Mr. Mom

Mr. Mom is a 1983 American comedy-drama film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by John Hughes about a stay-at-home dad. The film stars Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull.

Plot
Michael Keaton and Teri Garr play Jack and Caroline Butler, a middle class couple with three kids - Kenny, Alex, and Megan - living in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan during the early 1980s recession. Jack and his two friends, Larry and Stan, lose their engineering jobs at an automobile manufacturer. Caroline then decides to work and is hired by an ad agency.

With Caroline at work, Jack discovers he is clueless about how to manage a household. He falls into depression as his ego and the household fall apart. He begins socializing a lot with the housewives in his neighborhood. Caroline struggles with being back in the workforce and successfully pitches an innovative idea to a hard-to-please client. The president of the company is pleased and wants her to fly to Los Angeles to help shoot the commercial.

In the meantime, Jack has snapped out of his depression. His former employer invites him back for a chance to interview again for his old job, but he finds that his former boss, Jinx Latham (Jeffrey Tambor), betrayed his reputation. He lectures them on such dirty practices and storms out. The neighborhood housewives surprise him unpleasantly with a visit to a strip club (with male strippers) to take his mind off of things.

Throughout the film, both Jack and Caroline find themselves fending off the lascivious advances of others. Her boss, Ron Richardson (Martin Mull), tries to convince her to leave Jack and marry him instead, while in his case, one of their mutual friends, Joan (Ann Jillian), tries to seduce him in a less direct manner.

Caroline leaves her family on Halloween to go on a business trip. After a successful commercial shoot in Los Angeles, she relaxes in her hotel bathtub. Ron takes this opportunity to sneak into her room with champagne. Back home, Jack tries calling her at this exact moment so the kids could talk to her, but Ron picks up the phone instead. He hangs up, therefore Jack is thinking she is having an affair with him. She, not knowing what has just transpired via the phone, confronts him and fends off his attempts to seduce her and ends up punching him in the nose and quitting her job.

The next day dawns with a couple of household repair people in the home to fix a broken television and spray for bugs. Joan stops by and while Jack is upstairs in the bathroom she makes herself at home in their bedroom. Realizing that she wants to sleep with him, Jack begins running through a list of reasons why he should not have an affair with her. Caroline arrives home unexpectedly, surprising Joan on the bed, and after a confrontation, she leaves. Caroline takes her place on the bed. Jack, not realizing she is home, comes back to the bedroom. They talk over the misunderstandings that occurred concerning Ron and Joan's advances and reunite as a stronger couple.

Ron stops by the house, begging her to come back to his company, as the client has demanded that only she can properly handle his account. However, she expresses how much she missed spending time with her children. Jinx also comes begging for Jack to return to work. He had made too many cuts in his design team and is now in danger of losing his job. Alex says something to his father while Jinx is talking and he yells at him, at which point Jack makes good on his earlier promise and punches him in the face. Jack accepts his old job back with the demand being accepted that Larry and Stan will have theirs back.

As Jack and Caroline are sitting on the steps inside the home with the kids, with Jinx and Ron in the background talking with the TV repairwoman and exterminator, they are again a happy family. On the newly repaired TV, the viewer sees the commercial Caroline helped produce.

Cast

 * Michael Keaton as Jack Butler
 * Teri Garr as Caroline Butler
 * Jeffrey Tambor as Jinx Latham
 * Christopher Lloyd as Larry
 * Martin Mull as Ron Richardson
 * Taliesin Jaffe as Kenny Butler
 * Frederick Koehler as Alex Butler
 * Courtney and Brittany White as Megan Butler
 * Graham Jarvis as Humphries
 * Miriam Flynn as Annette
 * Ann Jillian as Joan
 * Edie McClurg as Checkout lady
 * Patti Deutsch as Deli girl
 * Tom Leopold as Stan
 * Carolyn Seymour as Eve
 * Michael Alaimo as Bert
 * Valri Bromfield as Doris

Critical reception
The film received mixed to positive reviews. Leonard Maltin gave it 2.5 stars out of 4, stating "pleasant enough rehash of age-old sitcom premise," adding "likable stars make it palatable, but you've seen it all before."

Box office
Mr. Mom opened to limited release on July 22, 1983 with $947,197, earning the #13 spot that weekend. Upon its wide release on August 19, 1983, a month later, the film opened #3 with $4,279,384 behind Easy Moneys opening weekend and Risky Business third.