Director: Emile Ardolino
Cast: Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, Nancy Travis
Have I Seen It Before?: As I continue my deep dive into the pulsating wormhole that is Disney+, I am particularly struck by the clear memories I have of seeing this movie in the theaters. Is anyone else having this strange nostalgia epiphany as they dig into the deeper corners of the app?
Did I like it?: In most ways, this probably unneeded sequel to Three Men and a Baby (1987) either meets or exceeds the promise of the original. The storyline—involving the mother (Travis) the Little Lady nee Baby potentially marrying a director friend, thus tearing asunder the commune they have built in New York—actually fits with the setting far more than the hare-brained heroin-smuggling scheme that nudges events along in the original. Danson had been previously relegated to playing a version of Sam Malone in the original, whereas in this film his Jack Holden is far weirder than the movie might otherwise want him to be. Sure, the sight of Tom Selleck being the front man to Danson’s rapping is something I’m not sure any human needed to see, but the chemistry of the three leads is still easy and breezy, and that’s all the poster is interested in selling us.
My only problem with the whole thing is:
Why is Steve Guttenberg here?
This is not to say that the actor is unpleasant to watch. He’s just as charming as Selleck or Danson. I’m asking why his character, Michael Kellam, still feels the need to live with and help raise a child with whom he has very little actual connection? Danson plays the biological father, him I get sticking around. Selleck bonded with the child early on in the first film, and the story of the film runs on the notion that he is in love with the mother. That’s great. Does Guttenberg’s character not have a life outside of the other characters? No other identity? It almost makes the film an existential horror film, if we view the proceedings from his point of view. If we are ever to see the occasionally threatened Three Men and a Bride, and these characters are still living together, the film would almost have to be directed by Ari Aster, wouldn’t it?