Celebrating Father's Day: Tracy Letts in "Lady Bird"
Sunday, June 21, 2020 at 8:00AM In honor of Father’s Day, Lynn Lee pays tribute to one of her favorite on-screen fathers.
At first glance, it may seem counter-intuitive to celebrate Lady Bird on Father’s Day instead of Mother’s Day. The loving but fraught relationship between Saoirse Ronan’s Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson and her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf, who should have won the Oscar) is, after all, the emotional center of the film. Yet amid the sturm und drang of their clashes and reconciliations, the quiet, soothing presence of Lady Bird’s father, Larry, leaves an equally lasting imprint. It’s an especially remarkable feat when one considers how few movies devote significant attention to father-daughter relationships unless the mother is dead or there are abuse, neglect, or communication issues. Think about it.
Lady Bird is the exception that proves the rule...
In a beautifully understated performance that still cuts through a movie chock-full of memorable supporting characters, Tracy Letts embodies everything every girl wants her dad to be: affectionate, unobtrusive, trusting of your judgment, allied with mom most of the time but in your corner when it really matters. (On a personal note, one of the many reasons Lady Bird resonates so much with me is that its triangulation of Lady Bird, Marion and Larry reminds me so much of my own dynamic with my parents.) Larry doesn’t play direct mediator between his wife and daughter – to the contrary, when they spar in his presence, he stays resolutely out of it and tries to become as invisible as a 6’3” man in a small room can. Instead, he works behind the scenes to support Lady Bird and let her know she’s loved, whether by covertly helping with her financial aid applications for out-of-state colleges, bringing her a birthday cupcake, or, in the emotional apotheosis of the movie, slipping her the letters her mom drafted to give her but never finished.
In some ways, Larry is a spiritual cousin of Donald Sutherland’s Calvin in Ordinary People except that unlike poor Cal, Larry knows there’s fundamentally a deep love between mother and child that may run too hot at times but will never run cold or curdle. While some might criticize him for going behind Marion’s back instead of confronting her directly, the pervading sense one gets from his secrecy isn’t betrayal or weakness but simply that of a dad acting on his instincts that mom will come around eventually and that it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. He also radiates a wryly humorous self-awareness about the risks he’s running with his approach; one of the funniest lines in the movie is his sotto voce “oh, fuck” when the cat is inadvertently let out of the bag about Lady Bird’s waitlisting at a college in New York.
Letts is extraordinarily good in the role, the more so for being cast somewhat against type; if you’ve seen him on stage or in other movies (most recently Ford v. Ferrari, in which he was also excellent as the imperious Henry Ford II), you know he doesn’t normally register as gentle or low-key. His impact is all the more impressive given how little dialogue and comparatively little screen time Larry gets and how little we really learn about him outside of his role as Lady Bird’s dad. That’s no doubt reflective of Lady Bird’s perspective, the prism through which we see him, even as we get hints via Marion that he suffers from depression, money worries, and fear that he’s a professional failure, especially after he’s laid off. Yet he doesn’t succumb to these darker feelings (that we or Lady Bird sees, anyway) or let them affect how he behaves as a father.
Indeed, one of Larry’s most telling and moving scenes suggests just the opposite. Having emerged from a job interview he knows is a bust, he endearingly proposes to Lady Bird that they “go buy a big bag of Doritos and eat them in the car” – only for them to run into her brother, Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), who’s clearly on his way to an interview with the same company. There’s an awkward pause as the realization sinks in for all three of them, which Larry quickly cuts short with a pat on his son’s back and a quiet, encouraging “Go get ’em.” We later learn Miguel’s interview went well when Larry toasts his new job at Lady Bird’s graduation dinner. In both cases, we don’t have to wonder whether Larry means it. We know he does.
Reader Comments (17)
“Do Ri Tos”. Best pronunciation ever!
The fact that Letts didn't happen in 2017 fore this film still feels like a major oversight. While on a slightly lover level than Mercalf and Ronan he is no less as spectacular as they are. Your right when you say this father daughter relationship is one rarely showed on screen and I was thankful that Gerwig had time to properly show it in a film which at a short 90 minute had time to pay attention to everyone.
The full and deep characters is something I have loved about both of Gerwig's directing outtings. Every character featured is complex and played so well by her.
Good fathers don't get nominations, which is a pity
This is a little obscure, but I still remember the loving father in Show Me Love (Fucking Aamal) trying to understand and support his daughter, who was herself trying to come to terms with her own lesbianism.
One of my fave father performances EVER. Letts is stunning in this.
Donald Sutherland in Pride and Prejudice is a close second to Letts for best movie dad ever!
I vote for Greg Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Love this performance and character. He reminds me of my dad.
Definitely one of the best dads on film.
Lovely piece. My two favorite fathers on movies are Claude Rains in Mr. Skeffington and Clark Gable in Gone with the wind. The former is my favorite and it seems he was a loveable father in real life as well. I wish his biopic someday.
A father that comes to mind is Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music. His austerity almost caricatured at first, until he melts with music and even sings with his children.
A father that comes to mind is Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music. His austerity almost caricatural at first until he melts with music and even sings.
For father-daughter pairings, I love Dan Heydaya as Cher’s dad in “Clueless”.
Thanks, J!
Some great father-daughter pairings mentioned here, but I'd like to note again how often the mom is dead in those movies. (or in the case of Mr Skeffington and GWIW, a for-all-intents-and-purposes absentee mom.)
But all credit to adri for recognizing the Keira Knigthley/Donald Sutherland P&P as another exception to the rule!
Not familiar with Show Me Love, so that may be one as well.
Lynn Lee - the mother is still alive and present in Show Me Love.
Great piece, and so true what you say about father figures in movies. One that really got me recently was the doorman, “Guzmin” in episode 1 of Amazon’s Modern Love series.
I love this holiday.