Help me cry happy sappy mommy tears
May 1, 2015 8:49 PM Subscribe
I basically want to sob on my couch at how childlike children are and how much parents love them beyond words.
I am looking for finely observed movies or documentaries with heartbreakingly loving moments between parents and children or between young siblings. For example, I loved Hirazu Kore-eda's "Like Father, Like Son" and "Nobody Knows." "Kramer vs Kramer" gets at this; "Alamar" does too. In the documentary "Somewhere Between" there is the scene where one of the girls finds her adoptive family and her father, who is overwhelmed and too shy to smile, can't stop holding her hand and touching her hair the whole time even as the visit's over and the car is pulling away. Waaaaaahhhh.
I am NOT looking anything related to dying children or parents. I am NOT looking for "Did You Know the Human Head Weighs Eight Pounds" cutesy precocity or "Not Without My Daughter" histrionics. I don't think the show "Parenthood" fits this either; everyone's way too articulate and polished and self-aware and saying they love each other all the time.
Thank you!
I am looking for finely observed movies or documentaries with heartbreakingly loving moments between parents and children or between young siblings. For example, I loved Hirazu Kore-eda's "Like Father, Like Son" and "Nobody Knows." "Kramer vs Kramer" gets at this; "Alamar" does too. In the documentary "Somewhere Between" there is the scene where one of the girls finds her adoptive family and her father, who is overwhelmed and too shy to smile, can't stop holding her hand and touching her hair the whole time even as the visit's over and the car is pulling away. Waaaaaahhhh.
I am NOT looking anything related to dying children or parents. I am NOT looking for "Did You Know the Human Head Weighs Eight Pounds" cutesy precocity or "Not Without My Daughter" histrionics. I don't think the show "Parenthood" fits this either; everyone's way too articulate and polished and self-aware and saying they love each other all the time.
Thank you!
Have you ever seen the Babies documentary? A lot of the footage is of babies off in their own world, but there are definitely some tender parent moments too.
posted by foxfirefey at 9:18 PM on May 1, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by foxfirefey at 9:18 PM on May 1, 2015 [6 favorites]
You'll love the documentary The Crash Reel. You've got parents, siblings - including a younger sibling with Down Syndrome - and kids being kids; there's a number of the kind of moments you're looking for. On the surface it's about head injuries, but it's actually a documentary about all kinds of love, particularly familial love. Here's the trailer, which doesn't do it justice: link.
Um, not a movie but the goddamn freaking P & G Olympic commercials about moms and kids wreck me every time. I hate them:
--"Pick Them Back Up"
--"Potential"
--"Kids"
posted by barchan at 9:28 PM on May 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
Um, not a movie but the goddamn freaking P & G Olympic commercials about moms and kids wreck me every time. I hate them:
--"Pick Them Back Up"
--"Potential"
--"Kids"
posted by barchan at 9:28 PM on May 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
This soldier homecoming compilation gets me every time.
posted by Sassyfras at 10:13 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Sassyfras at 10:13 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
Call the Midwife!
posted by ocherdraco at 5:48 AM on May 2, 2015
posted by ocherdraco at 5:48 AM on May 2, 2015
Not totally parental, but a father-figure in a teacher in a one room school house in France (parents do figure in, but the teacher is really the central figure): "To Be and To Have" is a wonderful, wonderful documentary.
posted by goggie at 6:17 AM on May 2, 2015
posted by goggie at 6:17 AM on May 2, 2015
Laugh at me if you will, but this Pampers commercial from a few years back gets me every time.
posted by lyssabee at 7:34 AM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by lyssabee at 7:34 AM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Sum of Us. It's an Aussie film from 1994, back when Russell Crowe could act. It's about the father son relationship with a grown up son, it's the fathers sheer acceptance and love of his son and for his wife that has passed and how he's moving on and loving their son for the both of them. It's hard to find online but I've found it occasionally on YouTube.
posted by wwax at 8:08 AM on May 2, 2015
posted by wwax at 8:08 AM on May 2, 2015
The documentary "the dark matter of love". Shows Russian orphans as they slowly bond with their adoptive family.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:50 PM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:50 PM on May 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
What about I am Sam (2001)? A bit Hollywood, though...
posted by gemutlichkeit at 6:10 PM on May 2, 2015
posted by gemutlichkeit at 6:10 PM on May 2, 2015
You might like the ballet documentary First Position. It follows several kids and their families as they train for an elite ballet competition - the families are a mixed group but overall come off well and the focus is on what the kids and the parents give up to pursue the kid's dream. Mostly not stage-parenty (and even where it's somewhat stage-parenty, the doc is pretty humane about why the parent's doing what they're doing). Includes older teens and elementary-age kids. Lots of tearful hugs, in good moments and bad.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:19 AM on May 3, 2015
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:19 AM on May 3, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by linder6 at 9:02 PM on May 1, 2015 [3 favorites]