10 Best Michael Keaton Performances

While Mr. Mom has not aged very well, it remains a fairly pleasant comedy from John Hughes, very much in the light and breezy vein of many of his other films. Keaton plays Jack, a mechanic who loses his job thanks to the recession of the early '80s and winds up keeping the house running while his wife Caroline returns to the workforce.

It is a more or less straight up role reversal film, with many incidents of horrific workplace harassment, played for laughs of course. The '80s, eh?

The film doesn't make any bones of being a serious exploration of either manual workers adapting to working in the home, or stay at home parents adjusting to re-entering the workplace. Rather it is just an example of the fish out of water comedy, told through the lens of a horrific economic downturn.

Good times.

Keaton is brilliant in the role though, bringing his gruff, comedic chops to the part of the man trying desperately to understand how his wife kept the house running all this time. Everything has a schedule and a way of working - he is totally at odds with this, longing quickly to return to his mechanics overalls to get back to a world he knows.

It's another fine example of John Hughes writing a truly '80s slice of life