''My Boss's Daughter'' is a 2003 American
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
film directed by
David Zucker
David Samuel Zucker (born October 16, 1947) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Associated mostly with parody comedies, Zucker is recognized for collaborating with Jim Abrahams and his brother Jerry as part of Zucker, Ab ...
. It stars
Ashton Kutcher,
Tara Reid
Tara Donna Reid (; born November 8, 1975) is an American actress and model. Her film roles established her status as a sex symbol in the late 1990s through the early 2000s.
In film, Reid is best known for her lead ensemble role as Vicky Lathum ...
,
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American retired actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank ...
,
Andy Richter,
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Known for his sophisticated villain roles, he was named by ''Empire (magazine), Empire'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades in ...
, and
Molly Shannon. The film revolves around a man housesitting for his boss and getting into various hijinks with the people who come over to his place. ''My Boss's Daughter'' received negative reviews from critics and grossed $18 million worldwide.
It was Zucker's mother
Charlotte Zucker's final film role before her death on September 5, 2007.
Plot
Tom Stansfield is a researcher at a publishing company in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
who works under the tyrannical Jack Taylor. Tom has a crush on his boss' daughter, Lisa, who is completely controlled by her overprotective father.
Lisa reveals to Tom that her father is making her house-sit the same night as a party she wants to attend, so he convinces her to stand up to her father and attend the party anyway. Lisa asks him to come to their house that night, leading Tom to think that she has invited him to the party; in reality, she just wants him to fill in for her - he reluctantly agrees.
A comedy of errors ensues, including the return of Lisa's older brother Red, on the run from
drug dealer
A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...
s. He dumps drugs into the toilet, and instead returns a bag of flour to the drug dealer.
One of Tom's tasks is to guard their owl, O-J, which lives in an open cage (it has not been able to fly due to a deep depression, from the loss of a prior mate). When the bird drinks from the toilet polluted with drugs, it flies away. Jack's ex-secretary Audrey goes to the house to try to earn her job back. After fighting with her boyfriend, she stays over at the house.
Lisa returns home after finding out that her boyfriend Hans is cheating on her. Tom hides everything that happened and she spends some time with him thinking he is gay. He clarifies to her that he's actually straight and she starts to like him. Audrey's friend thinks she has breast cancer and asks Tom to feel her breasts. Lisa walks in on them and is disgusted.
T.J., the drug dealer, discovers the 'drugs' he collected earlier was actually flour, so he threatens to kill Tom if he doesn't return his money. T.J. tries to open a safe and steal the money. However, Tom gives him sleeping pills mixed with alcohol which sends him into a coma.
As they think T.J. is dead, Audrey and her friends bury him. Later, T.J. escapes from the grave and threatens to kill Lisa. With Red's help, Tom rescues Lisa and she falls in love with him. He then goes to get her father, but on the way back the owl gets into the car making Tom lose control of the car and crash into the house. They find police officers in the house looking for T.J., who ends up getting arrested.
Jack is enraged by the damages done to the house and throws Tom out. The next day, he hears his son explaining to Lisa how she should stand up to their father and go back to Tom. Jack realizes his mistakes and gives Tom a promotion.
Cast
*
Ashton Kutcher as Tom Stansfield
*
Tara Reid
Tara Donna Reid (; born November 8, 1975) is an American actress and model. Her film roles established her status as a sex symbol in the late 1990s through the early 2000s.
In film, Reid is best known for her lead ensemble role as Vicky Lathum ...
as Lisa Taylor
*
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Known for his sophisticated villain roles, he was named by ''Empire (magazine), Empire'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades in ...
as Jack Taylor Sr.
*
Molly Shannon as Audrey Bennett
*
Andy Richter as Jack "Red" Taylor Jr.
*
Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen (born September 25, 1957) is an American actor. Alongside his frequent collaborations with Quentin Tarantino—''Reservoir Dogs'' (1992), ''Kill Bill: Volume 2'' (2004), ''The Hateful Eight'' (2015), and ''Once Upon a Time in Hol ...
as T.J.
*
Tyler Labine
Tyler Labine (born April 29, 1978) is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for starring in the film ''Tucker & Dale vs. Evil,'' the television series ''Breaker High'', ''Invasion (2005 TV series), Invasion'', ''Reaper (TV series), Reaper'', ...
as "Spike"
*
Jon Abrahams
Jon Avery Abrahams (born October 29, 1977) is an American actor and film director. He is best known for his roles in several films such as Sonny Poncelet in '' Dead Man Walking'' (1995), Bobby Prinze in '' Scary Movie'', Denny Byrnes in '' Meet ...
as Paul
*
Patrick Crenshaw as Old Man Neighbor
*
Angela Little as Sheryl
*
David Koechner as Speed
*
Carmen Electra
Carmen Electra (born Tara Leigh Patrick, April 20, 1972) is an American actress, model, singer, and media personality. She began her career as a singer after moving to Minneapolis where she met Prince (musician), Prince who produced her Carm ...
as Tina
*
Kenan Thompson
Kenan Thompson (; born May 10, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He has been a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' since Saturday Night Live season 29, 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the ...
as Hans
*
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Michael Tambor (born July 8, 1944) is an American retired actor. He is known for his television roles such as Jeffrey Brookes, the uptight neighbor of Stanley and Helen Roper in the television sitcom ''The Ropers'' (1979–1980), as Hank ...
as Ken
*
Dave Foley as Henderson
*
Charlotte Zucker as Gertrude
Production
In December 2000, it was announced
Dimension Films
Dimension Films was an American independent film and television production and distribution label founded in 1992, and currently owned by independent studio Lantern Entertainment. Formally one of the American " mini-majors" (i.e., small to m ...
had acquired
David S. Dorfman's spec script ''The Guest'' two years after it was originally acquired by
New Line Cinema
New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...
.
Release
The movie was released by
Dimension Films
Dimension Films was an American independent film and television production and distribution label founded in 1992, and currently owned by independent studio Lantern Entertainment. Formally one of the American " mini-majors" (i.e., small to m ...
on August 22, 2003, opening at #10 at the U.S. box office and grossed $4,855,798 on its opening weekend. It was released domestically in 2,206 theaters grossing $15,550,605 in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
The film was also released in foreign theaters, grossing a further $2,640,400 with its highest sales of $691,999 in
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and its lowest sales in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
, for a total of $18,191,005 worldwide.
Reception
''My Boss's Daughter'' garnered overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics.
Scott Tobias of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' criticized Zucker's comedic timing of his stock-in-trade non-sequiturs and Kutcher's "sleepwalking" performance for failing to keep the rest of the cast grounded, calling it "an abysmal screwball comedy that relies heavily on idiocy from both sides of the screen."
Elvis Mitchell of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' called it a "muddled comedy of confusion" that delivers tasteless and outdated
Farrelly brothers-style humor. ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
''s
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a senior writer in 1991, working as a film critic for the magazine alongside Owen Gleiberman from 1995 to 2013.
Early life
Lisa Schwarzbaum w ...
gave the film an overall F grade. She criticized the "manic sloppiness" of the jokes from the supporting ensemble and Zucker's direction for feeling like "a substitute teacher soldiering through a day's work for a day's pay at a decertified school." Robert Koehler of ''
Variety'' felt that Zucker broke a cardinal rule of making comedy look like a lot of work by misusing the comedic talents of his cast but concluded that: "Nonetheless, the movie looks and sounds reasonably good, particularly with Andrew Laws' crucial and shiny production design."
The film received three nominations at the
24th Golden Raspberry Awards including
Worst Actor for Ashton Kutcher (also for ''
Cheaper by the Dozen
''Cheaper by the Dozen'' is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, published in 1948. The novel recounts the authors' childhood lives growing up in a household of 12 children. The bes ...
'' and ''
Just Married''),
Worst Supporting Actress for Tara Reid and
Worst Screen Couple for both Kutcher and Reid (also for ''Just Married'' with
Brittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack (; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer, known for her work in both comedy and drama.
Born in Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue a career in a ...
), but lost to
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educatio ...
(''
Daredevil'', ''
Gigli'' and ''
Paycheck
A paycheck is traditionally a paper document (cheque) issued by an Employment#Employer, employer to income, pay Employment#Employee, employee for services rendered. In recent times, the physical paycheck has been increasingly replaced by elect ...
''),
Demi Moore
Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...
(''
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle'') and both Affleck and
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969), also known by her nickname J.Lo, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer and businesswoman. Lopez is regarded as one of the most influential entertainers of her time, credited with breaking ...
(''Gigli'') respectively.
References
External links
*
*
{{Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker
2000s American films
2000s English-language films
2003 films
2003 romantic comedy films
American romantic comedy films
Dimension Films films
English-language romantic comedy films
Films directed by David Zucker
Films scored by Teddy Castellucci
Films set in Chicago
Films shot in Vancouver