Celebrating the standout stock characters in movies…
The divorced dad arguably found his heyday in the 90s. Maybe the cinematic era in which you grew up resonates most strongly with this category. Or perhaps an uptick coincided with a general increase in the divorce rate from the 70s onwards - did the children of those dissolved unions channel their own experiences into screenplays and movies?
Whatever the cause, it’s a robust archetype, often found occupying family-friendly comedies, although there are countless outliers. This particular stock character is generally rakish, often ineffectual, and frequently (re)married to their job. But they’re rarely irredeemable deadbeats.
In act one at least, they’re not typically the primary custodian of their children, but over the course of the movie, the relationship with their offspring frequently instigates a redemptive arc.
