The film can make you smile, anger, and sometimes cry. This time we decided to select Top 3 sappy films that might make you cry. Some might find it corny, some might find it tearjerker, but at the end, those films are engraved in our memories. 

Abe Friedtanzer

1)      The Truman Show (1998)

2)      Coco (2017)

3)      CODA (2021)

I take this prompt not to mean movies that I would consider sappy but instead those I remember making me tear up. They all start in very different places with complicated relationships between their characters and come to powerful and poignant finishes. The Truman Show begins as a satire of the way we live our lives and finds surprising heart along the way, externalized by someone who comprehends so little of his reality but is able to see so much. Coco is all about loss and a connection to those who are no longer with us, and a magical trip to the land of the dead allows its protagonist to return with a tremendous sense of identity and belonging, linked to his ancestors by more than just photos and stories. CODA is surely the newest entry on this list, released just this past weekend, but there is such a deep resonance to the way that a Child of Dead Adults who wants to sing finds a way to share that with her Deaf parents and Deaf brother that it absolutely must be included here. Watch all three of these films if you haven’t seen them already, but be prepared for an emotional experience.

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

1. The Remains Of The Day (1993)
2. Love Actually (2003)
3. Notting Hill (1999)

To me, James Ivory’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day is a heart-wrenching ode to the subtext of imposed reserve, quiet melancholy, and how paths may part for the refusal to admit feelings for each other. Another English romantic motion picture that pushes my buttons is Love Actually. Many ladies get moved watching when Mark (Andrew Lincoln) declares his undying love to Juliet (Keira Knightley) through cue cards; or when Jamie (Colin Firth) learns Portuguese to declare his love to Aurélia (Sienna Guillory), or when there is the happy ending between Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) and the new junior member of his staff Natalie (Martine McCutcheon). Personally, every time I watch it, I fall head over heels for ten-year-old Sam (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), struggling with the turmoil of puppy love. I always get gushy when his step-father Daniel (Liam Neeson) is relieved to find out the reason of his child’s dolefulness, because he thought it was something worse, to which the child replies “Worse than the total agony of being in love?” Last but not least in my list of lovey dovey British sappy films is  Notting Hill, that has all my favourite ingredients: London, a bookshop, a secret garden, and “just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

Karen Butler 

1. Creator  (1985)

2. Steel Magnolias  (1989)

3. Ghost   ( 1990)

Few movies make me cry like these three. I saw Creator — an obscure sci-fi rom-com starring Peter O’Toole, Mariel Hemingway, Virginia Madsen and Vincent Spano — when I was a kid and it really shaped my perspective on romantic love and showed me the lengths some people will go to sustain it. The film is about an aging scientist who tries to regrow his late wife from the dead woman’s cells with the help of his college students. It also follows the professor’s 20-something assistant who refuses to give up on his gravely ill girlfriend, even after her own parents urge him to walk away. Ghost is similarly themed with Demi Moore playing an artist whose bond with her beau, played by Patrick Swayze, is so strong they can communicate after his murder, thanks to the help of a medium, played by Whoopi Goldberg. The heartbreak of Steel Magnolias didn’t fully hit me until I was a mom.

Watching Sally Field and her friends celebrate the milestones of the life of her daughter (Julia Roberts,) then nurse her through sickness and mourn her death hits every exhilarating note of the human experience.

Karen Bernedello 

1.  A Walk to Remember (2002)

2.  Rent (2005)

3.  50 First Dates (2004)

The most memorable, heartfelt sappy films are often driven by society’s most endearing contemporary issues that ultimately prove to also be timeless and relevant to all generations. The screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ coming-of-age romantic novel, A Walk to Remember, sentimentally contends with issues of faith and redemption as two drastically different teenagers, Landon and Jamie, learn to trust again as they fall in love, before her untimely death, due to leukemia. Another emotionally endearing screen adaptation is the musical drama, Rent, which is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, as it powerfully showcases the problems that many young adults face, including poverty and illness, in an increasingly soulless corporate world.

While many sappy movies are dramas, Adam Sandler was enthrallingly able to turn his signature humor into a passionate story in 50 First Dates, as his protagonist, Henry, is able to affectionately woe his new love interest, Lucy, who’s suffering from short-term memory loss, every day. Despite their highly emotionally, idealistic-driven stories, sappy films ultimately prove to capture the attention of viewers of all ages, due to their enduring relatability in such important topics as the relentless search for love and identity.

Matthew Shuchuman

1. Terms of Endearment (1983)

2. The Fisher King (1991)

3. Let Him Have It (1991)

One obvious and two out of left field choices. Terms of Endearment is best described as the king of the tear jerkers. I defy anyone to sit and watch it without reaching for the tissue box. The Fisher King is the one Terry Gilliam film you can definitively say comes with a happy ending. Written by Richard LaGravenese, I can’t make it through the movie without turning into a human waterfall when Perry asks at the end if, “it’s ok to let her go now, Jack?” Out of all my choices, Let Him Have It might be the least sappy of all these films. The true story of Derek Bentley in one of England’s most infamous miscarriages of justice, if you don’t turn on the water works when the brave feigning of Bentley (portrayed with utter brilliance in Christopher Eccelston’s first film role) breaks and he asks his mother, “…does it hurt?” I’ll leave the rest of the context out if you don’t know about it yet. Go see it though, as I have to stop typing as my eyes are watering up already.

Nobuhiro Hosoki

1. Cinema Paradiso (1998)
2. October Sky (1999)
3. Good Will Hunting (1997) 

Good Will Hunting, a genius-level IQ janitor Will hunting is discovered by Professor who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor makes a deal to get leniency for him if he will get treatment from therapist Sean. After his death, it’s endearing to see the performance Robin Williams is sitting at the bench scene in the park, teaching Matt Damon’s character what is important in his life. October Sky, Four high school students from a small coal mine town in West Virginia, USA, who saw the first artificial satellite of mankind, decided to make a rocket. Through their rocket making, it depicts the process of growing up while sometimes colliding with his stubborn father. I kind of related to this main character Homer played by Jake Gyllenhaal, I had a similar type of experience with my father, who had a different point of view, but sharing same passion of living a better life.

 Cinema Paradiso, a story about a middle-aged film director reminiscing about the events of his childhood and the love affairs of his youth who were fascinated by the movie. At the end, Ennio Morricone’s music captured the sentiment and nostalgia, love for films that many film lovers could agree.