Last Updated on September 6, 2024
The tragedy is a time-honored genre in storytelling. At best, sad tales teach us more about empathy and human nature. At worst, it makes us glad our lives are not that sad!
Either way, most tearjerker movies stir the emotions and can suck you deeply into another world for a few hours. If you feel like escaping real life for a while, then sit closer to your tissue box and watch our selection of the best sad movies!
1. Pieces of a Woman (2020)
After learning that they are expecting their first child, Sean and Martha choose to have a homebirth. When the happy moment comes, however, midwife Eva realizes that the baby is in serious trouble. Eva tells Sean to get an ambulance but help arrives too late and their daughter does not survive.
The story follows a spellbinding portrayal of a couple falling apart in their grief. This fire is fueled by interfering family members and a prosecutor more interested in suing Eva than helping them heal. Martha sets off on her own emotional journey to find the truth about that night and learns to stand up to everyone telling her what she should do and instead, help to vindicate Eva.
2. The Lovely Bones (2009)
This movie is a perfect selection if you love sad movies and the supernatural. In this story, Susie is a 14-year-old girl who has her whole life ahead of her. She’s got a crush, her family is happy and she’s got friends. But after she’s murdered by her neighbor, a serial killer named George Harvey, she enters a beautiful world between the living and Heaven.
When Susie learns that her sister is Harvey’s next victim and that her family struggles to heal from her own death, she decides to stay with them. The film is a harrowing story but is told with an exceptional understanding of grief and offers a mesmerizing fictional look at the afterlife.
3. Seven Pounds (2008)
Ben Thomas is a man with a secret. Ben is not even his real name and he’s a scary customer when people get too close. But he goes out of his way to change the lives of seven people who are ill, in debt or in abusive relationships.
Despite his attempts not to, he is drawn to Emily, a patient whose printing business is failing and she’s also in need of a new heart. Ben’s real reason for helping these seven individuals come to a tragic conclusion which reveals a mistake he has never forgiven himself for.
4. Marley and Me (2008)
When married couple John and Jennifer begin to contemplate parenthood, they decide to test their readiness by caring for a puppy. They adopt a yellow Labrador retriever and name him Marley. It soon becomes clear that Marley is probably the most out-of-control dog on the planet and he lands them in several hilarious social predicaments.
Despite the well-written comedy, Marley and Me also brilliantly covers more serious topics like post-natal depression, the strain of raising small kids, and euthanasia.
5. Pride and Prejudice (2005)
During the 18th century in rural England, the five Bennet sisters are under pressure to find suitable marriages. So when the newly-arrived wealthy bachelor Charles Bingley holds a ball to meet the locals, the Bennet family attends.
At this event, Elizabeth Bennet meets Bingley’s friend, Mr Darcy, whom she feels has too much pride. While they cannot deny their attraction to each other, Elizabeth must learn the hard way to overcome her own prejudice and gossip to see that his love for her is real.
6. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Nothing quite plucks at the heartstrings like lovers unjustly separated. In this story, Tish and her childhood friend, Alonzo, are now grown up and deeply in love. One night, Alonzo protects Tish from a man who tries to assault her but, in the process, he upsets a policeman called Officer Bell.
When Alonzo is falsely accused of a terrible crime, Bell’s influence puts him in jail, leaving Tish devastated and pregnant. They have to deal with the pressure of a baby conceived out of wedlock in a conservative community and the heartache of having their family separated by prison bars.
7. A Walk to Remember (2002)
In this coming-of-age romantic drama, Landon Carter is part of his high school’s popular crowd. But during a prank on a nerd, the latter is seriously injured and Carter is given a choice – face the legal consequences or participate in the school’s play. Choosing the latter, he seeks tutoring from a girl called Jamie Sullivan to help him practice.
They fall in love but their romance is hampered by Carter’s shame of having feelings for a girl his friends like to bully and the discovery that Jamie is terminally ill.
8. A Star Is Born (2018)
Ally is a talented singer-songwriter struggling to get noticed. But one night she meets Jack Maine, a famous country-rock singer. He’s so impressed by her that he invites her to perform with him on stage. Her career takes off and they fall in love.
But as Ally wins awards, Jack’s alcoholism is ruining his career and their relationship. Fearing that Jack’s public spectacles will destroy his new star, Ally’s record producer confronts Jack with tragic results.
9. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
In this Hollywood classic, two men, Nathan and Stingo, fall in love with the enigmatic Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish immigrant who had survived the notorious Auschwitz death camp. In 1947, the three become firm friends and Sophie begins a relationship with Nathan. The three of them spend time together, enjoying good music, food, and love.
But things begin to fall apart when Nathan’s paranoia over Sophie and Stingo grows. Sophie is also haunted by the terrible choice that she was forced to make during the war, one that killed her baby daughter.
10. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
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When Romeo and Juliet meet at a party, their love is instant and passionate. But they have to marry in secret in the hope that they will avoid the ire of their families; the Capulets and Montagues who sometimes clash violently.
The lovers plan to run away but Romeo is forced into hiding after he kills Juliet’s cousin for murdering his best friend. Juliet is told by her family that she will get married to another man. With the help of a sympathetic priest, Juliet fakes her own death but after Romeo mistakes her for dead and fatally poisons himself, Juliet takes her own life.
