Re: Robin Williams RIP :(
I know his most loved films are Dead Poet's Society and Good Morning Vietnam, and the serious roles, but by far, the one that means the most to me is "Mrs Doubtfire." [1993]. I remember when it was first released. It's very serious & funny. Everyone sees it as a zany comedy, but it handles the subject of "Parental Alienation" in an important way that brings light to those fragile moments many parents feel & Robin Williams must have felt before taking his own life.
In Mrs Doubtfire, his character is alienated from his children due to his wife characterizing him as 'not good enough, not a good provider, too childlike in nature,' etc. To her, he is like another child rather than a husband/spouse and she's tired of shouldering all the responsibility and wants him out. He goes to any lengths to be with his children. He'll endure watching the wife he still deeply loves date another man, he uses a disguise and deceives everyone he loves for his primal basic need to be with his children on a daily basis.
I'll never forget the court room scene where he says to the judge [paraphrased in my own words] "Do to me whatever you will, all the things she's said about me are true & I take responsibility for my shortcomings. But know this about me, I MUST BE with my children." Still, the judge favors his wife (played by Sally Fields) and awards custody to her, leaving William's character with little contact. His ex-wife takes some mercy on him for this one redeeming quality he holds of loving his children through all barriers & obstacles.
William's character in this movie gets up daily at 4 am to put on an elaborate disguise to be with his children as Mrs Doubtfire, their caregiver. And for reasons unbeknownst to his ex-wife, she feels an attraction to this unattractive, seeming woman, so much so she invites William's character to vacation with her and her new lover. And he goes! He goes along watching his wife build a life with their children and another man. Because to him, eating canned spaghetti on cardboard boxes in a dirty apartment on the wrong side of town makes no difference, as long as he's with his children. I love this film and all it represents.
Regarding depression and the shame he's admitted to feeling. As a parent, I'm confident he wanted to be with his children in real life. Maybe he was convinced, for probably logical reasons to him in the moment, that his kids would be better off without him or that he was a burden to anyone he loved? Suicide is a moment of insanity. In my own depression thinking thoughts of "If I just turn the wheel of my minivan over this overpass, all this pain will end." or "I'm in the garage now all alone for the day, I'll just leave the car running and go to sleep, forever." That primal need to 'be with' my children in life is sometimes the only thread holding my physical life together. Like the previous article stated, as we age, some challenges get more difficult to endure because we're also simply aging, whether you have a successful career and are loved by all, there's always the aging.
For me, Robin Williams represented well how his character, Mrs Doubtfire, held on with all his might to his children in any way possible, allowable or not. And Robin Williams did that with excellent acting ability; I believe because he could relate. And in the end, his ex-wife in the film sees that quality as one worth holding on to and having him as her husband even though their children have all adjusted quite well to the divorce arrangement and the new man in her life who also wants to marry her. He's (played by Pierce Bronson) handsome, successful, loving, and will be a great provider.
I am very sad that there will not be a Mrs Doubtfire 2 as was in the works. But, so much more than that, I am so grieved that Robin Williams (the man) most likely felt in that moment of despair, the lie that his children would all be better off without him. For that, I imagine, is the one and only reason any parent gives up on themselves or their lives. He endured his illnesses and addictions and yet, could not convince himself his sadness/pain would pass. If he could have just held on and let it pass, he could have saved his life and the grief his children are now facing without him. RIP Robin Williams :(
[video=youtube;UtVLlylQIsI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtVLlylQIsI[/video]