20 Best Movies About Loss That You Should Watching Update 04/2024

Movies About Loss

The 20 Best Films about Grief and Loss

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Losing a loved one can make it difficult to work through your feelings. It’s easy to run away from something that makes you sad. And if you can’t get your mind off things, attempt to engage in something enjoyable. It’s understandable if you don’t want to deal with any more heartbreak.

However, watching a movie and allowing yourself to cry can assist you in letting go of your sorrows and hurts. Likewise, watching a movie about loss and mourning can be therapeutic. Movies on dealing with grief can be found here.

1. Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias

Despite the fact that this comedy-drama was released almost three decades ago, it remains relevant today. The opening two-thirds of the film are filled with sassy Southern accents and slang. Female friends are the core of the story. There are instances when the humorous components get a little crazy.

However, things take a terrible turn in the story. That’s when you realize just how critical your support network is, especially in trying times.

2. My Girl

When you’re young, you can create some of the most enduring friendships. A adolescent girl is the focus of this coming-of-age story.

Throughout her adolescence, you’ll see her discover new things about herself, such as her first love interest and the death of a close friend.

3. Up

In a kid’s movie, you wouldn’t expect to be moved to tears. In fact, the first fifteen minutes of Up are likely to make you cry.

The good news is that things will only get better from here on out. Carl, a grumpy widower, must relearn how to care for himself and how to enjoy life once more as you accompany him on his journey.

4. The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense

As a thriller, it’s easy to overlook The Sixth Sense, which deals with the afterlife. This is also a moving meditation on the difficulty of letting go of the people you care about. Even after they’ve passed away, however.

5. Stepmom

Stepmother appears to be a standard family drama at first glance. Two parents are trying to go through the difficult process of divorcing. The husband’s new relationship with a younger woman just adds to the complication. There are prickly family fights when two kids are involved (one of whom is an angsty preteen). After then, the ex-wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Betrayal is dealt with head-on in this film, and it doesn’t hold back. It also examines how divorce affects families. In the end, it also demonstrates the redeeming power of the virtues of forgiveness, compassion, and love.

6. Ghost

Losing a loved one is a subject that has been explored in numerous films. The ghost of a man struggling to let go of his still-living wife is the focus of Ghost.

Even if a loved one dies, the love you shared with them will continue to exist in your heart.

7. Terms of Endearment

Terms of Endearment

Relationships between mothers and daughters are frequently fraught with strife. This heartbreaking film chronicles the deterioration of a mother-daughter relationship over time.

Their prior wounds are finally healed as the daughter’s condition worsens and she is given only months to live.

8. 50/50

Cancer comedies like 50/50 are becoming increasingly popular. As a young man faces a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, this semi-autobiographical film follows his journey through treatment.

You’re right there with him as he deals with this diagnosis. The other patients he spends time with while having chemotherapy will also become a part of his life. It is a lighthearted look at the realities of coping with a cancer diagnosis.

9. Rabbit Hole

The loss of a little child in an accident is one of life’s greatest tragedies.

The film Rabbit Hole demonstrates how devastating a catastrophe like this can be.

However, it also demonstrates that with the passage of time, it is possible to continue to live and even prosper. Although the sadness will never completely go away, it becomes more bearable.

10. Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams

Having a parent die might make it hard to reconcile whatever regrets we may have had about our connection with them.

The story of a father and son’s reconnection after death is told through the use of magical realism in this classic film.

11. Dead Poets Society

It’s difficult being an adolescent. When you’re still a kid, you’re compelled to make decisions that will shape your adulthood. As a film, Dead Poets Society addresses the loss of a buddy and a teacher.

However, it also demonstrates how our response to adversity shapes us as we mature. Robin Williams has an outstanding performance as the main protagonists’ teacher and mentor in this film.

12. Warrior

When it comes to the grieving process, you might not expect to learn much from a movie about fighting. Warriori, on the other hand, is a fascinating look at the ways in which certain men deal with their feelings through violence. In the ring, some of them keep their aggression to themselves.

The real lives of some people have been affected by it. Fights are used as a metaphor for the psychological strife and loss felt by the protagonists in this film.

13. Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia

Bridge to Terabithia, like My Girl, is a story of adolescence. A twelve-year-old youngster takes the lead role this time around. While still in elementary school, he meets a girl and together they create a dream world.

A location to get away from the stress of school and family life. Despite its tenderness, friendship and loss can be terrible at a young age.

14. Inside Out

This animated animation is aimed at youngsters, yet it has a universal message that may be appreciated by both sexes. In this film, the protagonist is a young girl’s anthropomorphized feelings that are depicted on screen. After a major life change, the protagonist is struggling to sort out her emotions.

Death isn’t even a major theme in the picture. It does, however, demonstrate the necessity of leaving behind pieces of one’s past. And it’s all right to be sad about it.

Whether you’re feeling under the weather or just need a little pick-me-up, this movie is for you.

15. Beaches

Two women who met as toddlers had their lives followed in Beaches. They’ve been in and out of one other’s lives over the years. Men can get in the way of a woman’s dreams every now and again. Occasionally, their contrasting professional trajectories separate them.

Love for one another is what holds them together the longest. Even if one of them passes away, the other’s attachment to her friend’s daughter endures because she now has care of the child of her deceased friend.

16. The Bucket List

The Bucket List

Both of the guys in The Bucket List face cancer diagnoses that could spell their demise. They come to terms with the fact that they each have bucket lists of things they’d like to accomplish before passing away. They plan to tackle these “bucket lists” together.

This picture has a lot of heart, but it’s also quite funny. When others doubt your abilities, it serves as a powerful reminder that you have the ability to accomplish great things.

17. Brian’s Song

Friendships with people who have a profound effect on our perspective are rare, yet they do happen. The story of Chicago Bears players Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers is told in the film Brian’s Song. In the course of their professional lives, the two men formed an unexpected friendship.

And in the 1960s, they became the NFL’s first ever interracial housemates. Their friendship had a far-reaching impact on both of their lives. Many others were moved to look past a person’s skin tone because of it.

18. Tig

To some degree, all of the movies on this list are works of fiction. Emotions are elicited even in semi-autobiographical works. This is a film that defies categorization. It’s a film that follows Tig Notaro’s famous Largo stand-up set.

The past year has seen her lose her mother, have a painful breakup, almost die from an infection, and then be diagnosed with cancer. She still had a lot of grief to get through as she had chemotherapy. This film tells her narrative, which is both victorious and heartbreaking.

19. The Five People You Meet In Heaven

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom transformed books on grief. For this reason, The Five People You Meet in Heaven became his next work of fiction.

When a young girl is saved by a maintenance worker, he dies. In the afterlife, he meets five people who guide him through the highs and lows of his own existence.

20. P.S. I Love You

Letters from her deceased spouse continue to arrive for a young widow in P.S. I Love You. As she struggles with her sadness, she comes to terms with the fact that she must continue living her life.

Your loved ones don’t want you to be stuck in the depths of sadness. Ideally, they’d prefer that you leave when you’re ready to do so.