MOVIE · 1991

Drop Dead Fred

ComedyDramaFamilyFantasy103 min

Adult life is going badly for Elizabeth Cronin, and the one figure who returns to help is the imaginary friend she left in childhood. Phoebe Cates is Elizabeth, an unhappy young wife back home and pulled toward old memories, while Rik Mayall’s Drop Dead Fred reappears as a chaotic, childish force who treats rules, manners, and other people’s property as optional. As Fred barges into her present, the people around Elizabeth — including her formidable mother (Marsha Mason) — are forced into the same messy space between childhood make-believe and adult unhappiness.