Film Review: Three Men and a Little Lady (1990)

In 1987 Three Men and a Baby unexpectedly became the biggest hit of American box office, showing Hollywood studios that family-oriented comedies were the way to go. Inevitably, a sequel came three years later in the form of Three Men and a Little Lady, film directed by Emile Ardolino.

The plot begins five years after the events shown in the first film. Three best friends – actor Jack Holden (played by Ted Danson), cartoonist Michael Kellam (played by Steve Guttenberg) and architect Peter Mitchell (played by Tom Selleck) – still live together, but also with actress Sylvia Bennington (played by Nancy Travis) and her adorable young daughter Mary (played by Robin Weisman). Although Jack is Mary’s biological father, all three men treat their relationship with Sylvia as platonic while at the same time serving as caring parents to little girl. This arrangement works very well until Sylvia begins to wonder whether Mary would be better off in more traditional form of family. So, when her boyfriend, English theatre director Edward Hargreave (played by Christopher Cazenove), asks her to marry him, she accepts and takes Mary with them to England. Michael and Peter travel to England where they discover that Edward actually wants to get rid of the child by enrolling her into dark and oppressive boarding school. This, and Peter’s realisation that he has suppressed his own romantic feelings for Sylvia, lead them to attempt preventing the wedding ceremony.

Three Men and a Little Lady represents one of the rare Hollywood sequels which is as good as its predecessor, although this isn’t much of an achievement. Both film have rather weak script. While Baby had basic premise undermined by silly and unconvincing drug-dealing subplot, main problem of Little Lady main problem is that the script by Charlie Peters unsuccessfully tries to mix two different films into one. The first part of the film gives impression of some serious considerations how would non-traditional living arrangement between three men, a woman and child reflect on young girl’s growing up and their interactions with the rest of society, which might not be as progressive or understanding as protagonists are. Unfortunately, Peters don’t know how to present those issues through coherent plot and opts for cheap and unconvincing melodrama. Sylvia somehow manages to get seduced by Edward, who is almost immediately revealed as cad and the protagonists now have to right the wrong in the second half, which employs cultural stereotypes of England in a mocking way that would become popular in 1990s Hollywood and be rejected in case of being employed towards any other ethnic group. Irish actress Fiona Shaw, who is having a ball playing sex-starved boarding school headmistress, is the only reason why that segment is watchable. However, it would be unfair to say that three main actors don’t their jobs well, although Selleck dominates his colleagues Danson and Guttenberg. Emile Ardolino, who replaced Leonard Nimoy as director, doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel, with an exception of scene where three men use impromptu rap number instead of lullaby for their adopted daughter. Three Men and a Little Lady retains enough humour and charm among leading cast to be recommended to audience with lowered expectations. The film had significantly less success at the box office than a predecessor, and the third film in the series was never made.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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