My 10 Favorite Tear Jerkers

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I’m a cryer.  I cry at movies, television shows, commercials, and songs.  I cry when my daughter sings, I cry when my son speaks from his heart.  I cry often, sometimes for no apparent reason and I am unapologetic.  My children have come to terms with it, they even joke, “Uhoh, Mom’s going to cry again.”  It’s a fact of life, there’s nothing I can do to change it and I’m not even going to try.  The truth is, I like to cry.  It’s cathartic, it’s cleansing, it keeps the yuckies at bay.  I have even been known to cry when I hear someone speak a profound truth, or when I come to truly understand something or someone.  It’s as though my body has a physical response to truth, love and beauty. Is it embarrassing?  Sometimes.  Like the time we were at Disney World watching the “Beauty and the Beast” show and I heard my father to say to his then girlfriend, “My daughter’s crying again, she cries at everything”.  It’s true, I do.

When I haven’t had a good cry in a while, I help things along with a movie.  Here’s a list of my favorite movies to cry along to.  Try one and tell me you don’t feel better afterwards, I dare ya.  Laughter might be the best medicine, but crying helps you cope.

In no particular order:

• Steel Magnolias – Terrific cast!  The 80s hair alone is enough to make you cry.  The best line ever comes from this movie, Dolly Parton’s character says, “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.”  I agree.
• Beaches – To this day, the theme song makes me sob.
• Boys on the Side – Again, the laughter and tears theme. Who can forget the party scene when Robin’s so weak that Jane finishes the song for her.  “Anything you want, you got it”. Bonus: Young Matthew McConaughey
• The Notebook – I didn’t expect to like this movie, thought it would be contrived and silly and it sort of was.  That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard.
• Terms of Endearment – I remember going to see this for the first time.  One of the few that I actually saw in a theater.  I had to sit for quite a while before leaving, trying to compose myself.  That still happens whenever I watch it.  There’s one scene in particular, when the little boy starts to cry.  It slays me each and every time.
• Big Fish – The perfect blend of fantasy, emotion, and bittersweet moments.  Enchanting.  My favorite piece of dialogue in the whole movie is the exchange between Jenny and Will:

Jenny: One day, Edward Bloom left, and never returned to the town he’d saved. As for the girl, the common belief was that she’d become a witch, and crazy at that. She became something of a legend herself. And the story ended where it began.

Will: Well, logically, you couldn’t be the witch, because she was old when he was young.

Jenny: Well, it’s logical if you think like your father. See, to him, there’s only two women: your mother and everyone else… And one day I realized I was in love with a man who could never love me back. I was living in a fairy tale… I’m not sure I should have told you any of this… I wanted to be as important to him as you were, and I was never going to be. I was make-believe and… his other life, you, you were real.

• City of Angels – Beautiful and tragic.  Devastating.
• Pay it Forward – Moving and inspiring and then the end shows up and beats you to death.
• Under the Tuscan Sun – The one movie in the bunch that doesn’t deal with tragedy, these tears come from the fact that the heroine manages to create the family she so craved and her house indeed is filled with life and love.
• Phenomenon – Subtle and gorgeous film.  It tugs at my heart every time I see the wind in the trees.

So those are my ten favorite tear-jerkers.  What are yours?

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