Comments on: ID this movie?

Question: ID this movie?

jca — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:00:36 -0800

ID this movie from this scene description...

Can anyone identify this film based on this somewhat vague description of this scene:

Daughter is upset and confiding in her father that she feels she is ugly. Father remarks that he thinks she is beautiful, because she looks like her (deceased) mother.

For some reason, I keep thinking the father is played by Paul Dooley, but I could be wrong.

By: Gator

Gator — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:06:53 -0800

Gotta be Sixteen Candles, in which Molly Ringwald's character's mom is dead.

By: amro

amro — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:09:15 -0800

I don't know the movie, but Molly Ringwald's character's mom isn't dead in Sixteen Candles.

Any idea approximately what decade the film you're trying to think of was made?

By: frogan

frogan — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:09:30 -0800

Pretty in Pink, not Sixteen Candles

By: Gator

Gator — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:10:29 -0800

Argh. Yeah, PiP was the dead mom one, sorry.

By: amro

amro — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:12:27 -0800

I should have realized that's the one you meant. Pretty in Pink fits the description.

By: mto

mto — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:15:52 -0800

Say Anything has a dad, a daughter, and a dead mom.

However, I haven't seen that movie recently so I have no idea if the scene you describe ever takes place. There are plenty of heart felt father/daughter moments though.

By: Phred182

Phred182 — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:17:48 -0800

Could it have been Cheers Episode 1.5, "The Coach's Daughter", in which Alice Beasley guest stars?

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:30:19 -0800

Did something like this happen in Clueless?

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:33:37 -0800

I second Phred182's comment. It was a very memorable scene and probably the only one that immediate comes into mind for me.

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:35:15 -0800

Also, it had a line similar to this:

"You're beautiful, just like your mother!"
"THAT'S RIGHT, I look just like mom and she wasn't...(pause of enlightenment)...comfortable with her beauty"

By: srah

srah — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:40:06 -0800

It reminds me of Marla Hooch in A League of Their Own, but I don't know if there was any comparison to a dead mother there...

By: Justinian

Justinian — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:40:35 -0800

Yep, I'm thinking CHEERS as well.

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:47:44 -0800

Cheers was the first thing I thought of. That episode makes me cry every damn time. It's really, really touching.

By: jca

jca — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:17:19 -0800

Hmmm. Could be "Cheers" -- I remember that episode and scene, but I don't know if that's what I was thinking of.

I was really thinking it was a semi-recent movie -- why did the film "Clockwatchers" come to mind?

By: jca

jca — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:18:44 -0800

(How did the scene play out in "Pretty in Pink"?)

By: safetyfork

safetyfork — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:37:35 -0800

I can't think of any recent films, though the scene sounds generic. I'm mostly here to say that I don't think it's Pretty in Pink because the mother is never described as deceased, rather it is presented that the Mom left them and is not coming back. It's an important distinction in the film (at least I think so).

By: frogan

frogan — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:38:38 -0800

It reminds me of Marla Hooch in A League of Their Own, but I don't know if there was any comparison to a dead mother there...

Her father tells the scout (Jon Lovitz) that she doesn't look good because he raised her like a boy, because it was the only thing he knew how to do. Still a good scene, though.

By: frogan

frogan — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:41:14 -0800

(How did the scene play out in "Pretty in Pink"?)

I think Harry Dean Stanton, after seeing Ringwald's homemade dress, just says, "You look just like your mother," and the two have a touching little moment. Or something to that effect.

For some reason, I'm also recalling a made-for-TV movie, where the ugly-duckling daughter says to her father, "I want to be pretty, just like Mom was." Can't finger the title, though, or even the actors.

By: unixrat

unixrat — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 11:47:57 -0800

Strangely enough, that reminded me of "My Girl 2", where there was a also a dead mother.

By: FreezBoy

FreezBoy — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 13:02:06 -0800

FWIW, in Pretty in Pink the mother isn't dead, she left them.
The dress Andie's father gets her is pink and reminds him of her mom, who always wore pink. The scene isn't about Andie thinking herself unpretty.

By: frykitty

frykitty — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 13:45:57 -0800

I have seen "Say Anything" recently, and I do believe there is such a scene therein. But I think that trope has been played a number of times.

By: coolsara

coolsara — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:11:37 -0800

Non snarky correction about my favorite teen movie:
The mother in Say Anything is not dead. They are divorced and she is in several scenes.

By: bingo

bingo — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:50:28 -0800

The mother in Say Anything is not dead, but I don't remember her actually being in the movie.

By: desuetude

desuetude — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 18:04:36 -0800

Diane meets with her mom and her mom's new boyfriend in a cafe. She asks her mom to say something nice if the IRS ask questions about her dad.

Anyway, any movie with a dad raising a girl alone is going to have that "remind me of your mom" scene, either in fact or implied.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 19:47:02 -0800

Yeah, sounds like that "Cheers" episode to me, too; that scene always gets me. One of the most beautiful TV scenes I've ever seen.

RIP, Coach.

By: frykitty

frykitty — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 09:36:52 -0800

Oops...I must be mixing that up with something else. I remember the mother now.