Thursday Movie Picks Meme: Father-Daughter Relationships

This week, the theme for Wanderer's Thursday Movie Picks Meme is father-daughter relationships, with the catch that they have to be biologically related. If you haven't taken part in her activity yet, it's simple: each week there is a new theme. You have to compile a list of three movies that fit that theme. Now there are plenty of films that could fit the description of centering on the relationship between a father and daughter, along with plenty that don't. Still, it was hard to decide, so I've decided to find three unlikely choices that would be the last thing anyone would expect which have some element of the father-daughter relationship, if one handled unconventionally.

Contact (1997)

Yes, Robert Zemeckis's adaptation of Carl Sagan's hard science fiction novel is in large part about the social and political consequences of making contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life, but a major theme of the film involves the backstory behind its protagonist, Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway (Jodie Foster). The relationship between Ellie and her father is crucial to the story, at it is a significant motivation for her joining SETI in the first place. They also play on this relationship during the climax, when Ellie is approached by an alien taking on the appearance of her father in a computer simulation.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

When you think Tomb Raider, you don't normally expect to deal with family issues, but that is actually a big part Lara's character. In the context of this film specifically, Lara has to deal with the unexplained disappearance of her father. She eventually has to go on to follow in his footsteps in order to prevent the villains from taking advantage of a powerful artifact, and even gets to track down the man responsible for his murder.

Interstellar (2014)

Yes, it is a story about humanity's struggle to survive on a dying Earth, but let's face it: the core of the film is the relationship between Cooper and Murph. This is also a rather curious one as far as far as father-daughter relationships go, due to the circumstances that interfere with their interactions. After all, it's hard for a father and daughter to stay close when they are literally seperated by lightyears and have to deal with extensive time dilations to communicate and the father suddenly sees his own daughter at his age despite barely aging himself. It's like a father-daughter version of the classic "Twin Paradox" often discussed in astronomy.