Prepare your tissues while watching these heartbreaking films! Films like these are not produced just to make you cry. They’re here to remind you as well that you’re not alone, you’re not the only one who’s heart got broken. We can also learn from these films, like how we learn from our good and bad experiences. There are a lot out there that I haven’t included in the list, but here are 10 of them that you might like to watch:
10. Begin Again
Dave (Adam Levine) and Gretta (Keira Knightley) are college sweethearts and songwriting partners. When Dave lands a deal with a major label in New York, Gretta comes with him. However, when they get there, she discovers that Dave is cheating on her. She’s heartbroken, and she channels this through songs laced with raw honesty and pain.
9. 500 Days of Summer
Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) meet at the greeting card company they both work for. They develop an affection for each other later on, but Summer declares that she does not want to have a boyfriend or believe in true love. After some time, they end their “relationship,” and Tom takes it badly. Then Summer invites Tom to a party at her apartment. Tom agrees to go, hoping to rekindle things between them, but he doesn’t know that it’s actually her engagement party. When he notices her showing off her engagement ring to other people, he leaves. When they see each other again after some time, Summer admits to Tom that she’s realized there is such a thing as true love and that, with her fiance, she now feels sure about the things she’d doubted when she had been with Tom.
What makes it heartbreaking is the fact that they were really having a good time with each other, but it turns out that “having a good time” is not enough to make a relationship bloom into love. Tom really thought they had it, but Summer just didn’t feel it. What’s even more heartbreaking is that she, who didn’t believe in true love in the first place, found it so easily with someone other than Tom.
8. Blue Valentine
Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams)’s marriage is going through a rough patch because of Dean’s lack of ambition and drinking problem. Cindy even loses her job as a nurse because a drunken Dean shows up t her workplace to pick a fight with her and ends up brawling with her boss. Cindy finally gives up, but Dean persists in trying to make their marriage work, reminding Cindy of their wedding vows. Cindy forgives him, but still asks for space, which Dean gives her. It’s particularly hard to witness a couple’s breakup in this film, which starts out with their courtship and progresses into such a troubled marriage.
7. Starting Over Again
Ginny (Toni Gonzaga) has a big crush on her professor, Marco (Piolo Pascual), and they embark on a relationship where, at first, both Ginny and Marco take care to include each other in their future plans. Then when Marco finally proposes, Ginny rejects him without an explanation, and she goes to Barcelona. It comes out that Ginny fears Marco’s dreams will never materialize, which is what happened to her father. Of course, Marco knows none of this until he confronts her later in the film. When she comes back to the country, she finds out that Marco is already a chef and owner of a restaurant—exactly as he’d dreamed of being. She also receives a letter sent by Marco four years before, on the day she left him, saying that he won’t lose hope. She tries to rekindle their past, but Marco has already found a new love.
Lesson learned? Never underestimate the potential of your partner’s dreams. Support him or her, even when the going gets tough.
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Clementine (Kate Winslet) hires Lacuna Inc. to erase all her memories of her relationship with Joel (Jim Carrey). When Joel finds out about this, he goes to the same process. During the process, the film flashes back to their story as a couple and the arguments that led to their breakup. Later, Clementine and Joey meet again, but without any memories of each other. They eventually discover each other’s Lacuna records, but Joel insists that they start over again. Clementine resists at first because she doesn’t want to relive the past.
If only things were that easy; if only we could erase a part of our memory to forget the people who’ve caused us pain and the memories we don’t want to remember anymore. But would a second chance cure all? Or just land us in the same traps as before?
5. One More Chance
Ahh, an all-time favorite movie to cure numb feelings. Anyone who doesn’t get sad over this movie has a heart made of stone! College sweethearts Popoy (John Lloyd Cruz) and Basha (Bea Alonzo) have been together for five years. They are inseparable, and apart from being in a relationship, they also work closely with one another. But the line is drawn when Popoy becomes too controlling of their relationship and Basha’s life. Basha breaks up with Popoy to give herself time to become independent, breaking Popoy’s heart. Later on, he moves on too, and finds another girlfriend. However, their present situations make Basha realize that she still loves Popoy, and he is torn between giving their relationship a second chance or hurting Basha again. Popoy and Basha’s breakup and journey toward reconciliation and closure will strike a familiar chord in just about anyone who’s gone through the same. This is definitely one of Philippine cinema’s top breakup flicks.
4. The Break-Up
Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) and Gary (Vince Vaughn) are a couple who’ve moved in together. But over time, Brooke begins to feel more and more unappreciated, and she begins to think of Gary as immature and unwilling to invest as much as she does in their relationship. Meanwhile, Gary feels Brooke is too controlling and a perfectionist. They continue living together while dating other people and pissing each other off. When Gary realizes how selfish he has been, he tries to win Brooke back by cleaning their condominium unit and preparing a fancy dinner for her. However, by this time, Brooke is fed up and does not feel the same way about him anymore. They both move out of the condo and go on to live separate lives. Years later, they see each other again in the street and part ways with a smile.
Brooke and Gary’s arguments about appreciation and relationship efforts are hard-hitting. The way they failed, tried again, but failed again is disheartening. For anyone who’s been pulled through a relationship wringer and fought with everything they had, only to have things go sour, this movie is sure to pull at the heartstrings.
3. Dear John
John (Channing Tatum) is a Staff Sergeant in the US Army Special Forces. During one of his leaves, he meets Savannah, whom he quickly falls in love with. When he is deployed once again, they continue their relationship by exchanging letters. One day, Savannah’s letters stop coming, and eventually she sends John a letter telling him she is engaged to someone else. When John comes back to the States to take care of his ill father, he learns that the man Savannah is engaged to is their friend Tim, who has been diagnosed with lymphoma and has an autistic son. Tim tells John that he knows Savannah still loves John. John and Savannah confront each other about why she didn’t even call him to tell that she had chosen another man. John leaves to raise money for Tim’s treatment. Savannah writes him a letter and informs him that has Tim died two months later. Talk about a situation fraught with heartbreak!
2. The Notebook
Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams) share a forbidden love that can’t come to light because of their parents’ wishes. Allie is rich, while Noah is not. Allie and her family move away, and the couple loses touch because Allie’s mother hides all of Noah’s letters to her. Heartbroken, Noah enlists as a soldier in World War II, while Allie eventually finds a man and gets engaged to him. Upon Noah’s return, he buys an old house that he wants to restore himself—for Allie, whom he still loves. Talk about true love and dedication.
Trying to make a relationship work when the people you love most and who should support you are actively against it has got to suck. Noah and Allie’s love and separation is a poignant tale that will resonate through the ages.
1. The Vow
It’s one thing to know a movie is just a work of fiction, and it’s another thing entirely when the movie is based on a true story, like this one is. Paige (Rachel McAdams) has a car accident and suffers brain trauma that wipes out her memories of her romance and marriage to her husband, Leo (Channing Tatum). Not knowing she left her parents, law school, and fiance, to pursue her life with Leo, she goes back to her “old” life. She doesn’t believe that Leo is her husband, because in her memories, she was engaged to someone else. She even almost gets back together with her former fiance! Imagine having a husband who tries everything to regain your memories of him and everything that happened between both of you while enduring the pain that you have forgotten about him and the decisions you have made that led both of you together.
That’s our list, and we want to know: what movies have had you reaching for tissues? Leave a comment to share!