In my latest book, A Beginner's Guide To Family Life, each of the three main characters' family is very different, and these ten family-based films display a variety of family set-ups. Sometimes close family units, often dysfunctional in their own ways, all of them fun to watch.
Father of the Bride
When Annie announces her engagement, her father starts to unravel as he deals not only with the cost of paying for the Big Day, but the fact he's got to come to terms with the fact she isn't his little girl any more.
Bonus: Father of the Bride Part II, which is just as hilarious as the first
Look Who's Talking
When single mum Mollie returns home from the hospital with her newborn baby, the taxi driver who took her to the hospital arrives with the handbag she left in his car. A friendship forms as they help each other out with babysitting and family issues.
Bonus: so good they made a second film, Look Who's Talking Too
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
When a scientist invents a device to shrink objects, his children - plus the kids from next door - find themselves accidentally zapped and shrunken to microscopic proportions. Swept up into the bin and dumped on the other side of the now giant garden, can they find their way back home and back to their father and the machine to make themselves normal-sized again?
[I'm pretending the sequels never happened with this one. It's better that way]
Coco
Miguel dreams of becoming a musician, but his family has banned music because of something that happened in the past. Can Miguel unlock the family secret and follow his dreams?
Warning: you will probably sob at this film, but it's worth it
The Addams Family
The Addams family aren't your average family. Celebrations are planned when long-lost Uncle Fester returns home, but his oddly normal behaviour arouses suspicion. Is he the real Uncle Fester or a fake?
Problem Child
Ben and Flo Healy have no idea what they're letting themselves into (because the nuns keep schtum) when they adopt seven-year-old Junior, but it isn't long before their lives are turned upside down.
Mrs Doubtfire
When dad of three Daniel loses contact with his kids after his divorce, he goes to extreme lengths to continue seeing them by disguising himself as a Scottish nanny, Mrs Doubtfire. Hired by his ex-wife to take care of the children, he spends more time with them than ever, but how long can he keep up the charade until he's rumbled?
The Incredibles
All families have their issues - even the ones with superpowers. And it takes a whole family of superheroes working together to save the day.
Bonus: The Incredibles 2
Jack and Sarah
Single dad Jack is struggling to juggle work and caring for his baby daughter, Sarah. When he meets waitress Amy, he hires her as Sarah's nanny. But will she make his life easier or complicate it further?
Matilda
Matilda is either ignored by her family or yelled at by them. But when she starts school and discovers she has magical powers, she finds a way to get even.
So that's my list of 10 family-based films. If you'd like to read my book about the dynamics of family life, you can find out more details below:
You can choose your friends, but you're pretty much stuck with your family.
Ruth has everything she never dared to hope for: a husband who adores her, a beautiful home, and a job she can just about tolerate. And now she's having a baby. But having zero experience with babies and a pregnancy that isn't quite as blooming as the magazines claim it should be, how will she cope with this stage of her life?
Quinn loves her family, but she sometimes wishes there weren't quite so many of them living under the same roof. But is she ready to fly the nest and build a whole new one with her boyfriend?
Richard's life is pretty great, until a visitor arrives on his doorstep and turns his whole world upside down.
Three friends.
Three families.
A whole lot of drama.
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