Robert De Niro's undercover CIA interrogator and prospective father-in-law for mild-mannered nurse Ben Stiller is one of the great comic creations of all time. Photo: Supplied
Movie dads are often a hapless bunch. Hapless and helpless. In comedies, much is made of an inability to change a nappy or make dinner without burning it. In dramas those inadequacies can become toxic - an inability to pay attention, or an unreasonable desire for control.
But there are plenty of good dads, too. Morally upright role models like Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird. Nicolas Cage in Con Air, prepared to risk everything to escape prison transport with a toy rabbit for the daughter he has never even met. Marlin in Finding Nemo confronting all of his fears to go and rescue his son from the unknown ocean.
Here are some of our favourite dads we recognise in film - dads that we would like to be and father figures who aren't even dads at all.
Space Fathers: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
"Luke, I am your father!" I am sure I speak for all the other 12-year-olds in the theatre at the time when I say that I did not see that coming. Darth Vader revealing that parental relationship opened out the story and told us that truly anything could be possible in the Star Wars universe - a promise that has not been kept, let me tell you. But, as time has gone on and we have had prequels and sequels and spinoffs and all that jazz, Annakin/Vader's messed-up idea of fatherhood is one of the more relatable aspects of the franchise.
Another - much more positive - space dad is Matthew McConaughey in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Yes, he leaves his family forever to lead an expedition that might save humanity, but he eventually manages to move heaven and earth to send his daughter the code so that she can do the saving herself.
The Empire Strikes Back is streaming on Disney+. Interstellar is streaming on Netflix.
Single Fathers: Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Tom Hanks is almost America's grandfather now - see his portrayal of Mr Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood for the best example of this chapter of his career - but it was rare for him to play a character where fatherhood was the point of them. Sleepless in Seattle is a rom-com in which Hanks' character eventually - thanks to the film An Affair to Remember - falls for Meg Ryan, but it is the relationship with his eight-year-old son Jonah (Ross Malinger) that really melted everyone's hearts. You can tell that there's nothing that he wouldn't do for that kid, even spilling his emotional guts on national talk radio.
A classic scene from Sleepless in Seattle. Photo: Supplied
Most single fathers in movies are widowers - it makes it easier for dads to step up if mum isn't around at all - but an alternative to that story is the 2006 Will Smith tearjerker The Pursuit of Happyness. In that film, Smith plays a down-on-his-luck salesman who gets a chance at a career with a Wall Street investment bank, but his efforts are complicated by having to look after his five-tear-old son (played by real life Smith son Jayden), left with him by his estranged wife (Thandie Newton).
Sleepless in Seattle is available as a digital rental from Neon, Microsoft or Apple. The Pursuit of Happyness is a digital rental.
Over-protective Fathers: Meet the Parents (2000)
Once seen and never forgotten, Robert De Niro's undercover CIA interrogator and prospective father-in-law for mild-mannered nurse Ben Stiller is one of the great comic creations of all time, so much so that it spawned two sequels. De Niro is equally good in all of them. In fact, in Little Fockers (2010) there is a scene between Hollywood legends De Niro and Harvey Keitel where Keitel can hardly speak De Niro is so funny.
A different kind of over-protective father is played by Ben Foster in Debra Granik's Leave No Trace. He's a veteran with PTSD who has taken his teenage daughter (Thomasin McKenzie) off grid because he is afraid the authorities will separate them.
Meet the Parents is streaming on Netflix. Leave No Trace is also streaming on Netflix.
Surrogate or Surprise Fathers: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
Sometimes the best fathers in movies are those which are chosen rather than biological. Tell me you wouldn't want a dad who loves you like Mr Ping, the goose, in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Sometimes those surrogate fathers are reluctant, but they eventually step up anyway, like Sam Neill's Hec in Wilderpeople. I'm not the first commentator to note that a central theme of many of Taika Waititi's films is absent or useless fathers - Alamein's fantasist disruptor in Boy, the imaginary friend version of Adolf Hitler substituting for the missing father in Jojo Rabbit, even Thor's troubled relationship with his father Odin.
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople is streaming on TVNZ+
Good Fathers: Parenthood (1989)
Steve Martin in Parenthood. Photo: Supplied
One of the things about parenting is the constant state of doubt. Am I doing this right? Will my kids grow up to hate me? Parenthood is a charming comedy in which Steve Martin's busy executive realises that if you have the right attitude, you will be a perfectly fine parent - even if it doesn't feel like it at the time. It's also a brilliant ensemble movie, directed by Ron Howard who was a hot talent at the time.
Another aspect of parenting is sacrifice. Sometimes those sacrifices are small but - when the world falls apart after an apocalyptic catastrophe - those sacrifices get much bigger. In John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Viggo Mortensen (known only as Man) will do whatever it takes to give his son Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) a chance when the odds are stacked against them both.
Parenthood is available as a digital rental from Apple. The Road is a digital rental from AroVision.
