Worst Movie Parents

[Spartan Girl]

Restarting this thread from TWOP, let's talk about some of the worst movie parents to disgrace the silver screen:

 

Andrew's dad from Chronicle: That abusive jerk was the whole reason Andrew went psycho with his superpowers.  The fact that his wife was terminally ill was no excuse.  It's a shame Andrew's friend had to save him after Andrew threw him off the roof because he totally deserved to die.

 

Tea Leoni in Spanglish: What kind of woman makes her own daughter feel terrible about her weight, then goes around and lavishes someone else's daughter with attention?!  Even if she hadn't cheated on her husband, I wouldn't have liked her because she was already a terrible wife and mother.  Why the hell Adam Sandler still stays with her at the end of the movie is beyond me. 

 

Paige's parents in The Vow: This was a stupid movie, but Paige's parents were still meddling snobs that took deliberate advantage of their daughter's memory loss.  That's a low even for most meddling movie parents. 

 

Speaking of which, I feel like Robert De Niro's character in the Meet the Parents movies deserves to be on here, because his overprotectiveness of his daughter and his constant meddling in her love life and subsequent marriage is just awful.

[geekamonggeeks]

I'm definitely drawing a blank right now, but I'm going to nominate the one and only Joan Crawford from Mommie Dearest. This woman had it all. She used wire hangers, verbal abuse, chopped down trees and even kept her son strapped to the bed in a harness. I know that a lot of people dispute Christina Crawford's claims (I personally believe Joan was abusive and unstable, but that her daughter greatly exaggerated the abuse), so that's why I'm okay with posting this in the "Worst Movie Parents" forum even though these were all real people. I mean, how can you top wire hangers?

[tinaw]

Geeka I was kust coming in tto nominate mommie dearest

[Wiendish Fitch]

Dr. Austen Sloper from The Heiress is one of cinema's worst fathers. He is passive aggressive and belittling to his loving daughter Catherine simply because she's shy and not that beautiful (though considering she's played by lovely Olivia de Havilland, you really need to suspend your disbelief). He rants to anyone who will listen about what a failure Catherine is, and how she'll never find a husband, instead of loving her and accepting her for who she is. He constantly compares her to his dead wife, who he has made into this untouchable goddess that no one on earth could live up to. This also indicates what type of husband he was, for, as Cracked writer David Wong said, "there are two ways to dehumanize someone: by dismissing them". It's no wonder Catherine is a nervous wreck: the only parent she's ever known has never told her she's good enough.

 

The scene where Dr. Sloper finally tells Catherine what he thinks of her breaks my heart every time. I've actually come across people who think he was right in what he said, and I think these people have cut glass where their hearts ought to be. 

[GreekGeek]

Here are my nominees, in no particular order:

Henry and Lila Wingo in The Prince of Tides, for different reasons. Henry is the stereotypical knock-'em-around brute; Lila is the more subtle "let's all pretend everything's fine" liar and manipulator. Neither thinks much of their children, who have their emotional troubles (the daughter especially) but are also intelligent, attractive, and talented.

 

Cher's character in Mermaids, whose own daughter was a mother to her.

 

The parents in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, who are horribly overbearing and constantly undercutting their daughter.

 

The dad in Affliction--does Nick Nolte have the worst screen parents or what?

 

Abe in East of Eden--so virtuous he's bad. He gives all his love to Aron and deprives Cal, and can't see the desperate bids for affection in Cal's actions.

 

Beth Jarrett in Ordinary People--another control freak who can't transfer her motherly affection to her surviving son Conrad after her favorite Buck accidentally dies, but instead blames Conrad for the accident. 

 

Scarlett O'Hara never shows much interest in Bonnie. In fairness to her, she's even worse in the book, where she has two other children by her first two husbands.

 

David Hilfgott's dad in Shine--pushing his son to excel and then being angry when David wants to leave Australia to pursue opportunities in England.

 

Speaking of pressuring dads, there's also Jim Pearsall's dad in Fear Strikes Out. Best moment: Jim, in a mental hospital, being told to stand up to his father: "I can't do that, he made me what I am today!"

 

Christine Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra, an Americanized version of the Greek tragedy that gave us the concept of the "Electra complex."

[geekamonggeeks]

.

 

 

Beth Jarrett in Ordinary People--another control freak who can't transfer her motherly affection to her surviving son Conrad after her favorite Buck accidentally dies, but instead blames Conrad for the accident. 

 

 

 

I love Ordinary People because of how complex Beth's character is. Don't get me wrong; she's a terrible mother to Conrad, but she's so messed-up in her constant attempts for normalcy that she becomes borderline-sympathetic...until she decides to up and leave her family because she's so emotionally closed off that she genuinely can't connect to them anymore. The scene where she's packing to leave, almost breaks down sobbing but controls herself and makes her expression completely blank is such a chilling testimony to how emotionless Beth has become. It's one thing to remain closed-off in front of others. It's another to keep your emotions bottled up when you're completely by yourself.

 

I think Meryl Streep's character in Kramer vs Kramer is a bad parent in the same vein as Beth Jarrett. She up and leaves her son for about a year because she can't handle being a stay-at-home mom anymore, then comes back to reclaim her son like nothing happened. Yes, she's sympathetic because she did deserve more out of life, but the sympathy ends because her child is being negatively impacted by her choices and actions. You can get an out of an unhappy marraige. You don't get an out when it comes to being in your child's life.

[Spartan Girl]

Yeah, I didn't like Meryl Streep's character either, because I thought it was tremendously unfair of her to want to take custody of Billy after he and his dad had the chance to bond and build a life together.  You can't disrupt a child's life whenever you feel like it.

[PrincessEnnui]

The parents from The Squid and the Whale. They divorce at the beginning of the movie and seem not to mind playing favorites and ignoring their children's need. For your consideration, the wife constantly cheats on the husband, occassionally with the father of her oldest son's best  friend. The son and his best friend later find out. The father feeds his oldest son's misogyny.

 

Neither of the parents pay attention to the youngest who consistently steals their beer and became a sexual deviant (masturbating in public places and smearing his semen on library books and lockers). It takes the oldest getting caught plagiarizing Pink Flloyd and the youngest getting caught smearing to wake the parents up.

Edited June 6, 2014 by PrincessEnnui

[ButterQueen]

I agree about the parents in The Vow.

Edited June 8, 2014 by ButterQueen

[Spartan Girl]

 

The parents in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, who are horribly overbearing and constantly undercutting their daughter.

 

Oh totally.  I hated how the mother told Toula that her father "just wanted her to be happy."  Toula WAS happy, and her father was throwing a tantrum just because her boyfriend wasn't Greek.

 

Got some more:

 

Jennifer Lopez's whole stinking family in Angel Eyes.  The father abuses the mother and shuns Jennifer for calling the cops on him, and the rest of the family -- including that pathetic excuse of a mother -- goes along with it because apparently it's better to watch your mother die than rat out your family to the cops.  

 

Diane Court's dad in Say Anything.  He had a lot of nerve meddling with his daughter's love life while he was stealing money from his own patients.

 

David's parents in Clara's Heart were selfish jerks that were so wrapped up in their marital problems that barely noticed that they had a son.  Yes, it's terrible that they lost a baby, but that's no excuse to neglect the child that's still alive!

 

The overbearing parents in Dead Poets Society whose son killed himself and they blamed the teacher instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.

 

Cameron Diaz in My Sister's Keeper.  Everyone on TWOP had nothing but contempt for that woman for using her youngest daughter as an endless organ doner for the terminally ill daughter.  Again, I get how horrible these situations are, but a line should be drawn.  What makes it worse is that it was implied that the sick daughter wouldn't survive a kidney transplant anyway, and yet the mother still wanted to go through with it.  So she was basically risking the youngest daughter's life for nothing. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

Cameron Diaz in My Sister's Keeper.  Everyone on TWOP had nothing but contempt for that woman for using her youngest daughter as an endless organ doner for the terminally ill daughter.  Again, I get how horrible these situations are, but a line should be drawn.  What makes it worse is that it was implied that the sick daughter wouldn't survive a kidney transplant anyway, and yet the mother still wanted to go through with it.  So she was basically risking the youngest daughter's life for nothing.

 

 

Oh, definitely. Sara was pure, unadulterated evil, a horrible mother and human being. My late, wonderful aunt, who saw this movie and also hated it, had this to say, and I will quote her exactly:

 

It must be horrid to know that you were put on this earth for spare parts and no one, not even your own family, is making any bones about it.

 

 

Then again, read any Jodi Picoult novel: all her parents are just awful, but she always breathlessly defends them, which really makes me wonder about her.

[Spartan Girl]

Can't believe I keep forgetting this one: the parents in A.I.  The very fact that they'd buy David the robot to replace their comatose son is disgusting enough.  But then the mother would activate David's "love switch" just to fill her twisted need to be a mother.  And to top it all off, they abandon David once their real son recovers and they believe that David's obsessive love would cause him to hurt him -- which wouldn't have been an issue if the mother hadn't activated it in the freaking first place!!!!  So yeah, those people were terrible, awful parents.

[Rick Kitchen]

God, I love A.I.  That last ten minutes just empties my tear glands.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

I nominate Jenny's dad in Forrest Gump.  FG was so right, sometimes there aren't enough rocks.

 

My take on Spanglish is a bit different.  Yes, the Leoni mom was a bad mom.  Yet, for me, Paz Vega's mom selfishly rejected the opportunity her daughter had at the end of the movie.  As soooo many latin/hispanic folks do, she places keeping family close ahead of other compelling needs - typically work and school advancement.  I was furious at her for doing this to her daughter.   Is she a horrible person?  No.  But, for me, any parent who puts the needs of anything above their children's right to seek their own honorable course is tragically misguided.  It's not your life, mom and dad.  It's theirs.  Let them go and grow!

Edited June 24, 2014 by Lonesome Rhodes

[Spartan Girl]

I agree Lonesome Rhodes, but I think Paz Vega was right in getting her daughter as far away from Tea Leoni as possible.

[Crs97]

The overbearing parents in Dead Poets Society whose son killed himself and they blamed the teacher instead of taking responsibility for their own actions.

I also nominate Ethan Hawke's parents who just wanted him to shut up and sign the paper demonizing the teacher rather than find out how he was dealing with the fact that his roommate/best friend just killed himself.

[Rick Kitchen]

Hiccup's mother in How to Train Your Dragon 2.  She just abandons him to run off with the dragons, not even knowing if he survived, and never bothered to check in again?

[Luckylyn]

My take on Spanglish is a bit different.  Yes, the Leoni mom was a bad mom.  Yet, for me, Paz Vega's mom selfishly rejected the opportunity her daughter had at the end of the movie.  As soooo many latin/hispanic folks do, she places keeping family close ahead of other compelling needs - typically work and school advancement.  I was furious at her for doing this to her daughter.   Is she a horrible person?  No.  But, for me, any parent who puts the needs of anything above their children's right to seek their own honorable course is tragically misguided.  It's not your life, mom and dad.  It's theirs.  Let them go and grow!

 

I have mixed feelings about that.  On the one hand, her daughter had a scholarship to a great school that could really benefit her daughter's future. On the other hand having that daughter in that school didn't seem to bring out the best in her daughter and intensified Tea Leoni's influence over the child.  Tea had zero respect for the mother and was encouraging the daughter to be disrespectful too.  She took the child shopping without asking her mother's permission.  She got her to lie about having a  school project so she could stay over at Tea's house to watch movies and have a slumber party with her rich friends. Not only is she teaching the child to lie to her mother but having the child invite her friends to Tea's house instead of the child's own home I felt like it implied that the child's home wasn't good enough for the friends.   Even when the mom quit, Tea made it clear to the daughter that they would still have contact through the  school.  Maybe if Tea hadn't been a factor the mom might have let her daughter keep the scholarship that Tea helped her get.  I wouldn't want to owe a woman like Tea a favor and would not want my child anywhere near an adult who encouraged her to be disrespectful to her mother.  Tea's involvement really affected the mom's perspective of how the fancy shcool affected her daughter.  So losing the scholarship was terrible but getting the girl away from Tea's character was needed.

[Sweet Tee]

Seconding both sets of parents in Dead Poet's Society. Neil's father's refusal to listen and iron grip on his son directly led to his death and that even after the fact, he couldn't see that and blamed Mr. Keating drove me nuts. And Todd's parents not only didn't care about how Todd was coping with Neil's death but they got him the same birthday present two years in a row. Nice way to show your son how little you can be bothered with him.

[NoWillToResist]

 

Hiccup's mother in How to Train Your Dragon 2.  She just abandons him to run off with the dragons

 

Don't forget: she also left her son, knowing that he'd be raised in a manner which she herself abhorred, rather than stick around and give him another viewpoint. When the going gets tough, run away and abandon the ones you love! Bonus: NO ONE gave her any shit for it, either! Just a big ol' "welcome back, mum/wife!" Grr. Such selfishness. Unbelievable.

 

I'll also nominate the parents in Frozen. Oh, your eldest has powers which can be controlled but only if fear doesn't become a factor? Well then, by all means, LOCK HER UP AND ISOLATE HER FROM EVERY LIVING THING. That'll totally fix that whole pesky 'fear' business; she won't develop a complex about her powers at all. *eye roll*

[Sweet Tee]

How about the parents in The Parent Trap? They denied their children the right to know half of their family, including their twin! And they were just fine with never seeing one of their children again? The hell? And of course the children have no resentment over this.

[Spartan Girl]

Keri Russell's controlling dad in August Rush was a piece of shit.  It was bad enough that he trained her to be a musical prodigy all so that she could be his meal ticket.  But to sign away her own baby for adoption and lie to her about him being stillborn...there's a special place in hell for people like that.

[Luckylyn]

The parents in What Maisie Knew were horrendous.   That kind of neglect was tough to watch.   It shows a parent can be abusive even if they aren't hitting the kid or being verbally abusive.  That scene where Julianne Moore

just leaves Maisie at the restaurant where the step father works without verifying if he's working that night and doesn't even escort the child inside to make sure she's safe is so heartbreaking.  Because it's the step father's night off the restaurant can't get a hold of him and she ends up spending the night at one of the waitress's apartment who was a stranger which terrified her.  Her parents abandon her and don't even bother to check that an appropriate adult is there to look after her.

  The only times Maisie was happy and safe was when she was with her step parents.

[Rick Kitchen]

Talking about Latter Days over at the LGBT thread, Aaron's parents were absolutely horrible.  They preferred having a dead son to having a gay son.

[Luckylyn]

Talking about Latter Days over at the LGBT thread, Aaron's parents were absolutely horrible.  They preferred having a dead son to having a gay son.

I agree.  They were horrible.   The mother

telling her son's boyfriend he killed himself  was beyond cruel.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Mrs. Baker from Boyz N the Hood was a lousy mother. Lavishing praise and attention on Ricky while showing nothing but bitter contempt towards Doughboy, even when he was just a kid. Doughboy made some crappy life choices, but given his toxic environment and his verbally abusive mother, it's little wonder he turned out the way he did.

[JBC344]

Mary Jones from Precious.  Monique's portrayal of her really hit home how monstrous untreated mental illness can be. 

[Spartan Girl]

So I watched Hook again last night (miss you Robin), and I think I have to put Peter Pan's mother on the list for leaving her baby in his stroller and the top of a hill while she chats away with her friend, not paying any attention.  That's an accident just waiting to happen!  And how freaking long did she look for her baby before Tink spirited off to Neverland?

[methodwriter85]

How about the parents in The Parent Trap? They denied their children the right to know half of their family, including their twin! And they were just fine with never seeing one of their children again? The hell? And of course the children have no resentment over this.

 

See, this is something that's always bothered me about the remake. I can see the parents doing this in the 1940's, when the girls would have been born and divorce was still a great shame. But in the 1980's, when everybody and their mother was divorced? That just made the 90's version parents look like major assholes.

 

Anyway...Tony's parents from Saturday Night Fever. From the dad shitting over Tony's meager pay raise, to his bitch of a mother trying to pin Tony's brother dropping out on the priesthood on him...what a bunch of assholes. No wonder you had to dig deep to find the nice, empathetic person in him.

 

 

I have mixed feelings about that.  On the one hand, her daughter had a scholarship to a great school that could really benefit her daughter's future. On the other hand having that daughter in that school didn't seem to bring out the best in her daughter and intensified Tea Leoni's influence over the child.

 

It kind of pissed me off too, but I do think that was the point they were trying to make- just because her daughter was given a scholarship to a fancy school didn't mean it was going to make her into a better or have a brighter future, or she was going to make the most of the opportunity.

 

Tea Leoni's character purposefully buying her daughter clothing that was too small for her and then fawning over her maid's thin, pretty daughter was pretty awful to watch.

Edited June 29, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Wiendish Fitch]

The dad in Albatross is an utterly shitty piece of work, and he never, ever, ever suffers any consequences. Not only does he have an affair with his teenaged daughter's friend (um, ew), but he starts making cruel remarks about his daughter's "lifeless wardrobe" and "lack of life and spirit". 

 

Wow. One, I can't speak for everyone, but I think most people would love to have a daughter like his: sweet, bookish, dutiful, bound for Oxford, never gives you a moment's worry. Two, the daughter's friend (you know, the one he's grossly banging), is her polar opposite. He's basically telling his daughter he wishes she was like his secret teenaged mistress! Ew!

 

How does it end? The friendship is ruptured (though they make tentative peace in the end), and the daughter forgives her dad everything. Balls, I say.

[Spartan Girl]

Even though she didn't necessarily deserve to get murdered, I think Sidney's mom in the Scream movies deserves to be on this thread.  She cheats on her family with a ton of men, including her daughter's boyfriend's dad, therefore setting everything that happened into motion.

 

But let's not forget Billy's mom in Scream 2.  It was a touch hypocritical for her to get "revenge" for her son by murdering a bunch of innocent people when it was the fact that she abandoned Billy that had a hand in turning him into a psycho killer.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[methodwriter85]

Although Scream 3 basically tried to excuse her by saying she was like that because she basically got raped by a bunch of Hollywood men.

 

Honestly, that in itself could use a post in the "Gender" thread.

[Spartan Girl]

Although Scream 3 basically tried to excuse her by saying she was like that because she basically got raped by a bunch of Hollywood men.

 

Honestly, that in itself could use a post in the "Gender" thread.

Yeah, I didn't really by that excuse, especially when we find out that she rejected the now adult child born of that rape because she "had a good life and family" and didn't want to ruin it. Like she wasn't already doing that by having all those affairs...

[Wiendish Fitch]

Re-watching Splendor in the Grass yesterday (a film that improves with each viewing), I honestly make myself dizzy trying to figure out who was the worst parent; on the one hand, we have Deenie's mother, an overbearing, gently bullying, condescending, prudish, passive-aggressive, judgmental gossip with an unhealthy obsession with her daughter's virginity. On the other hand, we have Bud's father, a pompous, obnoxious, loudmouthed, callous, sexist asshole who controls every aspect of Bud's life and who views women as mindless, easily replaced objects, and who has barely concealed contempt for his wife (he introduces her as "Mrs. Stamper") and his daughter (he rubs it in her face that he prefers Bud). For all the anguish Bud and Deenie eventually go through, I think they both turned out pretty well, all things considered!

Edited July 1, 2015 by Wiendish Fitch

[Spartan Girl]

Maggie's mother in Million Dollar Baby was a real piece of shit.  When Maggie was thoughtful enough to get her a nice house, she just kept harping on how the government would take her welfare check away if they found out she could seemingly afford a house. She never supporting Maggie's boxing career.  And when Maggie got paralyzed, she and the rest of that worthless family only went to visit her so that she would sign over their assets to them!  The moment where Maggie tells her never to come near her again is both awesome and heartbreaking.

[VCRTracking]

Amy Dunne's parents in Gone Girl were horribly passive aggressive. As Nick says they "plagiarized" her life, writing a series of children's books about "Amazing Amy" a fictional version of their daughter which improved on the real life When Amy quit the cello, "Amazing Amy" became a progidy, when Amy got cut from the school volleyball team, "Amazing Amy" made varsity. No wonder Amy turned out the way she did.

[topanga]

Denzel Washington in Training Day. In the movie, we only see one of Alonzo's five sons--the young child he had with his mistress, Eva Mendes. I can't remember the kid's name, so let's call him Jon Snow. Alonzo barely came around to see Eva and Jon Snow, and when he did, it was only for a booty call with Eva (which she didn't seem too happy about, but that's another story). He barely talked to his son. Ethan Hawke spent more time with Jon that day than this own father.

[raezen]

Pretty much all the parents in Reality Bites. Seen and unseen.

[anna0852]

I always thought the parents from Home Alone were pretty awful. Kevin's older siblings bully him pretty much continually, Buzz humiliates him in public and they allow his uncle to call him terrible names. I get that Kevin was pretty bratty but with parents like that, what could you expect?

[caracas1914]

James Dean's parents in "Rebel without a cause". The mom was a real work of art in that one.

The other one that really is a monster in Charlotte Vance's (Bette Davis) mother in "Now Voyager".

Edited July 2, 2015 by caracas1914

[Spartan Girl]

Now that I've finally watched Ordinary People, I would like to echo the hate for Beth Jarrett. There was literally something missing in that woman as a mother. The opening scene with Conrad saying he isn't hungry. Most mothers would at least try harder to get him to eat, but Beth just tosses the food down the grinder without hesitation. Instead of showing concern for Conrad's mental health, she's just worried that people will know he's seeing a shrink. Every time Conrad tries to bond with her, she pushes him away.

Playing favorites with your kids is one thing, but BLAMING your other child for your "favorite's" death is a really horrible thing to do.

American Dad phrased it best: "Mary Tyler Moore is such an icy bitch in this movie."

[caracas1914]

Ordinary People: I disliked completely stacking the desk against the character the way the movie did. Didn't read the book so can't compare if Beth was such a one note villain there too.

[Kel Varnsen]

I always thought the parents from Home Alone were pretty awful. Kevin's older siblings bully him pretty much continually, Buzz humiliates him in public and they allow his uncle to call him terrible names. I get that Kevin was pretty bratty but with parents like that, what could you expect?

Yea Home Alone is a big one for me. Even if you ignore the actual forgetting about him thing, if an adult who was a guest in my house called one of my kids a little jerk, me and that adult would have issues.

[raezen]

Alice Ward from The Fighter. I don't even have words for how awful her clear favouritism and greed is.

Edited July 30, 2015 by raezen

[blueray]

Matilda's parents in Matilda . Seriously talk about neglect, their 6 year old had to beg to go to school and was often home alone cooking for herself. Then when she wants to go live with her teacher, they were like "okay where do I sign". And barely said goodbye.

Edited August 1, 2015 by blueray

[Spartan Girl]

Matilda's parents in Matilda . Seriously talk about neglect, their 6 year old had to beg to go to school and was often home alone cooking for herself. Then when she wants to go live with her teacher, they were like "okay where do I sign". And barely said goodbye.

They unintentionally did her a favor.

[blugirlami21]

Mona's mother in Beautiful is pretty awful.  The scene where she just wanted her Mother to come in sit in the family box and she flatly refused is hard to watch.

[Spartan Girl]

I know she technically wasn't a character in the movie, but Billy Bibbit's mother in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest should be on this list.  Everything about Billy's quirks was a huge red flag for some kind of abuse.  If nothing else, she was obviously controlling to the fact that Billy could barely function, let alone form a natural relationship with another woman.  He was so terrified of his mother finding out he had sex with a woman that he killed himself.  Clearly, something messed up was going on there.

[Spartan Girl]

How did I not think of Margaret White from Carrie?! She practically owns this thread as the Worst Mother of All Time! 

What's even worse is how nobody in that school or town cared enough to call social services on her. Everyone knew she was a whack job and it was pretty obvious that Carrie was being abused! 

[methodwriter85]

I rewatched Saturday Night Fever, and as much as I've hated Tony's mother, I think this go-around, I got it. She's a middle-aged woman in a pretty shitty situation- her husband is unemployed but won't hear of her getting a job to help out, and her youngest son is a n'er-do-well who spends his paycheck soley on partying and seemingly has no ambitions for a better life. The one shining spot in her life is her oldest son the priest, who's not only "elevated status", but the one son she doesn't have to worry about because his needs and wants are cared for. Now all of a sudden that's gone, and she has to worry about both sons, and she's bewildered and devastated about this, and the n'er-do-well makes a convenient target.

Still think Tony's parents are shit, but I get it.