Movies About Grief

Sometimes, when we come across movies about grief, it helps us through our own grieving process. I love feeling like someone else in the world gets what I’m going through and can portray it so flawlessly. Even if it’s just a pretend scenario, the fact they can portray it so life-like is because someone involved went through it. If you are needing a good movie to connect with, here are some movies that help you cope with grief. Warning: There may be spoilers about the movies! 

Movies that help you cope with grief

Steel Magnolias

If you’re into classic, older movies, you’re sure to love this one. The entire movie is about friends coming together over their grief and general tragedies life sits in their lap. With a wedding and having a baby in the balance, there are countless things this band of ladies can’t weather. This movie stars Julia Roberts.

The Descendants

Starring George Clooney, this movie follows a man who loses his wife in a boating accident. When people pass away, we realize life is short and that our priorities may have been skewed as life got busy. After his wife dies, Clooney realizes this very thing and tries to reconnect with his daughters.

Patch Adams

It’s rare to come across someone who hasn’t known someone with cancer. This story with a funny twist, comes from the place of someone in the throws of losing a loved one to cancer. This movie deals a lot with sick children and how one doctor has a special way of helping them through the difficult process of passing. It focuses on the part of “healing” that’s less physical – the part many people forget about. Robin Williams is the main star of this film.

Seven Pounds

This film is perhaps one of the most riveting movies about grief. It takes the route of someone dealing with grief from being the cause of an accident. How difficult would that be knowing you were the one who caused the crash, yet you were the only one who survived it? In order to repay the debt he feels, Will Smith, the main actor, seeks out deserving people for his task. He lays out his plan, then commits suicide in order to donate organs and save 7 different people with his death.

Here are a few more movies about grief you may want to check out.

• Marley & Me – Deals with the loss of a pet
• Truly Madly Deeply – The loss of a significant other
• Terms of Endearment – Living the widowed life and losing a significant other
• The Bucket List – A comedy about living life while preparing to die from a terminal illness
• The Other Woman – Dealing with the death of a daughter
• The Big Chill – Dealing with the death of a close friend
• Collateral Beauty – A look into one’s man journey of connection through grief.
• Dare to Dream – A look into how everything happens for a reason.

Grief can come in all types of forms. Whether that’s finding out your life’s goal has been ripped from your hands or your significant other has passed away. Grief plagues us all many times throughout life. Sometimes, watching others live through it gives us up and encouragement that we will too. Although these movies about grief won’t remove the pain, I hope they help at least a little in some way.