7 Tragic Movies That Will Break Your Heart ...

1. Seven Pounds

My friends spent years trying to coax me into watching this. I love Will Smith, but for some reason I’ve never wanted to see him in tragic movies. In this film, he plays a man who feels the need to atone for an accident he caused. I won’t give away too much, but it is seriously sad.

2. Titanic

Okay, we all know the drill with this one. Rose meets Jack, Jack gets looked down on by her snobby family, and then Rose leaves him to turn into an icicle in the North Atlantic. Even though I know what will happen, I sit and pray for the ending to be different. What really gets me is the mother reading a story to her children as the ship goes down. Sob.

3. The Notebook

This isn’t one of those films I’ve ever wanted to see more than once. The Notebook tells the story of a man named Duke who is thinking back on when he first met the love of his wife. It’s a bit of a Romeo and Juliet/Pride and Prejudice style theme. If you’re seriously soppy, I think you’ll love it.

4. Armageddon

I’ll never get over Bruce Willis’ death in this. But then doesn’t he die in just about all his films? Armageddon is the end of the world film to end all end of the world films. That sad little image of Liv Tyler ready to cry as she realizes she’s lost someone always gets me.

5. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

This film quite literally sent shivers down my spine when I watched it. As cheesy as this sounds, I really love how it highlights how children are not prejudiced. It focuses on the unique relationship between the son of an SS guard and his friend who he meets over the fence of a concentration camp. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it’s shockingly sad.

6. The Life of David Gale

I first watched this in my teens, courtesy of my mum. As always Kate Winslett plays a character it is easy to empathise with. It focuses on the story of a man who is facing death row for killing a colleague. Again, I don’t want to give the ending away, but Kate Winslett’s performance is that spectacular you will find it hard not to well up!

7. Lovely Bones

And finally, the Lovely Bones as a film really brought the book to life for me. I don’t know whether this is a parental empathy thing, but the range of emotions I feel as I watch the dad fall apart in this film is terrifying! It tells the story of a girl trying to help her family find her killer following her death. I highly recommend reading the book too!

So those are my tragic movie recommendations! Sometimes it is nice to just sit down, feel sad for a couple of hours, and then go out and be happy again. We all have different standards when it comes to ‘tragic’ though. With that in mind, what are your favorite tragic movies?