8. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
It's Based On The Book... "Madame Doubtfire" (1987) When you think about it, the core idea behind
Mrs. Doubtfire is pretty creepy: a father dresses up in like an old lady and pretends to be a nanny so he can spend time more time with his kids. And to be honest, even when I was much younger and far less inclined to care about stuff like this, I always found myself wondering where such a bizarre concept had arisen from. I mean, it's just so nuts. Though it certainly explained a lot, I was still slightly disturbed, then, to discover that the Robin Williams movie started life as a novel called "Madame Doubtfire," written for young adults (?) in 1987 by Anne Fine. Anne Fine has also written a book called "Flour Babies," which is exactly what it sounds like. I don't think
Mrs. Doubtfire being a book first makes things any less bizarre, but - for some reason - I feel much better knowing it was written by a woman.
How Close Is It To The Book? Very close, though in the book the characters aren't quite so dumb - the eldest children instantly recognise that their father has dressed up like a nutcase when he turns up to see them. In the movie, it takes the entire family a while to figure out that daddy has gone insane.