My Father the Hero
Tagline(s): Fathers have just one problem raising daughters. They grow up.
Released: February 4, 1994
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Genre: Comedy
Directed by Steve Miner
Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Katherine Heigl, Dalton James, Lauren Hutton, Faith Prince, Stephen Tobolowsky
Rotten Tomatoes: 14%
Metacritic: Not rated.
Budget: Unknown
Box Office: $25.4 million
I remember loving this movie as a kid, of course completely oblivious to the thematic issues. I was also a big fan of Gérard Depardieu at the time, having already seen him in Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card.
Synopsis
Gérard Depardieu stars in the US remake of the 1991 French comedy 'Mon Pere, Ce Heros'. where he also played the lead role. Here he plays André Arnel, a divorced French father taking his American daughter Nicole, played by 14 year old Katherine Heigl, on a summer vacation in the Bahamas. Nicole soon meets a boy and tells him that her father is actually her lover. Word soon gets around and hilarity ensues.
Recollections
I remember loving this movie as a kid, of course completely oblivious to the thematic issues. I was also a big fan of Gérard Depardieu at the time, having already seen him in Cyrano de Bergerac and Green Card.
Review
This undoubtedly an odd movie and one that would never get made today. Its attitude is somewhat hypocritical. There's undoubted revulsion portrayed that a character of Depardieu's age would be dating a 14 year old and throughout the movie the character is shunned. But then there's also a long, lingering shot of Katherine Heigl's derrière in a thong which reveals the director's leering gaze to be equally troublesome.
It is a film in the traditional french farce set-up and there are some entertaining set-pieces with Depardieu on water-skis and then a rendition of Jacques Brel's 'Thank Heavens for Little Girls'. There are some plot holes the size of planets and some of the comic performances fall flat but, maybe because of my prior enjoyment of the film, or maybe because Depardieu is such a charismatic presence, I still had a reasonable enjoyment from my viewing.
It is a film in the traditional french farce set-up and there are some entertaining set-pieces with Depardieu on water-skis and then a rendition of Jacques Brel's 'Thank Heavens for Little Girls'. There are some plot holes the size of planets and some of the comic performances fall flat but, maybe because of my prior enjoyment of the film, or maybe because Depardieu is such a charismatic presence, I still had a reasonable enjoyment from my viewing.
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