One day, attorney Jack Lawrence gets an invitation to lunch from an old flame, whom he hasn't seen in some 17 years. The flame, Collette, has troubling news. It seems her 16-year old son, Scott, belongs to Jack and not to the man she married shortly after their breakup. Furthermore, the boy has run away. Since her husband stubbornly refuses to search for Scott, she appeals to Jack find the boy, his boy, and bring him home.

One day, poet/playwright/neurotic basket-case, Dale Putley, gets an invitation to lunch from an old flame, whom he hasn't seen in some 17 years. The flame, Collette, has troubling news. It seems her 16-year old son, Scott, belongs to Dale and not to the man she married shortly after their breakup. Furthermore, the boy has run away. Since her husband stubbornly refuses to search for Scott, she appeals to Dale to find the boy, his boy, and bring him home.

Wait a second.

A child can't have more than one biological father. Yet two men take to the streets of San Francisco, each looking for a boy he believes his own, each oblivious of the other. When their paths -- and their personalities -- inevitably collide, Collette confesses she doesn't know who the real father is. Just find Scott and they'll straighten things out later.

Despite this complicated situation, FATHER'S DAY is not a complicated movie. The characters and the plot are pleasantly lightweight, enabling the comedy to take off.

The players do what they do best. Billy Crystal does his deadpan, sincere cynic as Jack. Robin Williams does his polymorphous, emotional geyser as Dale. Even Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in the minor role of Jack's wife, Carrie, emits a whiff of Elaine Bennis when stymied at the airline information desk.

Given the snippets of FATHER'S DAY I had already seen, I worried that Robin Williams would be just completely bonkers and wouldn't mix with Billy Crystal at all. Seeing the whole thing, I was relieved. Yes, Williams does go nuts, but he doesn't go overboard. While I always knew I was watching Robin Williams doing his thing, I never found his thing out of place for this movie.

One of the reasons I felt that way is that Billy Crystal balances and interacts with Williams very nicely. Without the down-to-earth character of Jack and the down-to-earth persona of Crystal, both the schtick and the schmaltz could have easily spiraled out of control. I haven't seen a Crystal film since WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. While FATHER'S DAY is not on par with that one, it did remind me how much I liked him.

In terms of other cast... I didn't recognize Nastassja Kinski _at all_ in this movie but she's up to the part of Collette. I instantly recognized Mel Gibson in a three-line cameo, though I wondered what purpose it served. Charlie Hofheimer is fine as the runaway son, Scott. I haven't seen any of his handful of TV and film roles, so I wondered if his cheeks were so rosy naturally or if the makeup department had too big a budget for rouge.

In reviewing COMMANDMENTS, I mentioned the touch of Ivan Reitman apparent in that film. FATHER'S DAY has Reitman fingerprints all over it -- he's both director and producer. His sense of humor and entertainment pervade. There's a good mix of physical comedy and verbal wit and a pace that never lets you grow bored.

FATHER'S DAY is a remake of the 1983 French film LES COMPÈRES. I've had bad experiences with American remakes of French comedies -- THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, THREE MEN AND A BABY. Heck, even non-comedies like DIABOLIQUE and POINT OF NO RETURN were nothing to rave about. But FATHER'S DAY has diminished my phobia of Hollywood fashioning new films from French cloth.

Interestingly enough, LES COMPÈRES has been remade once before -- in Hong Kong. In 1991, it became LAO DOU WU PA DUO (aka "Daddy, Father, Papa").

FATHER'S DAY is a good, standard, Hollywood/Reitman comedy. In fact, I can almost imagine how it will look on Comedy Central in a couple years. If you're looking for something more exotic to make you laugh, you might want to wait until then. But right now, there aren't many better comedies out there.

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