ID this movie?

January 24, 2006 10:00 AM

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.

posted by jca to Media & Arts (26 answers total)

Gotta be Sixteen Candles, in which Molly Ringwald's character's mom is dead.
posted by Gator at 10:06 AM on January 24, 2006

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?
posted by amro at 10:09 AM on January 24, 2006

Pretty in Pink, not Sixteen Candles
posted by frogan at 10:09 AM on January 24, 2006

Argh. Yeah, PiP was the dead mom one, sorry.
posted by Gator at 10:10 AM on January 24, 2006

I should have realized that's the one you meant. Pretty in Pink fits the description.
posted by amro at 10:12 AM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by mto at 10:15 AM on January 24, 2006

Could it have been Cheers Episode 1.5, "The Coach's Daughter", in which Alice Beasley guest stars?
posted by Phred182 at 10:17 AM on January 24, 2006

Did something like this happen in Clueless?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:30 AM on January 24, 2006

I second Phred182's comment. It was a very memorable scene and probably the only one that immediate comes into mind for me.
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:33 AM on January 24, 2006

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"
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:35 AM on January 24, 2006

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...
posted by srah at 10:40 AM on January 24, 2006

Yep, I'm thinking CHEERS as well.
posted by Justinian at 10:40 AM on January 24, 2006

Cheers was the first thing I thought of. That episode makes me cry every damn time. It's really, really touching.
posted by jrossi4r at 10:47 AM on January 24, 2006

Response by poster: 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?
posted by jca at 11:17 AM on January 24, 2006

Response by poster: (How did the scene play out in "Pretty in Pink"?)
posted by jca at 11:18 AM on January 24, 2006

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).
posted by safetyfork at 11:37 AM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by frogan at 11:38 AM on January 24, 2006

(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.
posted by frogan at 11:41 AM on January 24, 2006

Strangely enough, that reminded me of "My Girl 2", where there was a also a dead mother.
posted by unixrat at 11:47 AM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by FreezBoy at 1:02 PM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by frykitty at 1:45 PM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by coolsara at 4:11 PM on January 24, 2006

The mother in Say Anything is not dead, but I don't remember her actually being in the movie.
posted by bingo at 5:50 PM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by desuetude at 6:04 PM on January 24, 2006

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.
posted by davidmsc at 7:47 PM on January 24, 2006

Oops...I must be mixing that up with something else. I remember the mother now.
posted by frykitty at 9:36 AM on January 25, 2006