''Fathers' Day'' is a 1997 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Ivan Reitman Ivan Reitman (; October 27, 1946February 12, 2022) was a Czechoslovak-born Canadian filmmaker. He was best known for his comedy work, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 1998. Film ...

and starring

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus ( ; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and producer who worked on the comedy television series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1982–1985), ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), ''The New Adventures ...

, and

Nastassja Kinski Nastassja Aglaia Kinski (; , ; born 24 January 1961) is a German actress and former model who has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States. Her worldwide breakthrough was with ''Stay as You Are'' (1978). She then came to gl ...

. It is a remake of the 1983 French film ''

Les Compères ''Les Compères'' (; English title: ComDads) is a 1983 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, and starring Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Richard and Anny Duperey. The film had 4,847,229 admissions in France. In 1997, this movie ...

''. 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 Sugar Ray is an American rock band formed in Newport Beach, California, in 1986. Originally playing heavier funk metal and nu metal style music, the band achieved mainstream popularity in 1997 with their more pop-influenced single " Fly". T ...

. 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

. 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 ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within 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

as Dale Putley *

as Jack Lawrence *

as Carrie Lawrence *

as Collette Andrews *

Charlie Hofheimer Charlie Hofheimer (born April 17, 1981) is an American film, television, and theater actor. He landed his first film role as Jim Garland in the 1994 version of '' Lassie''. He is known for his role as Abe Drexler on ''Mad Men''. He has also mad ...

as Scott Andrews *

Bruce Greenwood Stuart Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956) is a Canadian actor and producer. He is known for his role as the American president John F. Kennedy in '' Thirteen Days,'' for which he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion ...

as Bob Andrews *

Charles Rocket Charles Adams Claverie (August 28, 1949 – October 7, 2005), known by stage names Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy and Charles Rocket, was an American actor, comedian, musician, and television news reporter. He was a cast member on ''Saturda ...

as Russ Trainor *

Patti D'Arbanville Patricia D'Arbanville is an American actress known for her appearance in Andy Warhol projects. Career After ''Flesh'', D'Arbanville performed in Warhol's '' L'Amour'' (1973), and as the title character in the David Hamilton film '' Bilitis'' ...

as Shirley Trainor * Haylie Johnson as Nikki *

Jared Harris Jared Francis Harris (born 24 August 1961) is a British actor. His roles include Lane Pryce in the AMC television drama series ''Mad Men'', for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Seri ...

as Lee *

Louis Lombardi Louis Lombardi (born January 17, 1968) is an American actor known for his roles in ''The Sopranos'', ''Fantasy Island'', and ''24''. Early life Lombardi was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of Louis Lombardi Sr. Career On telev ...

as Matt *

Claudette Wells Claudette Wells (born February 20, 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American actress and voice actress who is best known for her roles as LaDonna Fredericks in ''Square Pegs.'' She is also known for her role as Peggy Harley on ''A Different Worl ...

as Ms. Tweesbury *

Paul Herman Paul Herman (March 29, 1946 – March 29, 2022) was an American actor. He was best known for playing Randy in David O. Russell's dramedy '' Silver Linings Playbook'' (2012) and Whispers DiTullio in Martin Scorsese's crime epic ''The Irishman ...

as Mr. Barmore * Jason Reitman as Wrong Kid in Alley *

Catherine Reitman Catherine Marcelle Reitman (; born April 28, 1981) is a Canadian-American actress, producer, and writer. She is the creator, executive producer, writer, and star of the CBC comedy series ''Workin' Moms''. Early life Reitman was born in Los An ...

as Victoria * Caroline Reitman as Lost Girl

Mary McCormack Mary Catherine McCormack (born February 8, 1969) is an American actress. She has had leading roles as Justine Appleton in the series '' Murder One'' (1995–97), as Deputy National Security Adviser Kate Harper in ''The West Wing'' (2004–06), a ...

portrays Virginia in an uncredited appearance, while

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocaly ...

makes a brief uncredited

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

Catherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and other variations are feminine names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria. In the early Christ ...

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He w ...

, and Caroline Reitman are children of director

Release

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, ''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 The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

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 ''The Fifth Element'' is a 1997 English-language French science fiction action film conceived and directed by Luc Besson, as well as co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker, and Milla ...

'' 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 Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...

. 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 Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

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 The Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress is an award presented annually at the Golden Raspberry Awards (or "Razzies") to the worst supporting actress of the previous year. Nominees and winners are voted on by the Golden Raspberry F ...

for her work in the film, where she lost to

Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller ''The Crush (1993 film), The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prom ...

for '' Batman & Robin''. The film was also nominated for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy at the 1997

Stinkers Bad Movie Awards The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards (formerly known as the ''Hastings Bad Cinema Society'') was a Los Angeles-based group of film buffs and film critics devoted to honoring the worst films of the year. The society was founded by Mike Lancaster and Ray ...

but barely lost to ''

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag ''8 Heads in a Duffel Bag'' is a 1997 black comedy film starring Joe Pesci, Kristy Swanson and David Spade. It was the directorial debut of screenwriter Tom Schulman. In 1998 the film won the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Fi ...

''.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fathers' Day (Film) 1997 comedy films 1997 films American comedy films American remakes of French films Comedy film remakes Father's Day Films about father–son relationships Films about runaways Films directed by Ivan Reitman Films produced by Ivan Reitman Films produced by Joel Silver Films scored by James Newton Howard Films set in Reno, Nevada Films set in Sacramento, California Films set in San Francisco Films with screenplays by Babaloo Mandel Films with screenplays by Lowell Ganz Silver Pictures films Warner Bros. films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films