The film is about a boy (Thomas) who must come to terms with his potential stepfather (Chase), a well-meaning lawyer who is unknowingly the subject of a manhunt by relatives of a man he helped land in prison.
Five-year-old Ben Archer watches silently as his father starts up his car and drives away with his secretary, and they both offer only a wave out the window in parting.
They gradually overcome his father leaving and foster a very close bond with important rituals and routines, including making a collage with beach debris.
The transition does not go smoothly for Ben, as he resentfully feels he is the one suffering all of the adjustments and that his mother is making the same mistake she made with his father, so he resorts to ensuring Jack is as uncomfortable and unwelcome as possible.
Jack tries taking the subterfuge in stride, not realizing it is deliberate, but his efforts to connect with the boy are met with irritation as he only succeeds in disrupting Ben's customary lifestyle.
After meeting a boy named Norman Bronski at school, Ben feigns interest in joining the Indian Guides – a YMCA father son program – with Jack to secretly drive a wedge between them and get rid of him.
Although he is disheartened by this revelation, Jack does not tell Sandy about it and instead seeks advice from high school woodshop teacher and fellow stepfather Chet Bronski, who is the Indian Guides chief.
Ben, having finally opened up, is genuinely hurt by this perceived betrayal to the point of tears, as it brings up bad memories of his father's broken promises.
The pair is eventually cornered in front of an abandoned mine shaft entrance rigged with dynamite, until they are rescued by the Minotauks and the crooks are disabled.
Despite this, "Hit the Road Jack", a song by R&B artist Percy Mayfield, was cleared for release on the soundtrack that, ultimately, never made it to market.
"[3] Stephen Holden of The New York Times had a more favorable opinion of Taylor's performance, but opined that "Man of the House, the newest slick confection from the Disney cookie-cutter school of family comedies, follows the formula of many of its predecessors in trying to be two different movies at once.
"[4] Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Examiner awarded the film a one-and-a-half star rating out of four, and called it a "feeble Disney comedy [that] mixes a ludicrous tale of bonding between a youngster and his mother's new boyfriend with heavy doses of witless joshing.
"[5] Despite the poor critical reception, audiences polled by CinemaScore had a slightly more favorable view of the film, which they gave an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.