Sometimes, any one of us may feel like a motherless child. But recent movies have made momlessness a pivotal plot device.
In “Angels in the Outfield,” a little boy is abandoned to the foster system by his father after his mother’s death. “Corrina, Corrina” opens with a devastated 7-year-old hiding at her mother’s funeral. And “Lassie” shows how a savvy canine helps a boy deal with his grief for his dead mother.
But such morbidity taps a deep psychological nerve. For years, psychologists have argued that fairy tales (and Walt Disney movies) are so popular precisely because they confront children’s unconscious fears.
For adults, the film premise of a motherless family raises the romantic notion that a substitute mom can make everyone happy and whole again.
Here are some of the available videos, arranged by category, that deal with a who-needs-mom motif:
Kid stuff
“My Girl” (1991): Friendship, puberty, death, and Macaulay Culkin-this movie about an 11-year-old girl desperate for attention from her widowed father covers all the emotional bases. Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis co-star.
“Sleepless in Seattle” (1993): Tom Hanks’ wife dies and while he might be content to just grieve, his son wants a new mom. So he phones a national call-in radio show and, across the country, an engaged Meg Ryan hears the father-and-son conversation. Of course, true love triumphs in this Nora Ephron film.
“The Good Son” (1993): When his mom dies, Elijah Wood ends up at a relative’s house. There he runs into bad seed cousin Macaulay Culkin, who tends to eliminate whatever gets in his way: dogs, sisters, babies. Can Wood convince his new-found mother substitute before Culkin puts an end to him?
Animated angst
“Snow White” (1938): Walt Disney’s first full-length feature cartoon set out the themes that future Disney animations would replay for generations: mom could disappear at any moment; your family is where you find it (the scene-stealing dwarfs here); animals are your friends; authority figures are often evil. Like many Disney heroines, Snow White fills the vacuum in her own life by becoming a maternal figure to every chipmunk and short guy in sight.
“Bambi” (1942): Sure, there are endearing forest creatures (such as Thumper the know-it-all rabbit) and woodland seasons-but underneath all the charm it’s a primal nightmare full of fires, mom dying, and big, threatening bucks.
“Cinderella” (1950): An evil step-mother and stupid, ugly stepsisters make Cinderella’s life miserable. Thank goodness those mice in the basement know how to sew a mean ballgown.
“Peter Pan” (1953): The original source of the neurosis that afflicts many ’90s men: Peter’s just a boy who never wants to grow up-as long as he can turn his love interest Wendy into a mom who does the chores and tucks him into bed at night.
For art’s sake
“Forbidden Games” (1951): One of the biggest hits of the art houses in the ’50s, this French film deals with the corruption of children by adults during World War II: A 5-year-old girl witnesses her parents’ death, then tries to make sense of her life.
“Citizen Kane” (1941): Orson Welles’ masterpiece, based loosely on the life of William Randolph Hearst. Narrative key is what did Kane’s dying word, “Rosebud,” mean? Could it have some connection to happy memories of his mother?
“The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg” (1993): In this bio-documentary, the beat poet talks about his mother’s mental illness and how her “poetic paranoia” has influenced his writing.
Pre-Prozac
“Pollyanna” (1960): Way before there was a Prozac Nation, there was “the glad girl,” played here by a precocious Hayley Mills, who spreads cheer even though she’s orphaned.
“The Sound of Music” (1965): A true-life fairy tale based on the von Trapp family, who fled Austria and the Nazis, with many Rodgers and Hammerstein songs in their hearts. Julie Andrews is the perennially sunny governess.
If only
“Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979): No, Meryl Streep doesn’t die-she just leaves workaholic husband Dustin Hoffman and her little son to find herself. But Hoffman becomes such a righteous single father that it might have been better if only she had.
