Tearjerker movies have a moving plot that profoundly touches your soul, making you cry. So when you want to cry and release your emotions, these are the movies to watch.
They could unburden some of your baggage and relieve you when you cry watching them. Curl up in bed or sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and watch a real tearjerker. You are going to cry your heart out you.
And when you do and just let it out, it will only make you feel better. So let’s go through the best ones you can watch on HBO Max.
The Notebook
The movie is about two lovers, Allie and Noah. They meet at a carnival and fall in love. But Allie’s parents disagree with their relationship.
She is later engaged to Lon, still in love with Noah. A few years pass, and she finds his picture in the newspaper and decides to meet him. They are together again and live happily after dying beside each other in the nursing home.
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams star in this movie. One of the most heartfelt movies ever made though it has yet to do well commercially.
The story has many common elements, such as a rich girl in love with a local kid, which has been used in numerous movies. But it has been portrayed soulfully that touches your heart.
Allie’s love for Noah is never-ending. As teens, they have fallen deeply in love with each other, unlike how teens are infatuated.
The story depicts how they subconsciously love each other despite the distance. Even as years pass by without seeing each other, their love is undying, and they still yearn to be with each other.
Gone With The Wind
An epic love story adapted from the novel of the same name. The 1939 American romantic tearjerker has the American Civil War in the backdrop and the beginning of a traumatic love story. The movie stars Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh as the main lead.
Scarlett O Tara is in love with three men and realizes much later that Rhett Butler is her true love. She is shamelessly in love with Ashely, her first love, who is engaged to his cousin.
In the heat of the moment when the boys are called for the Civil War, Ashely’s brother, Charles, proposes to Scarlett.
She marries Charles, but Charles dies in the Civil War. The movie depicts the tragic love story of Scarlett, who is hopelessly in love with Ashley. Even though she has been married thrice and the last time with Rhett, she is still hoping someday Ashley will love her back.
Through miseries, Rhett leaves her when their daughter Bonnie dies, leaving her alone and pining to win Rhett back.
Scarlett is obstinate, a hopeless romantic who breaks all social norms for wanting to win the love of Ashley only to realize Melanie is the woman he has truly loved.
Scarlett is the character you sympathize with because all she wants amidst the war and chaos is to want Ashley to love her back and be with him.
However, through a series of tragedies, she does not realize Ashely does not love her and keeps pining for his love, only to realize Rhett loved her indeed all the way through.
Terms Of Endearment
A 1983 family drama starring Jack Nicholson and Debra Winger. It depicts the loving and profound relationship between mother and daughter.
A captivating movie with excellent characterization. It deals with nuances of the mother-daughter relationship in depth.
Emma is Aurora’s daughter who marries against her wishes and is in an unhappy marriage with Flap, who has a series of extramarital affairs. Emma later dies of terminal cancer. Widowed Aurora has a whirlwind romance with Garrett(Nicholson), who stays by her side all the while.
Aurora’s role is carved with the flavor and personality of Southern women. She rejects many suitors but finally falls in love with her neighbor astronaut, Garrett. Emma and Aurora are different personalities.
Emma is sensible and a devoted mother of three children with Flap. Aurora is a straight-laced widow who does not like Emma’s choices, especially her marriage with Flap.
The movie has a good balance between humor and tear-jerking moments. The characters are not stereotypical and have quirks which makes the bond between Emma and Aurora interesting. Aurora is not a typical mother. She lives by her rules and expects Emma to make better choices.
The story and characters are relatable because that is what happens in life, the unexpected. Garrett and Aurora are poles apart.
She is shocked by Garrett’s philandering, bold, and animalistic charm. Despite these shortcomings, Garrett seems to care for Aurora genuinely. The actors’ performances are top-notch and move your heart as you sail through the plot.
The Fault In Our Stars
A 2014 American romance film about two cancer patients who fall in love and are each other’s support until one of them dies.
The movie has numerous touching moments and melts your heart, witnessing the depth of feelings two young people develop for each other. They stay in love until the end instead of being miserable about their condition.
The movie is based on a book of the same name. It stars Shiney Woodly as Hazel suffering from thyroid cancer and Ansel Elgrot as Gus suffering from bone cancer. The plot depicts compassion and love and has a lot of melodrama.
They are part of a group of cancer-stricken teens who refuse to accept their condition and continue trying to be expected.
The movie has dry humor and likable characterization. The characters immediately generate empathy for the audience. Their emotions are involved in every story moment from the beginning to the end.
The two share a love for reading and are different personalities. Hazel is more open than the stiff and uptight Gus, who eventually opens up to her and shows how much he cares about her. The movie is heavy on emotional melodrama for a teen coming-of-age romance film.
Rain Man
Rain Man is a 1980s road trip drama starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Charlie(Tom) is an unscrupulous, greedy man who can adopt any means to get money. He is unhappy that his father left him with nothing after his death and that property is awarded to a trust.
He later learns that he has an autistic brother Raymond(Hoffman), who has been living inside a hospital due to his condition.
Charlie sells Lamborghinis, unsuccessfully, to make a living. He is pretty much at wit’s end because his father only left him a vintage car and rose bushes.
He realizes that Ray is entrusted with the estate and finds it difficult to warm up to him. He maltreats him after witnessing his girlfriend, Sussane, dumps him.
They go on a road trip to L. A and Charlie eventually start caring about Ray. The movie is about the reformation of Charlie from being a selfish, uncaring, greedy jerk to a caring and compassionate brother.
Charlie starts seeing and loving life’s beauty because the experience of knowing his brother has been rewarding.
Charlie takes time to understand the dimensions of how Ray functions in his autistic work inside the mental institution and starts warming up to it eventually.
Charlie is the Rain Man, a person who is not expected to change for the jerk that he is. The reformation he goes through is touching and endearing. For a man whose life revolves around making money, it is moving to find empathy, and compassion sets in.
The movie does not set unrealistic expectations but lets you sail through the experiences of Ray and Charlie through the reforming road trip they take to L.A.
You will love Ray’s character better, which is unhinged and unpretentious. The movie beautifully deals with the theme of acceptance and stopping taking too much control of life.
Hotel Rwanda
The movie is based on the 1994 Rwanda genocide featuring Joaquin Phoenix.
The genocide is known to be one of the most atrocious in nature in history because millions of people were murdered within three months. The story is about a courageous man, Paul(Don Cheadle), who rescues a thousand people.
Paul manages the hotel and offers to take refugees in during the war between Hutus and Tutsi communities, which leads to the massacre.
As the political instability rises, he observes how people are taken out of their homes and beaten on the streets. He starts taking people inside the hotel and setting up camps to protect them.
After the departure of the U.N. troops making a failed attempt to make peace, Paul takes it upon himself to convince the nation’s army general to retreat by threatening to convict him as a war criminal. With this tactic, he succeeds in making them leave.
Initially, the movie was criticized as the plot focused on glorifying Paul’s efforts instead of showing the gravity of genocide. Cheadle’s performance is commendable. The movie was later appreciated for its treatment of genocide because Paul took in refugees even though his hotel was not doing well economically.
Paul bravely deals with the most precarious events and brings peace to the land. Therefore he is our hero.
The movie depicts riveting themes of heroism, survival instincts, and the man’s grit and unusual courage to make peace in the most dangerous circumstances.
Little Women
The 2019-released drama film is an adaptation of a novel of the same name. It stars Emma Watson and Meryl Streep, amongst others.
Four sisters live in England while their father fights in the Civil War. Their family has lost their fortune, and the sisters struggle to keep the household running.
They befriend a wealthy neighbor, Laurie. As the sisters grow, they face numerous moral dilemmas and challenges to deal with their personal demons. The movie is about four women making choices and living lives with individualism.
Jo and Amy have a love-hate relationship as they grow, while Meg(Emma) and Beth turn out to be the quiet ones. Their wealthy neighbor, Theodore, often called Laurie, becomes the apple of their eye. He has repeatedly rejected Jo’s interest, making her sour and lovelorn.
The movie is quite thought-provoking for portraying independent women from the 18th century.
The period drama is a good mix of 18th-century mannerisms blended with modern ideologies. Jo is a writer and a woman who inspires women from any century with her ideologies and gumption.
Jo is not a feminist but a beauty with a charming, thoughtful mind who dismisses the idea of what a woman should and shouldn’t be. The March family is depicted as vital, which cuts out all the drama and stays on an even keel dealing with life challenges and inner demons.
The film primarily focuses on Jo’s characterization, personality, and relationship with her sisters. The movie has won numerous Academic award nominations. Meryl Streep’s performance is, as usual outstanding. The journey of Jo gives tears, joy, and inspiration for its bold 18th-century period drama.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet star in this heartfelt romantic drama. It’s Valentine’s Day, and Joel(Jim) is alone, and it is cold and snowing outside.
Joel and Clementine have decided to erase each other’s memories to test if they fall in love with each other without each other’s memories. Magically, they start liking each other again as they meet as strangers after their memories are wiped clean.
The movie depicts beautiful emotions of how, when two people love each other deeply, their subconscious memories of each other cannot be erased.
Joel is soft-spoken, and Clementine is erratic. They hardly have anything in common in their personality but know each other at a soul level and have fallen in love deeply.
The experiment proves that they will keep falling in love with each other repeatedly because their souls have loved each other, and no experiment or distance can separate them.
The movie ends with an optimistic note about how things could improve living in the present if you ever want to start over with someone you have always loved.
Featured Image Source: PW