Terms of Endearment (1983)
Terminal Illness / Loss of Mother
Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma (Debra Winger) are mother and daughter who march to very different drummers. Beginning with Emma's marriage, Aurora shows how difficult yet loving she can be. The movie covers several decades of their lives as each finds different reasons to go on living and find joy.
Stepmom (1998)
Terminal Illness / Loss of Mother
The family turmoil of divorce is explored in Stepmom, a tearjerker that pits the birth mother (Susan Sarandon) against the new mother (Julia Roberts). The conflict between them is deepened by the sudden diagnose of cancer, which might may be deadly for Jackie.
Random Hearts (1999)
Loss of Spouse / Tragic Accident
Two people (Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas) who've known the pain of loss and the sting of betrayal are brought together under trying circumstances in this romantic drama.
The Bucket List (2007)
Terminal Illness
Two terminally ill men (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.
Love Story (1970)
Loss of Spouse / Terminal Illness
A Harvard Law student (Ryan O'Neil) and music student (Ali MacGraw) share a chemistry they cannot deny and a love they cannot ignore. Soon, what began as a brutally honest friendship becomes the love story of their lives.
Garden State (2004)
Loss of Mother
A quietly troubled young man (Zach Braff) returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.
Volver (2006)
Loss of Grandmother
After her death, a mother (Carmen Maura) returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life. Her daughter (Penelope Cruz) learns that the bonds of family don't always end after death in this gentle observational comedy drama.
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Loss of Father Figure
A famous film director (Jacques Perrin) remembers his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist (Philippe Noiret), first brought about his love of films.
My Sister's Keeper (2009)
Loss of Child / Loss of Sibling / Terminal Illness
Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) looks to earn medical emancipation from her parents who until now have relied on their youngest child to help their leukemia-stricken daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) remain alive.
Dying Young (1991)
Loss of Significant Other / Terminal Illness
After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) is looking for a new start. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man (Campbell Scott) suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love
My Life Without Me (2003)
Terminal Illness
A young woman (Sarah Polley) conceals the fact of her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Loss of Spouse
Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematics but needs help from a psychologist (Robin Williams) to find direction in his life. Although grief is not the central theme of this film, the long term impact of his wife's death and his inability to move on are important factors in the psyche of Dr. Sean McGuire.
Accidental Tourist (1988)
Loss of Child / Tragic Accident
An emotionally distant writer of travel guides (William Hurt) must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles.
Ordinary People (1980)
Loss of Son
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among a bitter mother (Mary Tyler Moore), a good-natured father (Donald Sutherland), and a guilt-ridden younger son (Timothy Hutton).
The Lovely Bones (2009)
Loss of Child / Murder
A young girl (Saoirse Ronan) who has been murdered watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.
Philadelphia (1993)
AIDS / Terminal Illness
When a man with AIDS (Tom Hanks) is fired by a conservative law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small-time lawyer (Denzel Washington) as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
Remember Me (2010)
Loss of Sibling / Loss of Parent / Tragic Accident
A romantic drama set in New York City during the summer of 2001, where Tyler (Robert Pattinson), a rebellious young man, meets Ally (Emile de Ranvin) through a twist of fate. Her spirit helps him heal after a family tragedy, though soon the circumstances that brought them together threaten to tear them apart.
Goodbye Solo (2008)
Loss of Friend / Suicide
On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men (Souleymane Sy Savane and Red West) forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever.
Get Low (2009)
Terminal Illness
A movie spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930s Tennessee hermit (Robert Duvall) who famously threw his own rollicking funeral party — while he was still alive.
What Dreams May Come (1998)
Loss of Spouse / Life After Death
Chris Neilson (Robin Williams) dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. But there is one thing missing: his wife (Annabella Sciorra).
Ikiru (1952)
Terminal Illness
Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura) is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing — until he discovers he is dying of cancer.
Serving Life (2011)
Death and Dying / Terminal Illness
Actor Forest Whitaker narrates the story of a group of inmate volunteers who staff their own hospice inside a maximum security prison in Louisiana where the average sentence is more than 90 years.
How to Die in Oregon (2011)
Aid-in-Dying / Terminal Illness
In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Filmmaker Peter Richardson gently enters the lives of terminally ill patients as they consider whether – and when – to end their lives by lethal overdose, examining both sides of this complex, emotionally charged issue.
The Big Chill (1983)
Loss of Friend
A group of seven former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a posh South Carolina winter house after the funeral of one of their friends. They use the occasion to reacquaint themselves with each other and to speculate as to what happened to their idealism which had been abundant when they were younger.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Loss of Father
Francis (Owen Wilson), Jack (Jason Schwartzman), and Peter (Adrien Brody) Whitman are brothers meeting on a train in India. They have not seen or spoken to each other in a year, since the day of their father’s funeral. In true Wes Anderson fashion, the the film follows what has gone from a “planned” healing journey to an actual healing journey.