‘Daddy Day Care’

On seeing this gentle family film, Mr. Rogers might look down from heaven and give his nod of approval.   [PG]

By: Bob Brown

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It’s Jeff Garlin (left) and Eddie Murphy versus a house full of sugar-crazed kids in Daddy Day Care.


   It’s hard to figure where this film exceeds a G rating. It doesn’t have an offensive bone it its body. If anything, it gets demerits for reining in the wild man that is Eddie Murphy Raw at his comic best. Director Steve Carr was at the helm for Murphy’s Dr. Doolittle 2, but this is a tamer film. If you have kids, and if you liked the way Kindergarten Cop pitted a room full of tots against Arnold Schwarzenegger, then this film will make your afternoon.
   The sexist premise is that dads know nothing about kids — they’re too busy at the office. Hollywood hangs on to old clichés for dear life, figuring they still work somewhere in middle America. Charlie (Murphy) and his coworker Phil (Jeff Garlin) are making it big at their ad agency with a new kids’ cereal account, Veggie-Ohs. Now that things are looking up, Charlie and wife Kim (Regina King) interview with Ms. Harridan (Anjelica Huston), headmistress of Chapman Academy ("Princeton for preschoolers," as Charlie says), where their 4-year-old, Ben (Khamani Griffin), can get a proper start.
   But the bottom line rears its head. Charlie and Phil are laid off when their cereal tests go ballistic among a group of outraged kids, who tear up the test lab and rip into Messrs. Broccoli and Carrot. Six weeks later, the two dads are climbing the walls at home, and moms are back to work, supporting the family.
   After a chat with a mom in a park, Charlie realizes that many parents can’t find good day care. He decides to open a dad-run day-care center in his home, with Phil’s help. But what do these absentee dads know about child-rearing, seeing as how their own kids hardly recognize them? Phil’s never even changed a diaper, since he developed a phobia about that in dealing with his own kid’s overactive intestines.
   Somehow, the pair manages to rustle up a critical mass of kids and to work with the child welfare agent so they’re not shut down (Ms. Harridan tries to head them off every time she loses more students to the day-care daddies). In the process, the dads stumble through and even add an employee, former mailroom clerk Marvin (Steven Zahn), to keep the legal ratio of caretakers to caretaken.
   As you might imagine, the comedy involves anal expulsion, food fights, rudeness to adults, burst pillows, sugar highs, tantrums, doll dismemberment, general messiness, angry bees and smart remarks from kids who are wise beyond their years. What actor was it who said you can’t compete with a kid or a dog? This film has 14 minors who are major scene stealers under 10 and a menagerie. Maybe Eddie Murphy had the right idea and didn’t even try to outdo the little ones. The best scene is the look on Charlie’s face when he views the bathroom to see what a kid meant by "I missed."
   There are talented tots aplenty in this movie (I’d love to have seen the casting call), but far and away the star of the film is young Griffin. He is cuter than any tot has a right to be and is a natural in front of the camera. Stay for the credits to see the hilarious out-takes. He outdoes Murphy without even trying. Another "kid" star is Jersey-resident Zahn (Reality Bites), who makes a hit with the gang by living at their level. He speaks fluent Klingon and he runs funny-face drills. Zahn’s unbolted style is like a younger Crispin Glover.
   The script is by TV writer Geoff Rodkey (LateLine, Politically Incorrect), which may explain the light laugh lines. There’s nothing terribly clever here, but then again, nothing that should go over kids’ heads.
   A film like this is a harbinger of summer’s lighter fare, when school is out and adults need something they can bring the family to without sacrificing their own enjoyment.
   The worst thing you can say about Daddy Day Care is that it’s gentle and predictable. No guns are pulled, no one makes love who isn’t married, nobody swears (although the first letter of a four-letter word is spelled), the sun always shines by day and the stars by night. There’s no humor at anyone’s expense, the mean people get their just desserts, and the good people become better people. Furthermore, kids learn to read, to be polite, to go to the bathroom on their own, and to make friends.
   I have a feeling that if there’s a heaven, Mr. Rogers is looking down and forgiving Eddie Murphy for his Saturday Night Live parody. "It’s all right, Eddie," Mr. Rogers might say, "with this movie, you can never go down the drain."
Rated PG. Contains mild situations.