Pass the Tissues, Please

At the age of twelve, I convinced my mother to rent a copy of Titanic.  This was a major turning point for several reasons.  My parents were a bit puritanical when it came to movie ratings, and Titanic is decidedly PG-13.  Secondly, my young self approached the film with a bizarre predisposition to hate Leonardo DiCaprio.  This lasted about thirty seconds into the movie, whereupon I decided that I was in fact madly in love with Leonardo DiCaprio.  Lastly, Titanic was my first example of how cinematic destruction works on all levels: disturbing imagery, emotional heartbreak, and that horrible empty feeling as you hear the first strains of “My Heart Will Go On.”  I don’t want to ruin the film for anyone, but: the ship sinks and a lot of people die. I sat on the couch with my mother, who was sobbing, and willed myself not to cry.  My twelve-year-old self thought crying was embarrassing, especially at the end of a movie.  I went to bed that night incredibly upset but with dry eyes. 

At the age of twenty, Titanic was rereleased in theaters much to thrill of myself and a few friends.  Our group dined at Azteca before the film, reminiscing on our individual puritanical upbringings: how one parent had insisted on fast forwarding through the “drawing scene,” and how another had not clearly explained the hand in the “car scene.”  At the theater we donned our 3D glasses and proceeded to embark on an emotional rollercoaster that we still discuss to this day.  The film started—Irish music, a shot of the sea—and we watched as if we’d never seen any of it before.  Titanic is so immortalized in pop culture, yet we watched with the terror we’d all felt as children on couches.  Only this time, I cried.  I cried until my glasses fogged like the windows in the “car scene.”  I cried until the bottom of my chin felt wet from the waterworks, cried even harder when I realized my friends were also crying, and continued to cry as we drove back to campus.  And I went to bed that night deeply sad…but satisfied.

At the age of twenty-one, I can now admit my need for an occasional “good cry.”   For me, movies provide access to that strange need, and if you’re looking to either cry or emotionally torture yourself this weekend, you might consider one of these suggestions.  (Or Titanic, of course.)

Out of Africa (1985)—Visually gorgeous but emotionally devastating, this movie makes me want to book a Kenyan safari but makes me actually crawl into bed with a box of tissues.  The story is centered around Karen Blixen’s (Meryl Streep) efforts at running a coffee plantation in Africa but eventually shifts to her love affair with a mysteriously handsome hunter/safari guide named Denys.  (And if you guessed that the handsome hunter/safari guide is played by Robert Redford, you are absolutely right!) 

Les Miserables (2012)—My father, who understands much less French than his French Canadian background suggests, informed me that this title translates to The Miserables.  Honestly, I think that might be an understatement.  Unlike most depressing movies which pack a punch at the end, this one slaps the emotions from start to finish.  If you’d like to take the depressing experience with you on the go, you can now download the complete soundtrack for your iPod.  (Yes, I spend a lot of time listening to Anne Hathaway singing “I Dreamed A Dream.”  Plus, a guy who looks a lot like my boyfriend Wolverine is in this!)

Doctor Zhivago (1965)—If this epic Russian adaptation doesn’t make you cry due to its winding plotlines, you might just cry due to the fact that everything looks so barren and cold.  Another love story, of course, but this one is set against the Bolshevik revolution.  Characters don’t merely long for each other: they trek across great sheets of ice in blizzard conditions, much like students in upstate New York walk to class.  (If you want more depressing love stories involving that particular Soviet brand of communism, try Reds (1981) with Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton.)  
 


What about you—do you have a favorite tearjerker?  Comment below!