Mr. Mom (1983)

Mr. Mom is a 1983 American comedy-drama film directed by Stan Dragoti and written by John Hughes about a stay-at-home dad. The film stars Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Mull.

Michael Keaton and Teri Garr play Jack and Caroline Butler, a middle class couple with three kids - Kenny, Alex, and Megan - living in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan during the Early 1980s recession. Jack is the breadwinner while Caroline is a stay-at-home mom. Jack loses his engineering job at an automobile manufacturer. Though the auto industry is in a slump, they bet that Jack can get a job before Caroline, but Jack loses as Caroline is hired by an ad agency and he has to stay at home with the kids. With Caroline at work, Jack discovers he is clueless about how to manage a household. He falls into depression as his ego and the household fall apart. He begins socializing a lot with the housewives in his neighborhood, sharing poker games and workout routines with them. Caroline struggles with being back in the workforce and successfully pitches an innovative idea to a hard to please client. The president of the company is pleased and wants her to fly to Los Angeles to help shoot the commercial. In the meantime, Jack has snapped out of his depression, getting the house and kids under control. His former employer invites him back for a chance to interview again for his old job, but he finds that his former boss, Jinx (Jeffrey Tambor), betrayed his reputation in favor of his own so as to make himself look good in the process. Jack lectures the employer and Jinx on such dirty practices and storms out, but not before threatening Jinx with a knockout punch should Jinx ever speak sharply to his son again (Alex had interrupted the meeting to see what was taking so long). The neighborhood housewives surprise Jack unpleasantly with a visit to a strip club (with male strippers) to take his mind off of things. Throughout the film, both Jack and Caroline find themselves fending off the lascivious advances of others. Caroline's boss, Ron (Martin Mull), tries to convince her to leave Jack and marry him instead, while in Jack's case, one of his and Caroline's mutual friends, Joan (Ann Jillian), tries to seduce him in a less direct manner. Caroline leaves her family on Halloween to go on a business trip. After a successful commercial shoot in Los Angeles, Caroline relaxes in her hotel bathtub; Ron takes this opportunity to sneak into her room with champagne. Back home, Jack tries calling Caroline at this exact moment so the kids could talk to her, but Ron picks up the phone instead. Ron hangs up, therefore Jack is thinking Caroline is having an affair with Ron. Caroline, not knowing what has just transpired via the phone, confronts Ron and fends off his attempts to seduce her; she ends up punching him in the nose and quitting her job. The next day dawns with a couple of household repair people in the home to fix a broken TV and spray for bugs. Joan stops by and while Jack is upstairs in the bathroom, Joan makes herself at home in Jack and Caroline's bedroom. Realizing that Joan wants to sleep with him, Jack begins running through a list of reasons (numbered A-Z but not alphabetical) why he shouldn't have an affair with her. Caroline arrives home unexpectedly, surprising Joan on the bed, and after a confrontation of words, Joan leaves. Caroline takes Joan's place on the bed. Jack, not realizing Caroline is home, comes back to the bedroom. They talk over the misunderstandings that occurred concerning Ron and Joan's advances and reunite as a stronger couple. Ron stops by the house, begging her to come back to his company, as the client has demanded that only she can properly handle his account. However, Caroline expresses how much she missed spending time with the children. Jinx also comes begging for Jack to return to work. He had made too many cuts in his design team and now is in danger of losing his job. Alex says something to his father while Jinx is talking and Jinx yells at him, at which point Jack makes good on his earlier promise and punches Jinx in the face, Jack accepts his old job back with the demand being accepted that Larry and Stan will have their jobs back. As Jack and Caroline are sitting on the steps inside the home with the kids, and Jinx and Ron in the background talking with the TV repairwoman and the exterminator, they are again a happy family. On the newly-repaired TV, the viewer sees the commercial Caroline helped produce.