Word: miranda
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...Naipaul's new book, A Way in the World, chapters based on the author's life precede chapters about Sir Walter Raleigh and Francisco de Miranda, the failed 19th century Venezuelan revolutionary. When published first in England, the work was subtitled A Sequence. The U.S. edition (Knopf; 380 pages; $23) has been redesignated A Novel. Why not? Border disputes between fiction and nonfiction grow drearier, while writers keep declaring their independence with new ways of telling their stories. Besides, calling Naipaul's 23rd book a novel is easier than calling it what it is: a patterning of autobiographical and historical...
...she/he is your estranged husband in disguise. Directed by Chris Columbus, "Mrs. Doubtfire" is the tale of Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams), a man who dresses up as a nanny in order to be near his kids. Buoyed by Williams" antics and the innocent reactions of his wife Miranda (Sally Field), their three adorable children and Miranda's new suitor Stuart (Pierce Brosnan), the movie succeeds in providing some genuinely funny light comedy, but ultimately suffers from its attempt to come back to reality...
...casting of Williams as an unemployed voice-over artist is obviously meant to draw on the publicity he gained as the voice of the Genie in Disney's "Aladdin." In deciding on a persona for the housekeeping job Miranda advertises, he and his make up-wizard brother (Harvey Fierstein) run through a list of accents and outfits in a ridiculous procession a la "Aladdin" 's "Friend Like Me." After ranging from a Russian babushka to Barbra Streisand, he settles down as the matronly, English accented Euphegenia Doubtfire, and the movie's triumph is that Williams is convincing in this role...
This slap-stick atmosphere, however, proves incompatible when the film chooses to shift gears, focusing on the serious problems of divorce. While Sally Field is largely convincing as a somewhat frustrated, struggling career woman, the "real-life" interactions between Daniel and Miranda seem stiff and unrealistic. And no tangible rapport is established between Daniel and his beloved children--they may profess to love him, but all seem equally fond of thehandsome, stereotypical yuppie Stu, a purposelyone-dimensional character. The relationshipbetween Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire and Stu seems overlystrained given that Daniel's main motivation forthe charade is to see his kids...
...divorce court, naturally, does not look kindly upon unemployed flakes; it refuses Daniel's plea for joint custody and places limits on his visitation rights that are unbearable to the best daddy in Christendom. The world does not look kindly on working moms, and Miranda cannot find a suitable nanny to tend the kids while she pursues her high-powered career in interior design. Thus, out of mutual need, but without Miranda's conscious participation, Mrs. Doubtfire -- that is to say, Daniel in old-lady drag and affecting a Scots accent -- is born. In this role, Daniel not only brings...