I  have always been  in awe of Robin Williams versatility. He can go  from playing broad physical comedy  ( in drag, no less!)  to the serious drama of Fisher King or Insomnia and make them both look effortless. I have seen 90% of his movies and loved all except  Death to Smoochy ! (what was that?)

So I decided to watch  a drama  I hadn’t seen that was available on Netflix entitled World’s Greatest Dad .  I had heard a critic say this would be unwatchable in light of  Robin’s unfortunate death and I was curious to see why.

Now I was disappointed in this movie overall .   Williams is a struggling writer and teacher at a high school whose poetry class is always in danger of being dropped from the curriculum . His son is doing badly both in studies and in his social life.The plot was stunningly formulaic and a little manipulative of the viewer’s emotions.  The characters were so predictable and the female love interest , a fellow school teacher who is dating Williams  but drops him for a younger, more popular teacher , makes women look very fickle.

What makes the movie still very watchable  is the portrait of a quietly desperate, depressed father watching his world fall apart  . What makes this eerie is I don’t think Robin was acting at all . He was just drawing on his inner well of depression. He has never been farther away from being Mork than he has in this movie. He doesn’t even crack a smile once .Some reviews say it was hilarious but it is too disturbing to ever be funny

After you watch  it let me know as I would like to talk about further things but don’t want to spoil it!

I would give this a 3/5 would be 2.5 out of 5 if anyone but Robin Williams was in the lead!