Drop Dead Fred - Plot

Plot

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Cronin is an unassertive and repressed woman, domineered by her overbearing and controlling mother, Polly. While taking her lunch break from work, Lizzie calls her husband Charles, from whom she is separated, hoping to sort out their problems. He, in turn, reasserts his desire for a divorce and shows no remorse for his infidelity. During the same lunch break, Lizzie also manages to get mugged, have her purse and her car stolen, and (because she is late) lose her job. Polly later appears and forces Lizzie to return to her childhood home.

While rummaging through past belongings in the closet of her childhood bedroom, Lizzie finds a taped-shut jack-in-the-box. After removing the tape and turning the crank, Lizzie frees her former imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred. Through a series of flashbacks it is revealed that while Drop Dead Fred caused havoc for Lizzie and Lizzie was blamed for many of his antics, he also gave Lizzie happiness and a release from her oppressive mother. Through another flashback, Lizzie's father is shown to have left the family due to Polly's henpecking of both him and their daughter.

While at first upset that Lizzie has grown up, Fred agrees to help Lizzie become happy again, which she believes will only happen when she wins back her husband. However, Fred's childish antics do more harm than good. In one misadventure, Fred sinks the houseboat of Lizzie's best friend, Janie. Later, while Lizzie gets reacquainted with a former childhood friend (and now single, divorced father), Mickey Bunce, Fred causes her to behave strangely in front of him. Although this strikes Mickey as odd, he is not deterred in wanting to resume their friendship.

Worried by Lizzie's recent strange behavior (which is being influenced by Fred), Polly brings her daughter to a psychologist who prescribes medication to rid her of Fred, whom the doctor and Polly believe is a figment of Lizzie's imagination. Charles then reappears and expresses his desire to reconcile, but Fred discovers he is still planning to cheat on Lizzie. Heartbroken, Lizzie turns to Fred for advice, who then tells her to leave Charles. The two escape to a dream sequence in which Lizzie is finally able to stand up to her mother and assert herself. Lizzie realizes her new-found strength and confidence, and she and Fred part ways.

Upon waking from the dream, Lizzie leaves Charles and asserts herself to her mother, telling Polly to stop bullying her. Before leaving, Lizzie reconciles with her mother, and encourages her to make friends to escape her loneliness. Later, while talking with Mickey, he and Lizzie express shared interest in becoming more than just friends. After Mickey's daughter comes up to them covered in chocolate and blames the mess on "Drop Dead Fred", Lizzie realizes that Fred is now helping someone else.