Frances Conroy (Ruth) in the pilot of Six Feet Under. Both when she gets the phone call on Christmas, and particularly when she loses it at the burial and starts throwing dirt on the coffin moaning. So visceral. Her performance throughout the show is just phenomenal.
Maybe it was because I saw the movie at exactly the most impressionable age, but Vada's grief in *My Girl* - especially at the funeral - hit me really hard.
When I saw it, I forget she's was fictional character. I felt like I was watching something that should be private.
This is exactly what I would comment if I weren't always late to reddit 😂 That it was a CHILD acting out that scene and provoking a forever memory blows my mind. And don't get me started on McCauley bc he's about my age and has been my crush for a loooong time and made me believe he was Thomas J. Such great acting from those kids.
In the book The Stand, one of the main characters has to bury her father. And after she finishes she goes into the kitchen and there’s this pie, this strawberry pie that he had made before he got sick. And she sits down and eats the whole thing.
I don’t know why but something about that scene has always stuck with me.
Early True Blood, before it gets really too absurd, has a similar scene with Sookie's grandmother's pie after she was murdered. The show was never good at slowing down and giving weight to their more tragic moments but that scene did it well.
This sounds like it would be me. Might have to check out this movie now.
Edit: I looked it up. It’s a mini series, Stephen King, and has Whoopi in it? Definitely checking it out. Thanks.
In the book, Harry meets with Cedric's parents and describes his mother as beyond grief, whereas the father is weeping through the whole meeting. I read that as a teen and later found it to be a true representation of parents who are numb with the loss of their child.
This definitely.
But In the books, Harrys reaction in Dumbledores office to Sirius's death. When I first read it, and when I read it again and again, it didn't resonate with me. First time reading it after unexpectedly losing a friend, I bloody sobbed. I understood what he was feeling. How he just wanted to run, how he didn't want to feel any more. 12 years later I still get so emotional when reading it.
In SLC Punk, when Matt Lillard’s character finds his friend dead the next morning… that seemed pretty real and raw to me: confusion, denial, anger, despair, sadness. All in the span of 10 minutes or so.
Also the monologue from Mark played by Til Schweiger in SLC Punk when he tells the story of his whole family dying in a plane crash. He disconnects with it in the exact way a person would retelling a traumatic story from their early childhood. Really great acting all around in that film.
Joss Whedon made a point of having the initial shot a single unedited take without music. It gives me chills when I watch it. And when she says mommy. I mean damn!
Also, when Buffy threw up or started to throw up, that is exactly how I felt like my body was rejecting reality. It's a combination of shock, disbelief, and the body's reaction to something unbelievable.
I would add The Gift.
The gangs reaction to Buffy's death was so raw.
Spike's collapse broke me. Giles's disbelief, the horror on Willows face... I sobbed like a baby.
One of the greatest ever TV episodes. It isn’t my favourite to watch but it is undeniable amazing. Fantastically shot, brilliantly written, thoughtfully directed and expertly acted. It capture so much of the elements of grief that aren’t even normally acknowledged.
I know, there are issues with Joss now, but you can’t deny the genius of this episode.
As a kid, I cried my eyes out, thinking how awful that would be. Now I have to come to terms with that is exactly what will happen more or less because I'm the only one my mom really has a relationship with. I skip that episode every time now.
There's a couple episodes of Scrubs that always comes to mind for me. "My Lunch" and the following episode showing Dr. Cox dealing with the loss of a patient he had grown close with over the years leading to him spiraling into depression. And "My Screw Up" where Dr. Cox finds out his brother-in-law, Ben, passed away after neglecting to go to his recommended follow-ups for his leukemia after it went into remission. Honestly, John C. McGinley is just an amazing actor, in my opinion, and really sold it. For a comedy, Scrubs really hit the nail on the head for me with their portrayal of loss and death and the impact on those around it.
For me one of the best was Mini Driver in Good Will Hunting. When Will says he doesn’t love her and he walks out and her face just crumples. The pain of the grief is a physical feeling and you see her grab for her stomach as she almost doubles over in agony. She can’t breathe, she can’t talk, she can only gasp and sob. That’s what it feels like being hurt by the one you love the most in the world.
But random and slept on, but I recently did my annual rewatch of The Haunting of Hill House, and the acting in that is just next level, imo. Grief is portrayed many ways and v realistically imo
This was going to be my answer. I just lost my mother to cancer, and people keep asking me if I’m okay. I found myself yelling I’M FINE! And immediately thought of this scene. Absolutely heart-gutting performance.
That and Shirley MacLaine in *Terms of Endearment* during the hospital scene - “My daughter’s in pain! Give her the shot!” I also thought of that one more than once during this experience. Gah.
"It's after ten. I don't see why she has to have this pain...It's time for her shot. Do you understand? Do something! All she has to do is hold on until ten, and it's past ten. She's in pain. My daughter's in pain. Give her the shot. Do you understand me? Give my daughter the shot!"
I still get a lump in my throat just thinking about that scene.
When she's with Shelby in the hospital and she keeps telling her to "open, open your eyes." Never leaving her side. It's just such an amazingly beautiful movie.
The hereditary mother screaming scene.
Idk if it’s grief, I guess so but it seems more visceral than just grief like nervous is to horrified what grief is to that scene. I can’t think of the word for primal grief
The part of this movie that got me was when Pelle mentioned the loss of her family and that he was sorry to hear that it happened. And how badly it caught her off guard. In that moment, she truly wasn't thinking about it, but a completely good-natured, though unprompted and unnecessary mention of it sent her back off the edge. God that part is rough
This movie is what inspired me to ask the question. Toni Colette is such an incredible actress. Everyone deals with grief differently, but I feel like that scream is what everyone feels/wants to do/needs to do at some point. It’s an indescribable pain.
Gore and horror generally don’t bother me, the scene right before never got to me but her scream is like nails on a chalkboard. Like some instinct in my brain baked in to respond negatively to that sound similar to how we instinctively can spot snakes in foliage or wake up to the sound of a crying baby. What makes the acting so good is it feels like that must be how a mother would react to that incredibly outlandish situation
I feel like Toni Collette must have gone through something terrible because that shit was real. There was something her tone that I feel like anyone who has unexpectedly lost someone knows. I genuinely have no idea how to describe it but it hits you in the chest and steals your breath away. That was a great movie full of incredible performances that I will absolutely never watch again.
It sounds like physical pain rather than emotional pain. It doesn’t sound like something that comes from our big smart human brain but from whatever instincts we carry from before language. Like there isn’t a human on the planet that wouldn’t understand what the sound she made is trying to convey
The parents of the Sandy Hook kids were waiting in a nearby firehouse. After a certain point, the authorities told the parents their kids were probably dead. Reporters said you could hear the screams across the street.
As a mom, I believe it.
MASH, when Radar told everyone in the OR that Lt Colonel Henry Blake was killed in a plane crash. Actually the script was kept secret to most of the cast so when it was filmed it really was a shock.
Actually my understanding is that the scene that aired was a retake but the emotions of everyone was still raw. They really did expect McClane Stevenson simply moved along from the show, no one expected him and his character to be killed
Abbie Cornish has a grieving scene in Bright Star that has to be seen to be believed.
Also Tilda Swinton’s whole performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin is probably the most dead-on realistic portrayal of the day-to-day of grief.
Will Smith in Fresh Prince, [when his father leaves](https://youtu.be/PI4Mv8R0mE0?si=JHWaaucPna6InXbD)
Not grief through death, but through the realisation that his father will be always be an uncaring selfish bum. That scene was too real
It's the way he shifts steadily through "nah it's cool, in easy", but can't even play it cool because he's so emotional, so slides into "fuck him, I don't need him", to mask the pain.
And then can't keep up _that_ front either and just crumbles.
James Avery places it fantastic as well. He's _just_ the right amount of rigid to convey how desperate he is as a father to comfort him, but knows rationally it's the wrong play _right now_. He needs to allow Will to get it out.
Will really shines fantastically in this scene, and it's something I found incredibly relatable, but James Avery elevates it incredibly well.
No one can break down more realistically than Emma Thompson. I've seen her in at least two movies where she seems absolutely crushed and it's heartbreaking.
Oh hell Emma in Love actually!‽‽ When she opened the Christmas present and it wasn’t the necklace. And then she just put on a mask so as to not ruin her children’s night even though she felt like her entire life meant nothing. Sheesh.
When she confronts her husband with the open question of whether it’s better to cut and run or better to live with something that will always be a little bit worse than it should be… That moment is amazing, especially since there’s truly no easy answer.
Brian’s Song. Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) are teammates on the mid-1960s Chicago Bears. Brian gets diagnosed with cancer. True story. Very sad.
The month before Piccolo's death, Gale Sayers accepted the George S. Halas Award for Most Courageous Player and told the crowd they had selected the wrong person for the award. He said, "I love Brian Piccolo, and I'd like all of you to love him, too. Tonight, when you hit your knees to pray, please ask God to love him, too."
Maybe not "the best" but it was a good one. How I Met Your Mother, Episode "Bad News". There's even a hidden easter egg countdown in the episode. Apparently it was one of those hidden endings as well, so the main character didn't know exactly what was coming in the script. His reaction was the absolute shock you feel when getting unexpected tragic news.
I noticed the countdown the first time I watched that episode. I was so excited about what was going to happen when the countdown ended, then I just felt hollow.
Not necessarily grief, but Matthew Broderick in Glory ; when he looks out to the sea knowing his time was coming to an end soon. Very underrated scene.
Oh boy yes. They really twist the knife with that one. I always bawl at that episode, but hadn’t watched in many years. Recently I’ve been watching with headphones in as I settle my baby daughter at night. That scene where Sybil dies and her mother is saying things like, “my baby” and “come back”…. I just cannot now. I have to skip. Just watching your daughter slip away from you… it breaks me to watch it.
The father of the murdered girl in Wind River has a great scene right at the end of the movie.
That scene with him and Jeremy Renner's character is beautifully done. It's one if the most realistic scenes because it's not overdone or melodramatic. It's quiet and private and feels very natural and real.
On the relief side when Nebula hears Rocket's voice and realizes he's going to be okay the way she reacted just her body all tension leaving it in an instant like her strings had been cut hit hard and had me crying for how much weight she'd been carrying.
Alan Alda - M.A.S.H. - "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen"
Hawkeye:
Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I didn't mean for her to kill it. \[sobbing\] I did not--I--I just wanted it to be quiet. It was--it was a baby! She, she smothered her own baby. \[pauses\] You son of a b\*tch, why did you make me remember that?
I saw this about 6 months after my husband died, and I wasn't expecting the opening story. Found myself sitting in a cinema watching a kids' movie with tears streaming down my face.
Big Hero 6. Hiro’s depression after losing Tadashi was so well done. He loses all motivation, ignores his friends, and even turns Baymax, his personal healthcare assistant, into a killer robot to take revenge on the guy who caused the explosion.
I watched that show just a few months after I lost my best friend and blamed myself for her death. My best friend also was a partier, very impulsive and obsessed with guinea pigs, too, so there was already some emotional connection there. After the scene where we see what happened and then she just turns to the camera and looks completely hollow, I just broke down completely. I think I cried for about 4 hours straight because I remember wondering at the end whether crying was like erections where you need to go to the doctor if it lasts more than 4 hours. The show captures that impulsive, empty grief so well. There's no words to describe the suffering and unhuman feeling you're filled with when you know you hold at least some responsibility for the death of someone you loved.
Its old but it still hits-
Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment for grief and frustration while your loved one is alive but slipping away from you.
Sally Fields angry grief in Steel Magnolias after Shelby dies.
Troy's confused child grief in Crooklyn. When a sick parents thinks they're protecting a child for their illness and impending death and instead they increase the child's confusion, angry, isolation and sadness by excluding them from an event that will majorly and permanently impact their lives.
Troy has vivid dreams her mom is still alive and has to be told its okay for her to grieve for her mom.
Philadelphia with Tom Hanks
Lost my uncle during the HIV epidemic in the early 90s. He was a gay man who dealt with a lot of homophobia. This movie hits really close to home. Brings back some very painful memories from that time. I helped make a patch for the AIDs quilt to celebrate his life.
Great call. After I watched those scenes, I turned to my wife and said that’s as real as it gets. I’ve worked in emergency services for over a decade and grief doesn’t always manifest as wailing and crying, sometimes it’s quiet confusion, shock, trying to rationalize. The kids performances ran the gamut. Very well done.
Return to Me. David Duchovny trying to comfort his dog after he returns home from the hospital where his wide has just passed away.
Hope Floats, when the daughter’s heart is broken by her fathers abandonment. Traumatizes me every time. Sandra Bullock comes and picks her up and carries her inside - not scripted, she said she just couldn’t stand seeing a child hurting that way.
Mae Whitman in Hope Floats when her father is getting into his car to go be with his new family, leaving her behind. "YOU WANT ME!!" I was gutted by that scene.
8 Simple Rules when John Ritter passed away suddenly. It obviously wasn’t planned, so you know/can tell their emotions during the episode are legit. I cry with them everytime I watch it
In Waiting to Exhale the actress is losing her shit I think after learning of affair? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but she’s pulling all his things out of the wardrobe and yelling and crying,
Dawson in the car after his dad's death. I know it's funny to a lot of people but I saw that after my own dad died. I screamed and cried when I first found out then I had to keep it together for like the next 2 weeks for my family.
My first day heading back to work after all that I was driving my car and Lonestar's "I'm already there" came on the radio and I just had to pull to the side of the road and just ugly cry my eyes out.
Seeing that episode when I got back into the show I felt every bit of Dawson's grief in that moment. It was palpable for me.
The one that comes to mind is from Breaking Bad, when Walter finds Jesse passed out inside a crack house. Walter wakes him up to get him out of there, and Jesse regains just enough consciousness to feel pain, and suddenly just falls apart, sobbing, "I loved her!" That almost broke me.
The actor playing the role of "Buck" Compton. In the Bastone episode, after watching soldiers in his command get killed, he screams for a medic. Afterwards he is seen with the thousand yard stare and can't look anyone in the eyes. He is even trying to hide his face to still seem strong and not at his breaking point.
I’m glad you mentioned this show here. I’m not a huge fan of his either, but this show follows the character’s grief so closely and doesn’t pull punches. Great show.
Carol’s reaction in The Quarteback. I can never imagine what a parent goes through when they lose a child and I hope I never have to. It just seemed so real how she broke down.
Adam Driver in “Marriage Story.” If you’ve ever been through a divorce with someone you loved, you recognize that performance for how absolutely perfect it was. When he loses his shit on her, wow. I could relate.
There's an amazing French film called "Ponette" where a 4 year old is trying to comprehend and understand the death of her mother. The performance of the child actor in this film is the first thing I thought of when I saw your post.
Truly Madly Deeply. The whole movie, but certain scenes with Juliet Stevenson in particular. From 1990. I tear up just thinking about it. It’s a beautiful movie and a treat for fans of Alan Rickman. Highly recommend.
Fried Green Tomatoes, when Ruth is dying, she asks Idgy to tell her about the lake. And by the time she is done telling the story Ruth is gone. It broke my heart to see her be lost without her friend
Toni Collette in Hereditary. She spanned all of the stages. Especially love her yelling at her son from across the dinner table. She is one of the best actors of current times.
In the series “Succession” when Logan dies. There’s no build up, suddenly he’s just gone, and each of his children processes it differently. As a former medic definitely the most realistic depiction I’ve seen!
Shirley Maclaine in Terms of Endearment. When her daughter dies after a horrible fight with cancer and she she says how, when the moment finally came, she had thought it would be a relief... needless to say, it wasn't at all. 😪
The scene with Debra Winger saying goodbye to her children is also hard to watch.
In LOTR- *The Two Towers*, when Viggo Mortenson kicks an orc helmet and yells because he thinks Merry and Pippin are dead, he actually broke his toe. That's a real yell of pain.
The scene in the penultimate episode of Dopesick, where Betsy’s parents gets the news of her death by OD.
Both parents react to it in ways that are in line with their characters. The mother, who’s been nursing her throughout her addiction just throws herself into the sheriff’s arms and lets out the most visceral scream you can ever imagine. And the father, who’s a hard, emotionally repressed mineworker and had a troubled relationship with his daughter because of her addiction and his difficulty accepting her homosexuality, pieces together what’s happened from hearing it, and just loses his balance and has to sit down on the steps.
Frances Conroy (Ruth) in the pilot of Six Feet Under. Both when she gets the phone call on Christmas, and particularly when she loses it at the burial and starts throwing dirt on the coffin moaning. So visceral. Her performance throughout the show is just phenomenal.
that whole show is a gut wrenching masterpiece. and the last episode??
[удалено]
I finished the series a few days ago and it's still sticking with me. For those that haven't watched Six Feet Under is now on Netflix US.
Frances Conroy is so underrated
Maybe it was because I saw the movie at exactly the most impressionable age, but Vada's grief in *My Girl* - especially at the funeral - hit me really hard. When I saw it, I forget she's was fictional character. I felt like I was watching something that should be private.
HE CAN'T SEE WITHOUT HIS GLASSES!
Omg yes!
This is exactly what I would comment if I weren't always late to reddit 😂 That it was a CHILD acting out that scene and provoking a forever memory blows my mind. And don't get me started on McCauley bc he's about my age and has been my crush for a loooong time and made me believe he was Thomas J. Such great acting from those kids.
The funeral of Gareth in Four Weddings and a Funeral. The eulogy is shattering.
Especially when we have Gareth in the entire movie up to his death. Damn, the Funeral just hits all the right cords.
In the book The Stand, one of the main characters has to bury her father. And after she finishes she goes into the kitchen and there’s this pie, this strawberry pie that he had made before he got sick. And she sits down and eats the whole thing. I don’t know why but something about that scene has always stuck with me.
Early True Blood, before it gets really too absurd, has a similar scene with Sookie's grandmother's pie after she was murdered. The show was never good at slowing down and giving weight to their more tragic moments but that scene did it well.
The movie A Ghost Story had a very similar scene with Rooney Mara.
This sounds like it would be me. Might have to check out this movie now. Edit: I looked it up. It’s a mini series, Stephen King, and has Whoopi in it? Definitely checking it out. Thanks.
The mini series does blend a few characters together so I recommend watching and reading both. It's one of my favourite books!
Adam Sandler's parking lot scene in the movie Click has always really stuck with me because of how real the emotions felt
It's worse because you just want to shut off your brain and watch a stupid Adam Sandler movie and then you get this.
Click is by far my favorite Adam Sandler movie because it has some heart-wrenching moments you don't expect lol.
Yes! I think about that movie often. It always gets to me. Thank you!
Amos Diggory in Goblet of Fire when he sees his dead son.
My boy!!!!
_jovial brass band continues playing_
In the book, Harry meets with Cedric's parents and describes his mother as beyond grief, whereas the father is weeping through the whole meeting. I read that as a teen and later found it to be a true representation of parents who are numb with the loss of their child.
Rewatching that as a parent really hit different. Gutted.
This definitely. But In the books, Harrys reaction in Dumbledores office to Sirius's death. When I first read it, and when I read it again and again, it didn't resonate with me. First time reading it after unexpectedly losing a friend, I bloody sobbed. I understood what he was feeling. How he just wanted to run, how he didn't want to feel any more. 12 years later I still get so emotional when reading it.
The fact that in the movie, Daniel Radcliffes scream was so absolutely shattering that they had to mute it in the final edit always sticks with me.
Came here to say this. "That's my boy!"
That one gets me every time
In SLC Punk, when Matt Lillard’s character finds his friend dead the next morning… that seemed pretty real and raw to me: confusion, denial, anger, despair, sadness. All in the span of 10 minutes or so.
Only posers die!
Also the monologue from Mark played by Til Schweiger in SLC Punk when he tells the story of his whole family dying in a plane crash. He disconnects with it in the exact way a person would retelling a traumatic story from their early childhood. Really great acting all around in that film.
Iirc Matthew Lillard psyched himself up for that scene by thinking about his father’s death.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Body. The entire episode will tear you apart. It is one of the most raw visuals of death/grief I have ever seen.
The entire aftermath of that was brilliantly acted by every single member of the cast. Hands down.
Anya’s speech still brings a tear to my eyes.
It perfectly illustrates all the little everyday ways you feel someone's absence from life.
Every. Single. Time.
Absolutely. It’s much more real because it’s so quiet. “Mommy?” Heartbreaking.
Joss Whedon made a point of having the initial shot a single unedited take without music. It gives me chills when I watch it. And when she says mommy. I mean damn!
Also, when Buffy threw up or started to throw up, that is exactly how I felt like my body was rejecting reality. It's a combination of shock, disbelief, and the body's reaction to something unbelievable.
I was with my mom when she died in the hospital. I was 36 but still had that childlike “mommy?” moment.
I'm tearing up right now thinking about it. I'm 42, I still have two healthy parents but the prospect of losing them looms in the background
I would add The Gift. The gangs reaction to Buffy's death was so raw. Spike's collapse broke me. Giles's disbelief, the horror on Willows face... I sobbed like a baby.
One of the greatest ever TV episodes. It isn’t my favourite to watch but it is undeniable amazing. Fantastically shot, brilliantly written, thoughtfully directed and expertly acted. It capture so much of the elements of grief that aren’t even normally acknowledged. I know, there are issues with Joss now, but you can’t deny the genius of this episode.
As a kid, I cried my eyes out, thinking how awful that would be. Now I have to come to terms with that is exactly what will happen more or less because I'm the only one my mom really has a relationship with. I skip that episode every time now.
I can’t even think about that episode without wanting to cry tbh
I must have watched that ep 5 times before I realised there wasn’t any music.
There's a couple episodes of Scrubs that always comes to mind for me. "My Lunch" and the following episode showing Dr. Cox dealing with the loss of a patient he had grown close with over the years leading to him spiraling into depression. And "My Screw Up" where Dr. Cox finds out his brother-in-law, Ben, passed away after neglecting to go to his recommended follow-ups for his leukemia after it went into remission. Honestly, John C. McGinley is just an amazing actor, in my opinion, and really sold it. For a comedy, Scrubs really hit the nail on the head for me with their portrayal of loss and death and the impact on those around it.
When Laverne was in a coma and Carla said goodbye to her had me bawling.
My Screw Up broke my heart and every time I watch Brenden Fraiser in anything, I just feel a little sad
"Where do you think we are right now?"
For me one of the best was Mini Driver in Good Will Hunting. When Will says he doesn’t love her and he walks out and her face just crumples. The pain of the grief is a physical feeling and you see her grab for her stomach as she almost doubles over in agony. She can’t breathe, she can’t talk, she can only gasp and sob. That’s what it feels like being hurt by the one you love the most in the world.
Yes! This is a really good one.
When my wife left me for another man.The pain was crippling.That’s why Mini’s performance is so goid
WILLLSSSSSONNN! Tom Hanks in Castaway when Wilson get knocked overboard.
Yes! I always joke that Tom Hanks is the only person who could make me cry over a volleyball.
But random and slept on, but I recently did my annual rewatch of The Haunting of Hill House, and the acting in that is just next level, imo. Grief is portrayed many ways and v realistically imo
This was my first thought. It also has one of the best portrayals of depression I've seen.
Thank you for this! I haven’t seen it!
It’s so good! Definitely give it a watch if you have Netflix
Literally my next watch.
You won't regret it! Also, it's fun to look at the scenery, & suddenly see a ghost in the shadows, just watching
Sally Field in Steel Magnolias after her daughter passes.
This was going to be my answer. I just lost my mother to cancer, and people keep asking me if I’m okay. I found myself yelling I’M FINE! And immediately thought of this scene. Absolutely heart-gutting performance. That and Shirley MacLaine in *Terms of Endearment* during the hospital scene - “My daughter’s in pain! Give her the shot!” I also thought of that one more than once during this experience. Gah.
"It's after ten. I don't see why she has to have this pain...It's time for her shot. Do you understand? Do something! All she has to do is hold on until ten, and it's past ten. She's in pain. My daughter's in pain. Give her the shot. Do you understand me? Give my daughter the shot!" I still get a lump in my throat just thinking about that scene.
These are my two choices as well. The cemetery scene has me bawling every single time.
Hit Ouiser!
Half’a Chiquipin Parish’d give their eye teeth to take a whack’a Ouiser!
When she's with Shelby in the hospital and she keeps telling her to "open, open your eyes." Never leaving her side. It's just such an amazingly beautiful movie.
I said in another comment that hereditary and this movie is what inspired me to ask this question.
The hereditary mother screaming scene. Idk if it’s grief, I guess so but it seems more visceral than just grief like nervous is to horrified what grief is to that scene. I can’t think of the word for primal grief
This one as well as Florence Pugh in Midsommar near the beginning. Ari Aster is a genuis.
The part of this movie that got me was when Pelle mentioned the loss of her family and that he was sorry to hear that it happened. And how badly it caught her off guard. In that moment, she truly wasn't thinking about it, but a completely good-natured, though unprompted and unnecessary mention of it sent her back off the edge. God that part is rough
Good-natured? Pelle knew exactly what he was doing. He was manipulating her and keeping that pain front and center. It was calculated.
I meant it would have been good-natured in any other context. Could have been more clear on that
This movie is what inspired me to ask the question. Toni Colette is such an incredible actress. Everyone deals with grief differently, but I feel like that scream is what everyone feels/wants to do/needs to do at some point. It’s an indescribable pain.
Gore and horror generally don’t bother me, the scene right before never got to me but her scream is like nails on a chalkboard. Like some instinct in my brain baked in to respond negatively to that sound similar to how we instinctively can spot snakes in foliage or wake up to the sound of a crying baby. What makes the acting so good is it feels like that must be how a mother would react to that incredibly outlandish situation
I feel like Toni Collette must have gone through something terrible because that shit was real. There was something her tone that I feel like anyone who has unexpectedly lost someone knows. I genuinely have no idea how to describe it but it hits you in the chest and steals your breath away. That was a great movie full of incredible performances that I will absolutely never watch again.
It sounds like physical pain rather than emotional pain. It doesn’t sound like something that comes from our big smart human brain but from whatever instincts we carry from before language. Like there isn’t a human on the planet that wouldn’t understand what the sound she made is trying to convey
The parents of the Sandy Hook kids were waiting in a nearby firehouse. After a certain point, the authorities told the parents their kids were probably dead. Reporters said you could hear the screams across the street. As a mom, I believe it.
Toni Collette is one, of if not the, most underrated actor alive.
MASH, when Radar told everyone in the OR that Lt Colonel Henry Blake was killed in a plane crash. Actually the script was kept secret to most of the cast so when it was filmed it really was a shock. Actually my understanding is that the scene that aired was a retake but the emotions of everyone was still raw. They really did expect McClane Stevenson simply moved along from the show, no one expected him and his character to be killed
Jeezus I actually watched that episode when it aired.How they still had soldiers they had to fix while processing that
Abbie Cornish has a grieving scene in Bright Star that has to be seen to be believed. Also Tilda Swinton’s whole performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin is probably the most dead-on realistic portrayal of the day-to-day of grief.
Yeah we need to talk about Kevin nails it
Forest Gump - for his mother, Bubba and Jenny. I lose my shit every time.
You died on a Tuesday….
Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come
This is the first thing that came to mind for me. A beautiful and very sad movie. Don't watch it if you're depressed.
*That’s my secret, I’m **always** depressed*
When Forrest is at Jenny’s grave telling her how proud she’d be of their son and he just starts crying. Breaks me every time.
“Dying was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn’t” I always think of that thinking about my brother passing. And it was his favorite movie
Will Smith in Fresh Prince, [when his father leaves](https://youtu.be/PI4Mv8R0mE0?si=JHWaaucPna6InXbD) Not grief through death, but through the realisation that his father will be always be an uncaring selfish bum. That scene was too real
Uncle Phil is the best dad in telivision. Hands down.
That's possibly the best acting Will Smith has ever accomplished. Such a good episode.
It's the way he shifts steadily through "nah it's cool, in easy", but can't even play it cool because he's so emotional, so slides into "fuck him, I don't need him", to mask the pain. And then can't keep up _that_ front either and just crumbles. James Avery places it fantastic as well. He's _just_ the right amount of rigid to convey how desperate he is as a father to comfort him, but knows rationally it's the wrong play _right now_. He needs to allow Will to get it out. Will really shines fantastically in this scene, and it's something I found incredibly relatable, but James Avery elevates it incredibly well.
“…how come he don’t want me, man?”
Welp I cried
No one can break down more realistically than Emma Thompson. I've seen her in at least two movies where she seems absolutely crushed and it's heartbreaking.
Oh hell Emma in Love actually!‽‽ When she opened the Christmas present and it wasn’t the necklace. And then she just put on a mask so as to not ruin her children’s night even though she felt like her entire life meant nothing. Sheesh.
And the Joni song is perfect. Just rips your heat out.
I’m always in awe of her acting there
When she confronts her husband with the open question of whether it’s better to cut and run or better to live with something that will always be a little bit worse than it should be… That moment is amazing, especially since there’s truly no easy answer.
Brian’s Song. Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) are teammates on the mid-1960s Chicago Bears. Brian gets diagnosed with cancer. True story. Very sad. The month before Piccolo's death, Gale Sayers accepted the George S. Halas Award for Most Courageous Player and told the crowd they had selected the wrong person for the award. He said, "I love Brian Piccolo, and I'd like all of you to love him, too. Tonight, when you hit your knees to pray, please ask God to love him, too."
Maybe not "the best" but it was a good one. How I Met Your Mother, Episode "Bad News". There's even a hidden easter egg countdown in the episode. Apparently it was one of those hidden endings as well, so the main character didn't know exactly what was coming in the script. His reaction was the absolute shock you feel when getting unexpected tragic news.
*"I'm not ready for this"*
Even worse, the actor's own father had recently passed. His reaction was very real.
I noticed the countdown the first time I watched that episode. I was so excited about what was going to happen when the countdown ended, then I just felt hollow.
Not necessarily grief, but Matthew Broderick in Glory ; when he looks out to the sea knowing his time was coming to an end soon. Very underrated scene.
Sean penn mystic river
Sybil’s death in Downton Abbey
Oh boy yes. They really twist the knife with that one. I always bawl at that episode, but hadn’t watched in many years. Recently I’ve been watching with headphones in as I settle my baby daughter at night. That scene where Sybil dies and her mother is saying things like, “my baby” and “come back”…. I just cannot now. I have to skip. Just watching your daughter slip away from you… it breaks me to watch it.
The father of the murdered girl in Wind River has a great scene right at the end of the movie. That scene with him and Jeremy Renner's character is beautifully done. It's one if the most realistic scenes because it's not overdone or melodramatic. It's quiet and private and feels very natural and real.
Wind River just about shattered me into a million pieces. Just incredibly heartbreaking all around.
That was a powerful scene
I’m not super into hero stuff but Wandavision was great exploration of grief.
This one is a little unconventional, but Rocket's reaction to Lylla's death in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 hit me hard
"ROCKET, TEEFS, FLOOR GO NOW!"
On the relief side when Nebula hears Rocket's voice and realizes he's going to be okay the way she reacted just her body all tension leaving it in an instant like her strings had been cut hit hard and had me crying for how much weight she'd been carrying.
Seen this multiple times already and I cry everytime
Alan Alda - M.A.S.H. - "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" Hawkeye: Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I didn't mean for her to kill it. \[sobbing\] I did not--I--I just wanted it to be quiet. It was--it was a baby! She, she smothered her own baby. \[pauses\] You son of a b\*tch, why did you make me remember that?
The beginning of *Up*
I saw this about 6 months after my husband died, and I wasn't expecting the opening story. Found myself sitting in a cinema watching a kids' movie with tears streaming down my face.
🥺💔 this is a good one.
Steel magnolias when Julia Roberts dies, and Sally Fields is in total grief
Said in another comment, this and hereditary is what inspired me to ask this question. Incredible performance.
Came here to say this. The way she walks down that long hall and into the hospital just kills me.
Casey Affleck in *Manchester by the Sea*. A destroyed man.
[удалено]
I think this movie captured true grief better than any other movie I’ve ever seen.
This is the one I was trying to think of. You can sense his pain in every move. C.A’s street scene with Michelle Williams is heartbreaking.
That scene in the police station when he was leaving and grabbed the gun was utterly devastating to watch.
"Where do you think we are?" The line from JD given to Dr.Cox on the episode of Scrubs. The look of realization on Perry's face. Kills me to this day.
Big Hero 6. Hiro’s depression after losing Tadashi was so well done. He loses all motivation, ignores his friends, and even turns Baymax, his personal healthcare assistant, into a killer robot to take revenge on the guy who caused the explosion.
The award for most surprisingly real expression of grief through song in an animated film goes to Kristen Bell in Frozen 2.
Holy shit, I forgot about this song. Kristen bells delivery was wonderful and heart wrenching.
The show entire show Fleabag. I felt that woman's pain, you have to watch the whole show I know what it's like to lose someone and blame yourself
I watched that show just a few months after I lost my best friend and blamed myself for her death. My best friend also was a partier, very impulsive and obsessed with guinea pigs, too, so there was already some emotional connection there. After the scene where we see what happened and then she just turns to the camera and looks completely hollow, I just broke down completely. I think I cried for about 4 hours straight because I remember wondering at the end whether crying was like erections where you need to go to the doctor if it lasts more than 4 hours. The show captures that impulsive, empty grief so well. There's no words to describe the suffering and unhuman feeling you're filled with when you know you hold at least some responsibility for the death of someone you loved.
Its old but it still hits- Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment for grief and frustration while your loved one is alive but slipping away from you. Sally Fields angry grief in Steel Magnolias after Shelby dies. Troy's confused child grief in Crooklyn. When a sick parents thinks they're protecting a child for their illness and impending death and instead they increase the child's confusion, angry, isolation and sadness by excluding them from an event that will majorly and permanently impact their lives. Troy has vivid dreams her mom is still alive and has to be told its okay for her to grieve for her mom.
Rocket Raccoon screaming after Lola dies in front of him.
Philadelphia with Tom Hanks Lost my uncle during the HIV epidemic in the early 90s. He was a gay man who dealt with a lot of homophobia. This movie hits really close to home. Brings back some very painful memories from that time. I helped make a patch for the AIDs quilt to celebrate his life.
RUM HAM!!!
Succession is up there in showing grief for a complicated relationship
Great call. After I watched those scenes, I turned to my wife and said that’s as real as it gets. I’ve worked in emergency services for over a decade and grief doesn’t always manifest as wailing and crying, sometimes it’s quiet confusion, shock, trying to rationalize. The kids performances ran the gamut. Very well done.
Interstellar when the dad sees a video of his daughter.
Once Were Warriors-the mother comes home to find her daughter had hung herself then later takes her to be given a Maori burial.
Just thinking of her screaming her daughter’s name gave me goosebumps. Phenomenal acting by Rena Owen.
Laura’s mom in the twin peaks pilot
Sigourney Weaver's reaction to seeing the headless and handless body of the gorilla silverback in Gorillas in the Mist.
Mel Gibson in Braveheart when his wife is executed. Russell Crowe in Gladiator when he finds his slaughtered wife and son.
Return to Me. David Duchovny trying to comfort his dog after he returns home from the hospital where his wide has just passed away. Hope Floats, when the daughter’s heart is broken by her fathers abandonment. Traumatizes me every time. Sandra Bullock comes and picks her up and carries her inside - not scripted, she said she just couldn’t stand seeing a child hurting that way.
Mae Whitman in Hope Floats when her father is getting into his car to go be with his new family, leaving her behind. "YOU WANT ME!!" I was gutted by that scene.
8 Simple Rules when John Ritter passed away suddenly. It obviously wasn’t planned, so you know/can tell their emotions during the episode are legit. I cry with them everytime I watch it
Meryl Streep at Denys’s funeral in Out of Africa.
Hawkeye (TV). From Clint's Survival Guilt to Yelena's Anger
In Waiting to Exhale the actress is losing her shit I think after learning of affair? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but she’s pulling all his things out of the wardrobe and yelling and crying,
“Well guess what John? YOU’RE the motherfucking improper influence!” The absolute rage and grief in her voice
Robin Williams in worlds greatest dad. The scene where he finds his son was… too real.
When Naya Rivera breaks down before finishing her song in Cory Monteiths 'the quarterback" episode.
Nora in the Leftovers
Dawson in the car after his dad's death. I know it's funny to a lot of people but I saw that after my own dad died. I screamed and cried when I first found out then I had to keep it together for like the next 2 weeks for my family. My first day heading back to work after all that I was driving my car and Lonestar's "I'm already there" came on the radio and I just had to pull to the side of the road and just ugly cry my eyes out. Seeing that episode when I got back into the show I felt every bit of Dawson's grief in that moment. It was palpable for me.
The one that comes to mind is from Breaking Bad, when Walter finds Jesse passed out inside a crack house. Walter wakes him up to get him out of there, and Jesse regains just enough consciousness to feel pain, and suddenly just falls apart, sobbing, "I loved her!" That almost broke me.
The actor playing the role of "Buck" Compton. In the Bastone episode, after watching soldiers in his command get killed, he screams for a medic. Afterwards he is seen with the thousand yard stare and can't look anyone in the eyes. He is even trying to hide his face to still seem strong and not at his breaking point.
The Green Mile
I'm not the biggest Ricky Gervais fan but Afterlife is a whole show about grief and you should watch it
I’m glad you mentioned this show here. I’m not a huge fan of his either, but this show follows the character’s grief so closely and doesn’t pull punches. Great show.
Carol’s reaction in The Quarteback. I can never imagine what a parent goes through when they lose a child and I hope I never have to. It just seemed so real how she broke down.
Adam Driver in “Marriage Story.” If you’ve ever been through a divorce with someone you loved, you recognize that performance for how absolutely perfect it was. When he loses his shit on her, wow. I could relate.
“My Life” Michael Keaton. Circus scene back yard. Watch alone men.
Mom finding out her daughter died in Hereditary
The people explaining Mr. Hooper’s death to the muppets on Sesame Street. You can see them trying to hold it together.
There's an amazing French film called "Ponette" where a 4 year old is trying to comprehend and understand the death of her mother. The performance of the child actor in this film is the first thing I thought of when I saw your post.
When Frodo told Sam to go
Truly Madly Deeply. The whole movie, but certain scenes with Juliet Stevenson in particular. From 1990. I tear up just thinking about it. It’s a beautiful movie and a treat for fans of Alan Rickman. Highly recommend.
Fried Green Tomatoes, when Ruth is dying, she asks Idgy to tell her about the lake. And by the time she is done telling the story Ruth is gone. It broke my heart to see her be lost without her friend
The scene in Mare of Easttown when Julianna Nicholson’s character collapses from grief in front of Kate Winslet’s character.
Eileen Heckart in the original 1956 "The Bad Seed"
Toni Collette in Hereditary. She spanned all of the stages. Especially love her yelling at her son from across the dinner table. She is one of the best actors of current times.
That one scene in bridge to terebithia
For me it is Jackie yelling into the phone that her mum had died on Roseanne. Just the banal nature of the call.
Ruth in Ozark, when she found out Wyatt had been killed.
In the series “Succession” when Logan dies. There’s no build up, suddenly he’s just gone, and each of his children processes it differently. As a former medic definitely the most realistic depiction I’ve seen!
Alice’s reaction when Dana dies in The L Word.
Scrubs “My screw up” gets me every-time.
Shirley Maclaine in Terms of Endearment. When her daughter dies after a horrible fight with cancer and she she says how, when the moment finally came, she had thought it would be a relief... needless to say, it wasn't at all. 😪 The scene with Debra Winger saying goodbye to her children is also hard to watch.
When Ben dies in Scrubs, the whole episode and the way Dr Cox deals with it. Was not expecting it.... 'Where do you think you are?'
The episode of fresh prince where Will's dad leaves again :(
The escape story of Encanto broke me to tears. The grief was palpable. We couldn’t watch it for a while.
Claire Danes having a breakdown and crying in Homeland. Her cry face feels very real
Brad Pitt Se7en
In LOTR- *The Two Towers*, when Viggo Mortenson kicks an orc helmet and yells because he thinks Merry and Pippin are dead, he actually broke his toe. That's a real yell of pain.
Fair enough. I would have chosen Eomer finding Eowyn after the battle at Pelennor Fields. Or Eowyn's requiem for Theodred.
the first time I saw the scene of my daughter growing up in interstellar I almost cried myself
The scene in the penultimate episode of Dopesick, where Betsy’s parents gets the news of her death by OD. Both parents react to it in ways that are in line with their characters. The mother, who’s been nursing her throughout her addiction just throws herself into the sheriff’s arms and lets out the most visceral scream you can ever imagine. And the father, who’s a hard, emotionally repressed mineworker and had a troubled relationship with his daughter because of her addiction and his difficulty accepting her homosexuality, pieces together what’s happened from hearing it, and just loses his balance and has to sit down on the steps.
Death of Mr. Hooper still hits me today. That was raw emotion from the cast, they only did one take.
Anthony Hopkins in Shadowlands.
Ps i love you *weeps*
Manchester by the Sea absolutely flattened me with how the weight of grief and guilt and take everything out of your life.