However, the crucial turning point in this era was the presentation of the stepfather as a genuinely positive figure, particularly in the 1998 film Stepmom . This film was revolutionary for its refusal to villainize either the biological mother (Susan Sarandon) or the stepmother (Julia Roberts). Instead, it focused on the painful, necessary negotiation of maternal territory. The film moved the genre from "good vs. evil" to "loss vs. adaptation," acknowledging that the introduction of a stepparent is almost always preceded by a profound loss—death or divorce—that must be mourned before the new family can form.