Three Men and a Cradle

Three Men and a Cradle (3 Hommes et un couffin, 1985) is a French comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Coline Serreau. Roland Giraud, Michel Boujenah, and André Dussollier play Jacques, Pierre, and Michel — three confirmed bachelors sharing a spacious Paris apartment and a mutual understanding that children are someone else's problem.

A basket appears at the door. Inside: a baby girl, left by the mother of one of the three, who has decided the fathers should take their share of the work. The film is built around watching three men with no applicable skills figure out nappies, formula, and sleep deprivation while simultaneously trying to offload a package of drugs that arrived at the same time by mistake. The two problems refuse to stay separate.

Serreau's film topped French box office in 1985 and directly led to the Hollywood remake Three Men and a Baby. What makes it land is not the farce but the sincerity underneath — these men turn out to be better at this than they expected, which is the actual joke. Stream Three Men and a Cradle online on iFILM.