Natalie Standish (JoBeth Williams) shares custody of her arrogant and spoiled son Doyle (Ethan Embry credited as Ethan Randall) with her ex-husband Reed (Christopher McDonald) and is now involved with new boyfriend Dutch Dooley (Ed O'Neill) since divorcing Reed. With Reed backing out of his promise to spend Thanksgiving with Doyle and Doyle voicing opposition to spending it with Natalie whom he blames for the divorce, Dutch takes it upon himself to bring Doyle back even as he fights tooth and nail against it.
Dutch is a 1991 road dramedy written and produced by the prolific John Hughes. Directed by Peter Faiman of the sleeper hit Crocodile Dundee and serving as a test vehicle for Ed O'Neill who'd come to prominence with the sitcom Married...with Children, the film would be dumped into a Summer 1991 release date where it opened in a disastrous 10th place behind several holdovers as Terminator 2 dominated the box office and would be a misstep for Hughes during the 90s. Many critics panned the film for its unlikable characters and rehashing of prior Hughes' works (in particular Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) and while the film does have a small cult following it's largely seen as a footnote in Hughes' career. While the film does feature some inspired comic setpieces and fantastic performances by O'Neill and Embry, it also makes itself hard to like thanks to an aggressively unlikable character and its retreading of ground by Hughes' previous (and very similar) Thanksgiving road dramedy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Starting off on a positive note, Ed O'Neill is really great as the titular Dutch and the film is a solid showcase of how likable of a leading man he can be outside of his Al Bundy role. While on the surface O'Neill seems like a bumbling working class simpleton (with a particularly inspired Chaplin-esque bit involving fireworks), much like Del Grifith from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles there's a lot more going on beneath the surface than Doyle, several side characters, and the audience give him credit for and in a way it's almost like he's a comedy version of Columbo especially with Doyle being a very arrogant "well-to-do" character who takes pride in lording his airs of intelligence and status above anyone and everyone. This is however where we get the biggest problem with the movie in Doyle. There's certainly parallels to be made between Doyle and Steve Martin's Neal Page in that both are from privileged backgrounds who take a snide view of blue collar individuals whilst also being completely hopeless when pushed out of their upper class comforts zones, but in Doyle's case the human factor is buried way too deep beneath the abrasive exterior. While Embry is a good actor and gives the performance solid work and with strong chemistry with O'Neill, Hughes' writing really falters as Doyle is so bereft of redeeming qualities that it's probably the most unlikable character he's created since Jim Dodge from Career Opportunities (released the same year as this funnily enough). When we're introduced to Doyle he's shown to be vindictive and spiteful especially in how he places an inordinate amount of blame on his mother for the divorce while giving his absentee father a free pass and the only humanizing element we see is him taking a pair of scissors to a picture of him and his mother but then hesitating and not doing it. I will say however that unlike Career Opportunities the movie benefits from having a character to play against Doyle with Dutch giving him a not altogether undeserved taste of his own medicine, but much like how that film struggled to balance the comedy and drama so to does Dutch as the more slapstick shenanigans never gelled with the scenes of pathos in the same way Hughes' made them work previously.
If you're a fan of Hughes' work, Dutch might be worth a viewing as a curiosity since it's the final film of this type Hughes' would make before focusing exclusively on family comedies and it does feature impressive work from O'Neill and Embry with some inspired setpieces such as the fireworks scene. A lesser film in the Hughes' canon, but much better than Career Opportunities.
Dutch is a 1991 road dramedy written and produced by the prolific John Hughes. Directed by Peter Faiman of the sleeper hit Crocodile Dundee and serving as a test vehicle for Ed O'Neill who'd come to prominence with the sitcom Married...with Children, the film would be dumped into a Summer 1991 release date where it opened in a disastrous 10th place behind several holdovers as Terminator 2 dominated the box office and would be a misstep for Hughes during the 90s. Many critics panned the film for its unlikable characters and rehashing of prior Hughes' works (in particular Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) and while the film does have a small cult following it's largely seen as a footnote in Hughes' career. While the film does feature some inspired comic setpieces and fantastic performances by O'Neill and Embry, it also makes itself hard to like thanks to an aggressively unlikable character and its retreading of ground by Hughes' previous (and very similar) Thanksgiving road dramedy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Starting off on a positive note, Ed O'Neill is really great as the titular Dutch and the film is a solid showcase of how likable of a leading man he can be outside of his Al Bundy role. While on the surface O'Neill seems like a bumbling working class simpleton (with a particularly inspired Chaplin-esque bit involving fireworks), much like Del Grifith from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles there's a lot more going on beneath the surface than Doyle, several side characters, and the audience give him credit for and in a way it's almost like he's a comedy version of Columbo especially with Doyle being a very arrogant "well-to-do" character who takes pride in lording his airs of intelligence and status above anyone and everyone. This is however where we get the biggest problem with the movie in Doyle. There's certainly parallels to be made between Doyle and Steve Martin's Neal Page in that both are from privileged backgrounds who take a snide view of blue collar individuals whilst also being completely hopeless when pushed out of their upper class comforts zones, but in Doyle's case the human factor is buried way too deep beneath the abrasive exterior. While Embry is a good actor and gives the performance solid work and with strong chemistry with O'Neill, Hughes' writing really falters as Doyle is so bereft of redeeming qualities that it's probably the most unlikable character he's created since Jim Dodge from Career Opportunities (released the same year as this funnily enough). When we're introduced to Doyle he's shown to be vindictive and spiteful especially in how he places an inordinate amount of blame on his mother for the divorce while giving his absentee father a free pass and the only humanizing element we see is him taking a pair of scissors to a picture of him and his mother but then hesitating and not doing it. I will say however that unlike Career Opportunities the movie benefits from having a character to play against Doyle with Dutch giving him a not altogether undeserved taste of his own medicine, but much like how that film struggled to balance the comedy and drama so to does Dutch as the more slapstick shenanigans never gelled with the scenes of pathos in the same way Hughes' made them work previously.
If you're a fan of Hughes' work, Dutch might be worth a viewing as a curiosity since it's the final film of this type Hughes' would make before focusing exclusively on family comedies and it does feature impressive work from O'Neill and Embry with some inspired setpieces such as the fireworks scene. A lesser film in the Hughes' canon, but much better than Career Opportunities.