When you’re feeling low, it’s good to know an energy lifter is as close as your remote and some movies to boost your mood. While a movie may not mend a broken heart, cure money woes, or change a bad haircut, these movies to boost your mood can certainly make you forget about them for a while!
When in doubt, head to the Classics section. This nugget of rom-com mastery is one of the best movies to boost your mood. Not only does it have the snappy repartee Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn were known for, it also has The Clothes!!! While the chemistry between these leading actors is undeniable, throw in a Jimmy Stewart plot twist, and get ready to smile.
You may not speak Italian, but you will speak Paradiso. This lovely film of reminiscence, innocence, lost opportunities, and found dreams is set in the idyllic Italian countryside. When you long for a vacation, but your wallet longs for you to sit on your couch, this movie is the perfect compromise. Take a trip back in time to a mid-century Italian movie house which stirred the main character’s dreams of his future without the town to where he eventually would return. More than ever, you will appreciate where you came from, and where you are because of it.
It’s not just for Christmas anymore. Truthfully, this entire list could have been made up solely of Jimmy Stewart movies. Who doesn’t feel better listening to his Midwestern caustic stutter, or watching his lanky frame stride across the screen talking with an invisible 6’ tall rabbit? Jimmy has the GPS permanently set to find the soft spot of your heart. In this Capra tale, a man thinks the world will be better off without him. An angel with a tilted halo trying to earn his wings shows him why he is so deeply wrong. In the end, we find that angels walk among us, and each of us has created a worthy paint stroke in this beautiful, challenging picture of life.
Who hasn’t wondered about the one that got away, even before you knew he was the one? This is a tale of the rollercoaster of life, and finally realizing the only constant is the car you’re in and the one in it with you. And that even people who want to order everything on the side are loveable too. I’m just saying…
This braiding of stories about all different kinds of love into one cohesive movie is delicious, stunning, and reaffirming. If you think what you’re going through is unique, it is, and then again… The main idea is that even in the most dire of love circumstances, comes the laughter. Some of it is quiet, some unexpected, some deep, and some light. In the end, the unofficial motto of this movie is ‘Everything is going to be alright.’
When you think you are at the end of the road making irreversible bad decisions, comes this movie of second chances. A group of seniors individually embark on trips to a hotel in India promised to be the land of milk and honey for the silver set. They soon find out that color brochures may make things appear more ideal than what they actually are. However, by working through how to get to the next step, they find their true selves. This is a movie of realization. While we may be wiser as we get older, we never stop evolving.
For the days when you are balancing a dwindling checkbook or complaining about not having gone on a ‘real’ vacation for a few years, this movie based on true events reminds us that gratitude is a personal word. What it means to each of us is different than the other. For better or worse, we can learn from each other a new language of being thankful.
These movies to boost your mood are the tip of a huge iceberg of stories to keep you walking on the sunny side of the street. In the end, honoring our pain and making a pact with ourselves to move ahead with laughter, peace, and gratitude to the next adventure will create more beauty and joy in our lives. What are your favorite movies to boost your mood?