If you have a teen or tween daughter and/or a wife (I have both), you're probably familiar with the Twilight book series by Stephanie Meyer and the recent movie Twilight. It's a dark, teen romance-type movie centering on Bella (played by Kristen Stewart, pictured right) and a teen boy who turns out to be a noble um, vampire.

Anyway, the book and movie depict a nice, loving bond between Bella and Charlie, her noncustodial father. Charlie (pictured above, leaning on truck) is the sheriff of Forks, a small town on the Washington state coast.

When Bella was very little, her mother divorced Charlie and moved to Phoenix, declaring she didn't want to get stuck in the small town rut that she thought Charlie was in. Since the mother left with Bella, Charlie had Bella with him when he could, which wasn't very often.

The movie begins when Bella is 17. Her mother Renee is a flake whose marriage to Phil, a minor league baseball player half her age, probably won't survive, but she is a loving person who seems respectful towards her former husband. Charlie, a strong, silent type, mourned the relationship with Bella's mother and never remarried. When Bella's mom follows her ballplayer husband Phil to spring training camp, Bella goes to live with her dad.

In the photo above, wheelchair bound Billy Black, a Native American friend of Charlie's, embarrasses him by revealing to Bella how the normally quiet Charlie spent weeks talking nonstop about Bella's impending arrival. Charlie looks after his daughter and handles her odd, stormy romance with Edward Cullen as best as could be expected.

[Spoiler warning] At one point Bella has to flee a couple hostile hunter vampires with Edward, and needs to give her father an excuse for leaving. She tells her father she's leaving because she "doesn't want to get stuck in this small town." She later tells Edward that it's the only thing she could say to Charlie that would get him to back off and let her leave suddenly in the dead of night.

Charlie, with watery eyes, says "But Bella, I just got you back." Bella worries about hurting her dad and after the dangerous situation is resolved, she returns to him and they're reunited.

Charlie is a voice of tolerance in the town, defending the semi-outcast Cullens in a deleted scene, and in general is a decent, honorable guy. It's a vastly more accurate portrayal of divorced fathers than we usually get in the media these days, and one we need to see a lot more of.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Men and the Media, Divorce/Separation/Child Custody, Advertising, TV, Movies & Gender. You can trackback from your own site.