, having borrowed Jack's car to get to the airport, spots a woman having car trouble also on her way there. Discovering Virginia is single and also heading to San Francisco, Dale offers her a lift by car, to Jack's annoyance.
Cast
Mary McCormack portrays Virginia in an uncredited appearance, while Mel Gibson makes a brief uncredited cameo appearance. Catherine, Jason, and Caroline Reitman, children of director Ivan Reitman, all have small roles.
Release
In South Africa, 'Fathers' Day' was released as 'What's Up Pop's?', a title the distributor decided would be more appropriate for the local market. The name was subsequently changed to 'What's Up Pops?' for DVD release, when the studio realized the apostrophe had been used incorrectly.
Box office
The film opened on May 9, 1997, finishing at #2 behind 'The Fifth Element' with a gross of $8,776,159. Industry observers at Warner Bros. predicted the film would open with about $9 million and would gain more over the weekend. Some have speculated that one of the reasons for the film's disappointing opening was because of releasing the film around Mother's Day. In its second week, the film dropped 27% to $6.4 million, totaling to $17.5 million. The film ended with a domestic gross of $28,598,376 and a worldwide gross of $35,681,080. Against a budget of $85 million, the film was a box office bomb.Reception
'Fathers' Day' received generally negative reviews from critics and was commercially unsuccessful as well. It holds a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 59 reviews, with an average score of 4.18/10. The site's consensus reads: "A maudlin misfire, 'Fathers' Day' manages the difficult task of making both Billy Crystal and Robin Williams woefully unfunny." Julia Louis-Dreyfus was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her work in the film, where she lost to Alicia Silverstone for 'Batman & Robin'. The film was also nominated for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy at the 1997 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards but barely lost to '8 Heads in a Duffel Bag'.
References
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