My husband, Patrick, and I have always had a love of movies.
We have spent a lot of date nights at the movie theater or just cuddled up on the sofa watching the latest release. Obviously, over this last year we have been a little preoccupied with our rainbow and we have only manged to make it to two movies (Madeline in tow). So, we have been catching up on what we’ve missed by making good use of Redbox.
In doing so, we have noticed something.
There are a lot of movies that deal with losing a child.
There of course are the obvious ones, The Lovely Bones, Bridge to Terabithia, What Dreams May Come, Return to Zero, etc. Those are easy to avoid if you are feeling vulnerable. Ask me about the time I watched What Dreams May Come just a couple months after losing Joshua. Not a good idea.
The problem is those movies where it sneaks up on you.
Ever watch Up? I watch it and all I can do is sob thinking of poor Ellie and Carl. In fairness, Up is probably one of the saddest Disney movies I’ve ever seen anyway, but that scene in the hospital. My heart breaks for that poor animated couple.
Patrick does a good job of trying to “protect” me from watching movies where losing a child is part of the story line. He makes use of the parent’s guides to help make sure that there is nothing that will leave me crying and unable to watch the movie. However, we have noticed that this is getting trickier. It seems that the death of a child is not often mentioned in these parent guides. The last two movies we have watched were Interstellar and The Best of Me. Guess what? Both movies have parents dealing with the loss of a child.
So, this left me searching for a list a movies that deal with/mention loss to help from being completely sideswiped again. I found a list at: http://survivingmiscarriages.blogspot.com, but it hasn’t been updated in a while and I knew of several that I thought should be added. So I emailed her, and with her permission, I have included her original list and added many that I have found.
If you know of any others that should be added, please let me know.
Many of these are amazing movies, but they are a little less amazing when you aren’t expecting to hear about someone losing a baby and it hits you like a train.
I’m hoping that this list can help those who are grieving protect their hearts a little bit more.
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Movies & Television Shows that portray infertility, miscarriage, or infant/child loss:
| 1408 |
| 101 Dalmations |
| 13 Reasons Why (teenage suicide) |
| 21 Grams |
| ABCs of Death, The |
| Accidental Tourist, The |
| Agnes of God |
| AI: Artificial Intelligence |
| Alien 3 |
| Alien 4 |
| Almost Romeo |
| American Sniper |
| Amish Grace (children killed by gun man in a one room school house) |
| Arrival |
| Astro Boy |
| Astronaut’s Wife, The |
| Away We Go |
| Babel |
| Baby Mama |
| Bella |
| Beloved |
| Best of Me, The (child death mentioned, not shown) |
| Big Love |
| Birthday Girl (stillbirth) |
| Bitter Moon |
| Blood Diamond |
| Book of Henry, The |
| Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 |
| Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The |
| Bridge to Terabithia (death of a child) |
| Broken |
| Butterfly Effect, The (some disturbing scenes – unrated director’s cut has VERY disturbing footage with a baby) |
| Cake |
| Call the Midwife |
| Candy |
| Caught |
| Charlie St. Cloud |
| Children of Men (miscarriage) |
| Cider House Rules (the entire movie is about a doctor who performs abortions) |
| City Hall |
| City of Angels |
| City of God |
| Coat of Many Colors, The |
| Collateral Beauty |
| Concussion |
| Constant Gardener, The |
| Country Strong (baby loss is a theme in movie) |
| Couple’s Retreat |
| Courageous |
| Crash |
| Criminal Law (self abortion) |
| Crossroads |
| Cry in the Dark, A |
| Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The (shows a baby die at the end) |
| Dangerous Liaisons |
| Dark, The |
| Day the Earth Stood Still, The (stillbirth) |
| Dear Zachery (documentary – very upsetting) |
| Debt, The (infertility) |
| Deep End of the Ocean |
| Desperate Housewives |
| Devil’s Advocate, The |
| Dirty Dancing (abortion) |
| Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, The |
| Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors |
| Door in the Floor, The |
| Double, The |
| Downton Abbey |
| Dr Quinn Medicine Woman – TV Show (towards the end of the series she has a unmentioned miscarriage) |
| Eastern Promises |
| Elizabeth |
| Elysium |
| Erin Brockovich |
| Falling Down |
| Farewell to Arms, A |
| Finding Nemo |
| First Born, The (Lifetime movie) |
| First Heartbeat (a documentary on TLC-UK that followed a couple that had 5 miscarriages and was expecting again) |
| Flatliners |
| For Colored Girls (MANY difficult situations in this movie) |
| Forgotten, The (miscarriage) |
| Fosters, The (Season 2, Episode 6) |
| Frida |
| From Here to Eternity |
| From the Land of the Moon |
| Fullmetal Alchemist (anime series – infant loss as major theme from middle to end of series) |
| Fury |
| Gift, The |
| Girl on the Train, The |
| Giver, The |
| Glee (Season 5, episode 3 – after the real life death of one of the actors, his character is mourned and there is a gut-wrenching scene with his on-screen mom that for every cheesy moment on this show aside the writers nailed 110%) |
| Godsend |
| Gone Baby Gone |
| Gone with the Wind |
| Grace (stillbirth DO NOT watch child comes back to “life” horror movie) |
| Grace Card, The (child killed in accident) |
| Gravity |
| Grey’s Anatomy (obvious reasons – and there are several episodes that deal with pregnancy, infant, and child loss) |
| Guardians of the Galaxy (Drax’s wife and daughter are killed (off screen) and it is mentioned) |
| Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The |
| Heaven is for Real |
| Help, The (book AND movie – miscarriage) |
| High Fidelity |
| Home Room (child dies after birth – not sure of reason) |
| Hours, The |
| Housemaid, The |
| House of Sand and Fog |
| How I Met Your Mother (infertility) |
| Hunger Games, The (obviously there is a lot of children’s deaths that are portrayed) |
| I Am Legend |
| I. Robot |
| If These Walls Could Talk (pretty much a glorification of abortion) |
| Immediate Family |
| Immortal Beloved |
| In America |
| In the Bedroom |
| Interstellar (stillbirth) |
| Ironweed |
| Jackie |
| Joy Luck Club, The |
| Jude |
| Julie & Julia (not mentioned but the emotion is there) |
| Junebug |
| Juno (she goes to an abortion clinic but does not follow through-gives baby up for adoption but the baby is the theme of the movie!) |
| Karate Kid, The (the new one 2010 – wife and 10 yr. old child die in a car accident) |
| Killing, The |
| Kingdom of Heaven |
| Knocked Up |
| Labor Day |
| Letters to God (child dies of cancer) |
| Light Between Oceans, The |
| Lincoln |
| Little House on the Prairie (Ma in the first season and Mary in another season) |
| London Has Fallen |
| Looper |
| Love and Other Impossible Pursuits (whole movie is about a woman grieving the loss of her baby to SIDS) |
| Love Happens (someone in a support group mentions child loss) |
| Lovely Bones (lots of child loss) |
| Mad Max: Fury Road |
| Malice |
| Manchester By the Sea |
| March of the Penguins |
| Marie Antoinette |
| Marley & Me (miscarriage) |
| Masters of Sex |
| Matador, The |
| Matchstick Men |
| Maybe Baby |
| Maze Runner, The |
| Memory Keeper’s Daughter (book and Lifetime Movie) – (mourning of a child that was told had died – very emotional!) |
| Message in a Bottle |
| Million Little Things, A (suicide) |
| Miracles from Heaven |
| Mist, The (death of a child) |
| Monster’s Ball |
| Moonlight Mile |
| Mother and Child |
| Music Within |
| Mr. Holmes |
| My Girl |
| My Sister’s Keeper (older child dies) |
| Mystic River |
| My Week with Marilyn |
| Omen, The |
| Ordinary People |
| Orphan (still birth) |
| Other Boleyn Girl, The (miscarriage) |
| Other Woman, The (the whole movie is about the loss of a baby) |
| Pan’s Labyrinth |
| Paradise |
| Patriots Day |
| Pay it Forward |
| Peppermint |
| Perfume: The Story of a Murderer |
| Plain Truth ( infant dies shortly after birth it’s unclear weather the infant was born still or murdered by the grandmother shortly after birth) |
| Private Practice (obvious reasons – and there are several episodes that deal with pregnancy, infant, and child loss) |
| A Quiet Place |
| Quigley Down Under |
| Rabbit Hole (this entire movie is about the loss of a child) |
| Ray |
| Reign Over Me |
| Reservation Road |
| Return to Zero |
| Revolutionary Road (self abortion – VERY distrubing) |
| Ring, The |
| Rite, The |
| Rosemary’s Baby |
| Rudderless |
| Sacrifice |
| Salt |
| Saving Private Ryan |
| Saw IV |
| Seabiscuit |
| Secret Window |
| Separation, A |
| Serena |
| Seven Pounds |
| Sex and Lucia |
| Sex and the City |
| Shack, The |
| She’s Having a Baby |
| Singles |
| Six Feet Under |
| Sixth Sense, The |
| Sleepy Hollow |
| Sliding Doors (miscarriage) |
| Slingblade |
| Smilla’s Sense of Snow |
| Someone Like You… |
| Son’s Room, The |
| Sophie’s Choice |
| Steel Magnolias |
| Still Walking |
| Stranger Things |
| Sweet Hereafter, The |
| Sweet Home Alabama |
| Syriana |
| Tag |
| Tangled (daughter is missing throughout movie) |
| Tarzan |
| Tess |
| Then She Found Me (miscarriage and infertility) |
| This is 40 (some “in poor taste jokes”) |
| This is Our Time |
| This is Us (The first episode deals with stillbirth) |
| Three Colors: Blue |
| Time Traveler’s Wife, The (miscarriage) |
| Titanic |
| Trainspotting |
| Two Lovers |
| Ultraviolet (forced abortion) |
| Unborn, The |
| Untouchables, The |
| UP (variety of loss in this cartoon) |
| Waitress |
| Walk in the Clouds, A |
| Walk the Line |
| Way, The |
| W.E. |
| Welcome to the Rileys |
| Whale Rider |
| What Dreams May Come (the mother is depressed over the death of her young children) |
| What She Knew (Lifetime movie – premature birth/death-mother harming child DISTURBING) |
| What to Expect When You’re Expecting |
| White Queen, The |
| Witch, The |
| Woman in Black, The |
| Words, The |
| World According to Garp, The |
| X-Men: Apocalypse |
| Young Adult |
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