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By Katy O’Brien.
With the 40th anniversary next year, I thought I would write a review of one of my comfort films that I have watched since I was a child.
Three Men and a Baby follows three Manhattan bachelors living their carefree, party-heavy lives. Starring Tom Selleck as Peter the architect, Steve Guttenberg as Michael, a comic artist, and Ted Danson as Jack the actor, this 80’s classic comedy will make you laugh and pull on your heart strings.
Directed by Leonard Nimoy, famously known for playing Spock in Star Trek, the film blends family, buddy and some action elements for a very enjoyable watch, in this Hollywood adaptation of the original 1985 French film Trois Hommes et un Couffin, directed by Coline Serreau. The film begins with the three men hosting a party in their Manhattan bachelor penthouse. (As a child I was always fascinated by the apartment, I thought it looked so cool with its big windows, with some areas almost looking like a greenhouse.) The day after this party, Jack is leaving for an acting job and tells Peter and Michael that they are going to have to wait for a “package”. Not realising that the package is supposed to be a box of heroin, Peter and Michael find a baby outside their apartment.
With both Peter and Michael now furious with Jack, and after taking back the baby during a mix up with the heroin dealers, they realise that they are going to have to look after this baby till Jack returns. When it becomes clear that Jack also had no idea about baby Mary being the “package”, the three men are tasked with becoming doomed babysitters. With them lacking any kind of domesticity, these scenes are sure to make you laugh.
The stand-out scenes are the inevitable music montage of the three men playing with Mary in the park, the pool and taking her to their workplaces, with the cute moment with Mary wearing a little pink builders hat on at work with Peter – how adorable! And of course, the lullaby scene, with them singing Mary to sleep as she won’t stop crying. This film is packed with tender and sweet moments between these three masculine father figures.
With the love developing stronger between the men and baby Mary, this is abruptly put on pause when Mary’s mother Sylvia arrives at the apartment to take Mary home to London. The feeling of distraught anger is dissipated when Peter, Jack and Michael return to their apartment finding a crying Sylvia sat on the floor holding Mary. In the end the men realise how important baby Mary is to them and suggests to Sylvia that they all live together as one big family, so Mary can remain in their lives.
Three Men and a Baby also comes with a sequel Three Men and a Little Lady, which follows the 3 bachelors living with six-year-old Mary and her mother Sylvia. With stand-out performances by Selleck, Danson and Guttenberg, this film is a big comfort film of mine, with the comedy never leaving even with the number of times I’ve watched it. I recommend this Hollywood 80s comedy to anyone who wants a good laugh and is available to stream on Disney Plus.
