My movie watch on 17 November 2023 was the strange but engrossing early 1990s psychological fantasy/comedy film Drop Dead Fred.
Directed by Ate de Jong (Tim Burton apparently turned down its script), produced by Paul Webster, and written by Carlos Davis, Anthony Fingleton, and Elizabeth Livingston, Drop Dead Fred was released in 1991 by New Line Cinema (in North America), Rank Film Distributors (UK), and Manifesto Film Sales (internationally).
Its titular character, played in typically manic mode by Rik Mayall (I can't imagine anyone giving a better performance here than Rik, not even Robin Williams who was an earlier choice to play him), was the acid-green-jacketed, mayhem-inducing imaginary friend of a little American girl named Elizabeth (played by Ashley Peldon), and was therefore visible only to her.
Elizabeth would always blame all of their crazy, madcap misdemeanors upon Drop Dead Fred, much to all of the grown-ups' dismay, because they could only see her, so they assumed that she was not only exceedingly naughty but also an inveterate liar.
However, Elizabeth is now all grown up (and now played by Phoebe Cates – a role previously offered to Winona Ryder, Uma Thurman, and Jennifer Connelly among others), with Drop Dead Fred long gone. But so too, albeit much more recently, is her charming yet cheating husband Charles (Tim Matheson, winning the role over the likes of Alec Baldwin, Jeff Goldblum, and Rick Moranis), who has told her that he'll be moving in with his mistress Annabella (an uncredited Bridget Fonda). As a direct result of this traumatic news, Elizabeth manages to lose her purse containing all her money and bank cards, her car, and her job as a court secretary, all within a single day, and which duly renders her virtually destitute, both materially and mentally.
Moreover, we gradually come to realise via flashbacks to Elizabeth's childhood as the film progresses that Fred was subconsciously created by her when she was a toddler as a means of obtaining temporary release from the emotional abuse that she suffered by way of her stern, controlling, vituperative mother (Marsha Mason) – and who now has forced grown-up but hapless, vulnerable Elizabeth to move back in with her following Charles's infidelity.
Elizabeth's stress at being under her mother's control again has an unexpected result, however - it conjures forth Fred, after an absence of more than 20 years, who duly proceeds to embroil Elizabeth in much the same kind of comic childhood chaos, and inflict upon her the same silly gross-out gags, that he did when she was a child.
But there is a major problem here – Elizabeth is no longer a child, and now finds Fred a distraction too many. Encompassed by inhibitions to override, surrounded by issues to overcome, and bowed down by her mother's inimical, unhealthy aegis, how on earth will she manage to cope with an infantile, wholly unconstrained imaginary friend back in her life too?
Yet despite his destructive, uncontrollable behaviour, Fred does care for Elizabeth, and he soon realises that she will not be happy until she is back with Charles. So in his own inimitable, incorrigible way, he does his best to make this happen – only for both of them subsequently to discover to their appreciable shock that Charles is far from the fundamentally nice (if feckless) person he has always pretended to be. And, lest we forget, there is the not inconsiderable matter of helping Elizabeth break free once and for all from her mother's oppressive emotional grip.
Also swept up in this maelstrom of madness are Elizabeth's zany New Age guru friend Janie (Carrie Fisher, after having unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Elizabeth), whose beautiful houseboat Elizabeth manages to sink due to Fred's disastrous attempts at assisting her in steering it; and Mickey (Ron Eldard), Elizabeth's real childhood friend, who does truly love her (unlike Charles) but whose love goes unnoticed by Elizabeth in her blind, hopeless pursuit of Charles. (Interestingly, the likes of A-listers Keanu Reeves, Michael J. Fox, Josh Brolin, and Charlie Sheen had all been considered at one time or another for the role of Mickey, as well as Geena Davis and Beverly D'Angelo for Janie.)
Despite this movie's heavy slapstick content (including a particularly hilarious scene at a child psychologist's clinic where several other children's imaginary friends as well as Fred all boisterously cavort with each other, unseen by the psychologist and the children's parents), the viewer is left in no doubt that at its core is the decidedly serious subject of emotional childhood abuse and how it can continue to harm and repress its victims even when adults.
In addition, there are some poignant scenes in which Rik reveals Drop Dead Fred's care and protective love for Elizabeth that show a side to his acting skills all too rarely seen on screen – the obverse of his famously OTT off-the-wall persona known from The Young Ones, Bottom, The New Statesman, etc – yielding a depth and tender, heartfelt pathos that is incredibly moving and genuine.
Most poignant of all is Fred's final scene with Elizabeth, after he helps her achieve all that she needs to do in order to move on in her life, free from her past turmoil – a real tear-jerker, yet also very uplifting. (NB – and please forgive the spoiler, but let's just say that although it may be for Elizabeth, at least for us, the viewers, this is not quite the last that we see of Fred!)
I wish that during his tragically cut-short life and career we could have seen more of this serious, compassionate facet that Rik's acting so evidently contained, yet which for the most part lay concealed deep within his more familiar, outrageous alter ego.
Although not popular upon its original release in 1991, Drop Dead Fred has gone on to become a cult movie favourite, and I can understand why.
A number of plans for a sequel have been aired at one time or another, but as Rik was initially not interested in reprising the character of Drop Dead Fred (and later was not well enough to do so, sadly), Jim Carrey and Russell Brand were both considered as possible replacements, but nothing came to pass with either of them in the role.
As
for the original movie, guess who was its writers' first choice to play Drop
Dead Fred, above both Rik Mayall and Robin Williams? John Cleese! Oh, and if you're wondering why Drop Dead Fred is called Drop Dead Fred - well, as Elizabeth told her father (before he walked out on her mother) when she was still a child, it's because that's his name! Simple!
One final piece of memorable trivia – the interior sets for this movie were created and filmed at Paisley Park Studios, owned by a certain purple-prone rock star. Yet although it has long been rumoured that he secretly visited these sets at night, Prince formally denied doing so.
Conversely, if you'd like to visit the weird world of Drop Dead Fred, be sure to click here to view an official trailer for this movie on YouTube.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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