What’s the most convincing emotional pain you’ve seen acted?

[u/bestest_at_grammar]

I recently watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri for like the fifth time and I never can get over Frances McDormands performance. It’s spectacular and it never fails to make me emotional.

One line in particular always sticks out for me. In a scene her and her son Robbie find the Billboards on fire. She goes to extinguish them but almost in a pissed off game on way. As Robbie tries to stop her mother she screams his name and the quick emotion always gives me that ache in my throat.

Link below it’s near the end of the clip.

https://youtu.be/m9mVSET01g0?si=0b-cMuWUKjRirq2D

Honorable mentions are

That’s my boy from Harry Potter. If you know you know, I fear rewatching this once I have kids will make this very hard to watch

https://youtu.be/FjoemE6QvxU?si=UUyjDSwjct7Gz31e

And of course the GOAT of it all hereditary

https://youtu.be/M2101AvCGd8?si=Bg9wW_2OzMbA2HWu

How she found a way to channel that feeling I’ll never know.

Anyways would love to hear some of your answers, and watch after I’m done cleaning.

Have a good Sunday.

[u/PermWhale666]

Oh this is a good one. One that sticks out is when Toni Collette finally believes her son can actually see dead people in The Sixth Sense. He convinces her after talking about his grandma (her mom) and she breaks down crying, half from talking about her mom and half from being so relieved that there wasn’t anything actually wrong with her son (other than seeing dead people of course). One of my all time favorite scenes!

[u/the_mess2the_masses → u/PermWhale666]

I was going to say Toni Collette Hereditary. That woman does grief.

[u/CloudBursting6 → u/the_mess2the_masses]

Toni Colette is a treasure. I loved her in Krampus too

[u/JoolsyJones → u/the_mess2the_masses]

That scream in Hereditary and the Kate Seagal one at the end of the Riley and Erin boat scene in Midnight Mass that just continues through the credits.

The grief and horror in those sounds will haunt me forever.

[u/JHRChrist → u/JoolsyJones]

If you’ve ever seen a parent, usually mom, finding their dead child or realizing their baby is dead it does in fact sound exactly like that. So it makes sense that it would haunt you. I think it’s a very old human instinct to express our grief in that way, cause what else can you do? The feelings are too big to keep inside.

These actors are incredible. Toni Collette should win way more awards!!

[u/ManitouWakinyan → u/the_mess2the_masses]

I have been at the graveside of a woman who lost a baby at 8 months, and her cries were virtually identical to what Toni brought to that scene

[u/impartiallypensive → u/the_mess2the_masses]

Me too. Specifically came in here to say it and found that the top thread was already discussing her in *another* brilliant scene.

She is one amazing actress.

[u/threequartertoupee → u/PermWhale666]

Yeah this is what I immediately thought of. 

Toni Colette just slaps pretty hard in everything

[u/jennifer0309 → u/threequartertoupee]

Came here to say that. Toni Colette is SUCH a good actress.

[u/The_Sykotik_Prime → u/threequartertoupee]

Hereditary sticks out in particular. When she finds out what is "going on" with Charlie...

[u/acenarteco → u/The_Sykotik_Prime]

The dinner scene gets me every time. As someone who had some really rough family dinners growing up this one hit pretty hard. Her acting is impeccable in it, too.

[u/Rebabaluba → u/acenarteco]

It’s her initial screams while the camera is fixed on the son. I had never heard that sort of screaming before, it gave me chills. When my father passed unexpectedly, mom screamed exactly like that. I hope no one has to hear that sort of grief in real life.

[u/BootOne7235 → u/threequartertoupee]

I can’t wait until she wins an Oscar. It’s inevitable.

[u/korgrid → u/PermWhale666]

This scene as well for me.... Kills me every time...

Interesting. I never saw the 'nothing wrong with her son' aspect in the scene. I saw a mother thinking shes a failure despite trying so hard, and to hear that her mother was proud of her, was the one voice that could convince her that she wasn't a failure....

Though now that I type this out, nothing being wrong with her son plays heavily into the 'not a failure'.

[u/revolutionutena → u/PermWhale666]

Toni Collette deserves every Oscar and it’s a crime she hasn’t gotten one

[u/Martag02 → u/PermWhale666]

God, that scene is such a gut punch. I hardly ever cry watching movies but that one always gets to me.

[u/ToasterOwl]

Sally Field in Steel Magnolias. Her grief is gut wrenching.

[u/thepaintedballerina → u/ToasterOwl]

The breakdown with righteous fury while crying…

Followed up with the best outlandish comment to bring her back to ground.

Just give them all Oscar’s

[u/revolutionutena → u/ToasterOwl]

“Shelby was right. It really does look like a brown football helmet” proceeds to fall into a grief filled puddle of devastation while I do the same at home

[u/llamamama03 → u/revolutionutena]

The way she wails, "But my daughter can't!" is seared onto my brain.

[u/MrLazyLion → u/ToasterOwl]

I am convinced the only reason this answer isn't higher is because too many of the younger generation hasn't seen it. Sally Fields gives a masterclass in acting, while surrounded by legends.

[u/pprchsr21 → u/MrLazyLion]

Gen X likes her...we really like her!

[u/JerseyGuy-77 → u/MrLazyLion]

That last statement could be every movie she's ever done.

[u/haughtshot7 → u/ToasterOwl]

that movie is incredible. so many hilarious one liners, and so many gut wrenching moments as well.
one of my favorites that i quote when im not feeling right and need a laugh is ouiser's "i'm not crazy m'lynn, ive just been in a very bad mood for forty years!!"

[u/kenziethemom → u/ToasterOwl]

1000% even as a kid it made me cry and now as a mom it's so hard to watch. She was perfect.

[u/ToasterOwl → u/kenziethemom]

Completely agree. I watched the film before my nephew was born, and I watched it after, and ‘I was supposed to go first’ was sad before, but like a stab through the heart after.

[u/guinnypig → u/ToasterOwl]

Hands down the top scene for me.

[u/maveco]

Emma Thompson in Love Actually. Absolutely heartbreaking and a masterclass in acting

[u/AwesomeSauce984 → u/maveco]

When she opens the Joni Mitchell cds! 😭

[u/Annie_Mous → u/AwesomeSauce984]

When she straightens the blanket on the bed 😭

[u/DaddyRAS → u/Annie_Mous]

This is the bit that always gets me, it's incredible. And I hate every other moment of the film.

[u/SwimmingCoyote → u/maveco]

I came here to say this. Every movement is so subtle but the audience feels every bit of her dreadful realization, her heartbreak, and then her pulling herself together for her kids.

[u/GoldenGolgis → u/SwimmingCoyote]

You're right about every movement. There is a moment when she smoothes over the bedspread on the marital bed and you can feel that's she's automatically made that little movement of care so many times, but this time it comes with the weight of wasted effort

[u/on_island_time → u/maveco]

Oh man, I did not appreciate this scene as an early 20s kid when the movie came out. Then a decade later now married with kids I rewatched it and broke down right alongside her.

[u/Maia-Odair → u/maveco]

Kit Harington said that was his favourite Performance ever and he described it as ,, Everything in her Life changes in that moment and also nothing does "

[u/PirateBeany → u/maveco]

After she opens the Christmas present to discover a Joni Mitchell CD? Agreed.

[u/MolaMolaMania → u/maveco]

Also at the end of Sense and Sensibility.

[u/kmill0202 → u/maveco]

Absolute perfection. She gets the mix of stoic and vulnerable exactly right. Because it's Christmas and she has kids that she needs to get to the play, but she's also just learned that her husband is being unfaithful and she needs that emotional release. It's such a great scene and she just nails it.

[u/verballyabusivecat → u/kmill0202]

Emma Thompson was actually cheated on irl and said she drew on those emotions for the scene. Might be why it's so realistic - she is living through it

[u/44problems → u/maveco]

The Emma Thompson / Alan Rickman plot belonged in a better movie. I mean, I like Love Actually, but some of the plots are so silly.

[u/CMelody → u/44problems]

My sister and I watch Love, Actually every Christmas but we hate the Laura Linney subplot so much we fast forward through those scenes.

I could have easily hated the Thompson/Rickman plotline because it is so heartbreaking, but the acting makes up for it.

[u/Sweethomebflo → u/CMelody]

Not even to see the near-naked Carl, the enigmatic art director?!

[u/CMelody → u/Sweethomebflo]

It always irks me that she leaves Carl in the lurch to go comfort her brother, who is in a care facility surrounded by people who can help him. She is such a codependent ninny, I just can’t stand her.

Carl was right to end that before it really began.

[u/samx3i → u/maveco]

Best performance in the movie.

The way she internalizes it and you can see her compartmentalizing to keep it quiet until she can address it fully. Master class performance.

[u/CallmeSlim11 → u/maveco]

That one just breaks your heart.

[u/therealkaptinkaos]

I was super moved in Ordinary People when Donald Sutherland told Mary Tyler Moore that he doesn't think he loves her anymore.

[u/Expat-Red → u/therealkaptinkaos]

Every performance in that film is a masterclass in emotion or portraying loss with a complete lack of emotion. It deserves every award it ever won. The scene with MTM and Timothy Hutton meeting awkwardly in the hallway after she bought him some new shirts—they can’t even talk to each other. But yes this scene with Donald Sutherland and his barely contained grief and rage about her fixation over his socks when they were about to bury their son. Absolute banger. Love this film.

[u/Xrin8 → u/Expat-Red]

I just watched it this year for the first time and absolutely loved it, it really stuck with me. You can just feel the grief surrounding this family. I just felt so sad for Conrad throughout the film, trying to navigate his survivor's guilt, his inability to communicate with his parents, the rejection from his mother, all leading to the climatic scene with the doctor, Timothy Hutton's performance is now one of my favourites. But then the film still has a bittersweet ending, Conrad has had his breakthrough and is starting to heal, but his mother hasn't dealt with her grief. Everyone in this movie is just so good.

[u/Drachenfuer]

Catlyn Stark’s utter agony wail in Rains of Castermere episode of Game of Thrones. Then her whole body slump when she realizes none of it mattered, the panic and andreneline leaves her body and she stands there limp as someone, almost casually slits her throat.

[u/elykl12 → u/Drachenfuer]

In the book it’s even worse as we hear her internal monologue and it’s clear she’s having a psychotic break. The show did it justice though

Finally someone took the knife away from her. The tears burned like vinegar as they ran down her cheeks. Ten fierce ravens were raking her face with sharp talons and tearing off strips of flesh, leaving deep furrows that ran red with blood. She could taste it on her lips.

It hurts so much, she thought. Our children, Ned, all our sweet babes. Rickon, Bran, Arya, Sansa, Robb . . . Robb . . . please, Ned, please, make it stop, make it stop hurting . . . The white tears and the red ones ran together until her face was torn and tattered, the face that Ned had loved. Catelyn Stark raised her hands and watched the blood run down her long fingers, over her wrists, beneath the sleeves of her gown. Slow red worms crawled along her arms and under her clothes. It tickles. That made her laugh until she screamed. "Mad," someone said, "she's lost her wits," and someone else said, "Make an end," and a hand grabbed her scalp just as she'd done with Jinglebell, and she thought, No, don't, don't cut my hair, Ned loves my hair. Then the steel was at her throat, and its bite was red and cold.

Catelyn VII, A Storm of Swords

[u/Roro-Squandering → u/elykl12]

I've never read any of those books and this one paragraph is enough for me to understand why they are so well-liked.

[u/elykl12 → u/Roro-Squandering]

They really are amazing

One of the best anti-war speeches I’ve ever read comes from a wandering priest, a Septon, who’s trying to get someone to understand the plight of the soldiers who fight the wars in the series.

The “Broken Man speech” as it’s often called details how they’re discarded without a care from the aristocracy in their once in a generation continent wide wars to decide who gets to sit on an iron chair in a faraway city

”Ser? My lady?” said Podrick. “Is a broken man an outlaw?”

”More or less,” Brienne answered.

Septon Meribald disagreed. “More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They’ve heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.

”Then they get a taste of battle.

”For some, that one taste is enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in after they’ve been gutted by an axe.

”They see the lord who led them there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now. They take a wound, and when that’s still half-healed they take another. There is never enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from the marching, their clothes are torn and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad water.

”If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they’re fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it’s just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don’t know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they’re fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world…

”And the man breaks.

”He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them…but he should pity them as well.”

When Meribald was finished a profound silence fell upon their little band. Brienne could hear the wind rustling through a clump of pussywillows, and farther off the faint cry of a loon. She could hear Dog panting softly as he loped along beside the septon and his donkey, tongue lolling from his mouth. The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally she said, “How old were you when they marched you off to war?”

”Why, no older than your boy,” Meribald replied. “Too young for such, in truth, but my brothers were all going, and I would not be left behind. Willam said I could be his squire, though Will was no knight, only a potboy armed with a kitchen knife he’d stolen from the inn. He died upon the Stepstones, and never struck a blow. It was fever did for him, and for my brother Robin. Owen died from a mace that split his head apart, and his friend Jon Pox was hanged for rape.”

”The War of the Ninepenny Kings?” asked Hyle Hunt.

”So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war, though. That it was.”

[u/Drachenfuer → u/elykl12]

One of the best scenes in a book or movie ever. Of all time. The books are so good.

[u/cdizzaat]

Matthew Lillard in SLC Punk

Tobey Maguire in Brothers

Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine

[u/y-so-hard-to-choose → u/cdizzaat]

Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine still sticks with me. WOW!!!

[u/HolyzombieBatman → u/cdizzaat]

I think Matthew Lillards performance in SLC Punk is the first time I ever saw such raw grief portrayed on screen, incredible and devastating.

[u/Pigfiggly → u/cdizzaat]

Had to scroll down until I finally saw someone mention Matthew Lillard in SLC Punk. That scene was incredibly well acted.

I am going to watch this movie again today.

[u/ZDarFan]

Alan Rickman saying "By Grabthar's hammer...what a savings."

[u/revolutionutena → u/ZDarFan]

Followed by his lovely sincere version of the speech when he’s holding his dying alien friend in his arms.

[u/alargepowderedwater → u/ZDarFan]

Greatest single line reading in any movie, ever. The anguished pause is sublime. Genuinely painful while being really funny.

[u/LesZappa]

Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream.

[u/greenebean78 → u/LesZappa]

I need to rewatch that movie because it was so good, but I might be the first person ever to watch it a second time

[u/Successful-Earth-214 → u/greenebean78]

lol I’ve actually seen it several times. Back in the early 00’s when all you really had was cable and dvds, it was one of like only 20 dvds I had so it was in the regular rotation. I was always amazed by everyone’s performance but Ellen Burstyn was the clear standout. I think she’s the reason I was able to watch it as many times as I did.

[u/Heiminator]

Amy Adams in Sharp Objects.

It’s a show about young girls getting murdered, but the parts about her characters trauma are far more brutal to watch than anything related to the actual murders

[u/MissSassifras1977 → u/Heiminator]

Yeah, man. Once I figured out what was actually going on, what had actually happened I felt .. gross.

Just a wretched feeling. It felt intimate.

Like I was watching something I shouldn't have been which is just brilliant storytelling.

[u/LordGAD]

I saw Bryan Cranston in Network on Broadway and I watched him have a complete mental breakdown on stage. Then he came out bowing and smiling at the end. It was so convincing that both my daughter and I said that we felt like we needed to call someone to get him help when talking after the show.

Best acting I’ve ever seen and it was live theater.

[u/GreenZebra23 → u/LordGAD]

Yeah Cranston is consistently able to jump in and out of it like that. If you see the outtakes for Breaking Bad, he'll be doing some of the most intense acting you've ever seen, then they'll yell cut and he'll immediately make a wisecrack or a sex joke, then go right back into it when they're rolling again

[u/GeneSmart2881]

Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting cries SO HARD… fuck bro I felt that. You can even hear the level of his emotional catharsis it ACTUALLY sounds like he collapses in Robin Williams arms. Just take the Oscar

[u/EsquilaxM → u/GeneSmart2881]

Also Minnie Driver during the "Say you don't love me!" fight. So damn good.

[u/annaboul → u/GeneSmart2881]

The first scene I thought about. It broke me and healed me at the same time

[u/GrimJimmy94]

Manchester by the sea- Casey Affleck characters attempt to kill himself by grabbing the cops gun and his complete breakdown.

Manchester by the sea- when his ex wife played by Michelle Williams speaks to him ask for her forgiveness in how she treated him after the tragedy they endured and his subsequent reaction where he essentially doesn’t want forgiveness and how there is nothing of him anymore.

Whole movie is amazing and the performances are. I personally think Affleck in this movie is a top ten all time performance ever on screen.

[u/caramelchewchew → u/GrimJimmy94]

I went in blind to see Manchester By The Sea and have never been so devastated by a film

[u/InCharacter_815 → u/GrimJimmy94]

“I can’t beat it.”

The moments you mention are gut wrenching, obviously, but that quiet, defeated resignation at the end is so brutal.

[u/keysersozevk → u/GrimJimmy94]

I was going to mention these 2 exact scenes as well, they're seared into my brain. When Michelle Williams says "you can't just die" 😭😭

[u/-strangedazey → u/GrimJimmy94]

The look of realization that no one holds him responsible, and the only thing him can do is punish himself.

Casey Affleck is brilliant

[u/TJ_Fox]

I think it was Ewan MacGregor's anguished howl of loss towards the end of Moulin Rouge. Still sticks with me nearly 25 years later.

[u/Nayzo → u/TJ_Fox]

This is what I was going to comment, he gives such an incredible performance in that movie, and that scene just tears at your guts.

[u/KoalaQueen87 → u/TJ_Fox]

This is the movie I put on when I need a guaranteed cry

[u/mcmesq → u/TJ_Fox]

IMO, the most realistic grief/breakdown scene ever.

[u/robinlynk]

I agree that the answer is Toni Collette in Hereditary, but I also want to give it up for Naomi Scott in Smile 2.

[u/azaleeas → u/robinlynk]

Omg Naomi Scott was incredible in that movie! I hadn't enjoyed a horror performance like that in so long.

[u/Outrageous_Will_8445]

Colin Farrell crying, and his whole body shaking, when he talks about the dead boy in In Bruges (the scene in the playground).

[u/-Wall-of-Sound- → u/Outrageous_Will_8445]

“What am I gonna be, a doctor?” snorts up snot “Ya need exams.”

[u/Outrageous_Will_8445 → u/-Wall-of-Sound-]

Brilliant:) The changes from tragedy to comedy and back again are so quick, organic and real.

[u/evrythngbutdagirl]

Barry Pepper - The Green Mile. There are other movies where he gets emotional too, he always nudges me over the edge.

[u/arthurdentstowels]

Someone already said Hereditary but I think Florence Pugh did a fantastic job in MidSommar

[u/Listening_Stranger82 → u/arthurdentstowels]

All of Florence Pugh's grief and "trying to repress the grief" in Midsommar felt so fucking real.

The first time Pelle is like "oh I never said sorry about what happened to your...(spoiler).." and Florence's face and eyes go from polite smile to panic/grief/caught off guard.

Ugh. My heart.

Plus Pugh's actual little frown any time any of her characters are sad...

[u/LEYW → u/arthurdentstowels]

Just her screams over the phone were gut-wrenching

[u/themehpatrol → u/arthurdentstowels]

Absolutely, both of those nearly activated a flight or fight response in me in the theater. If you’ve heard someone who’s lost a child or family member cry like that, and I genuinely hope you never do… it’s accurate and it haunts you.

[u/thenonefineday → u/arthurdentstowels]

This made me SO uncomfortable in the theater. Such an incredible performance.

[u/floralsandfloss → u/arthurdentstowels]

Midsommer is one of my favorite folk-horror movies, but I can’t bring myself to rewatch it. The weird cult stuff? No prob! The palpable suffocation of grief? Hell no!

[u/jennifer0309 → u/arthurdentstowels]

Flo is my favorite actress. Everything she does is phenomenal. I just watched We Live in Time a couple days ago and I was blown away. The lead actor and Flo’s chemistry is incredible. Also, I think her character in Don’t Worry Darling is so beautiful. I developed a little girl crush on her for that one.

[u/unicornsfartsparkles → u/arthurdentstowels]

I'd watch Florence Pugh watch paint dry. Not really though, but she's very talented.

[u/alsotheabyss]

Probably not the greatest of all time, but Cooper’s aching grief when he awakes after cold sleep to watch the videos of his children in Interstellar

[u/elykl12 → u/alsotheabyss]

He gained and lost a grandson in thirty seconds and then slowly watched his family lose hope he’d ever come back over decades in the following eighty seconds

His father and son died both thinking he’d forgotten about them or just died alone in space

[u/Culero → u/elykl12]

He gained and lost a grandson in thirty seconds

Oh shit, I must've overlooked that part...Don't remember it at all

[u/83franks → u/alsotheabyss]

The scene they used for this was the first take and he hadn't seen the clips before. I guess he got primed and in character then just kind of quietly came on set for the scene and then basically really became Coop experience all that for the first time. Such a great scene.

[u/zaminDDH → u/alsotheabyss]

While the context of that scene is heartbreaking, McConaughey's performance is what really elevates it to absolutely devastating.

[u/Gilshem → u/alsotheabyss]

That was after the time dilation from the planet near Gargantua, wasn’t it?

[u/comrade_batman → u/Gilshem]

Yeah, after they returned from Miller’s Planet.

[u/ObiWan-Shinoobi → u/alsotheabyss]

God that scene is hard to watch. Makes you feel so ill.

[u/cpm67 → u/alsotheabyss]

Watching it as a young adult: oh that’s sad

Watching again as a parent: fuuuuuuucking hell that is devastating

[u/BootyMcSqueak → u/alsotheabyss]

Even when he’s driving away to get on the ship.

[u/LonnieJaw748]

Jeff Rawle wailing in agony when Cedric Diggory dies in Goblet of Fire.

[u/AsleepTemperature111 → u/LonnieJaw748]

My boy!

[u/velociraptur3 → u/LonnieJaw748]

That's my son. That's my bOoOooy. Ugh.

[u/LonnieJaw748 → u/velociraptur3]

He really gave it his all for that scene. You can’t not feel it.

[u/JerseyGuy-77 → u/LonnieJaw748]

Haunting for a kids film

[u/LonnieJaw748 → u/JerseyGuy-77]

It stirs me every time we watch it. Which is probably once a month.

[u/JeremiahWuzABullfrog → u/LonnieJaw748]

"That's my SON! That's my boy!"

[u/kbean826]

No parent should have to bury their child. - Theoden. It hurt when I was young, but now that I have boys of my own, it’s soul crushing.

[u/tauntonlake]

Love, Actually - Alan Rickman gives Emma Thompson her Christmas gift, and her reaction afterward, in private ..

[u/ConsistentlyPeter]

Kirsten Dunst trying to get into the bath in Melancholia. 

[u/ConversationMore1349 → u/ConsistentlyPeter]

Melancholia doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Kirsten Dunst absolutely nailed that role.

[u/ConsistentlyPeter → u/ConversationMore1349]

Unbelievable performance. 

[u/ShanaAfterAll]

Julianne Moore's Don't call me lady monologue from Magnolia has to be up there.

[u/SleepyCat86 → u/ShanaAfterAll]

Tom cruise is phenomenal in this too. Contrast between his bravado on stage vs. Crumbling at his dad’s bedside. 🤯 Fantastic film.

[u/CalgonThrowMeAway222 → u/ShanaAfterAll]

Yes! Thanks for the reminder! She was so, so good! Also, Phillip Seymour Hoffman on the phone talking about how he’s trying to get a hold of his client’s son “as if it were a movie.”

[u/snugglesmacks → u/ShanaAfterAll]

That whole movie was amazing. I literally just posted Jason Robards... "The goddam regret!!"

[u/SpitfireSis]

Shirley MacLaine Terms of Endearment

[u/dart1126 → u/SpitfireSis]

Give my daughter the shot!!!!

[u/QuibbleFibble]

Not a movie so I’m sorry, but Sarah Michelle Gellar in the Buffy episode “The Body” has always struck me as one of the most harrowing performance in any medium. Watching her go through the stages of grief in essentially one scene is something incomprehensible to me, and goes to show why she was such a compelling lead.

[u/The_ZombyWoof → u/QuibbleFibble]

"Mom? Whadya doin'? Mom? ... Mom? ... Mommy?"

To this day, a knife cut right to my soul.

Also, since we're talking about The Body, shout out to Anya's speech, also an incredible performance and another straight punch to the gut:

Anya (crying): "But I don't understand! I don't understand how this all happens. How we go through this. I mean, I knew her, and then she's, there's just a body, and I don't understand why she just can't get back in it and not be dead anymore! It's stupid! It's mortal and stupid! And, and Xander's crying and not talking, and, and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, well Joyce will never have any more fruit punch, ever, and she'll never have eggs, or yawn or brush her hair, not ever, and no one will explain to me why."

[u/keener_lightnings → u/The_ZombyWoof]

Another thing that always gets me in that scene is Willow fixating on finding that one shirt to wear because Joyce liked it 😭

[u/im5x5b → u/QuibbleFibble]

Her absolute expression of horror and disgust with herself after she says “we can’t move the body!” That episode still haunts me, I usually skip it on rewatches.

[u/sourbelle → u/QuibbleFibble]

The ‘mommy’ just ….I don’t even like my own mother but that made me tear up.

[u/Eliagick → u/QuibbleFibble]

"- She's cold, should I make her warm?

-The body?

-No, my mom."

[u/thatonepedant → u/QuibbleFibble]

When she tells Giles not to touch the body, OOOF. I break again when Anya can't process the situation.

[u/Sipyloidea → u/QuibbleFibble]

I had to skip out of that episode in the midst of that scene after my own mom's death, because it was too heavy. The plot twist is that my mom passed 10 years ago and Sarah's acting still hit me that hard. Had to gather myself for a few days before preparing myself mentally to attempt to watch it fully. 

[u/AxiomGrinder]

Sean Penn in Mystic River

[u/sonofabutch → u/AxiomGrinder]

Not just the anguish in that scene, but the scene in the morgue…

[u/SynapseForest]

Cage in Pig. Good damn that movie is heavy and amazing.

[u/Sandblaster1988 → u/SynapseForest]

Cage in Pig is fantastic. Even the special features of literally watching him cook is captivating.

“We don’t get a lot of things to really care about .”

[u/Paulthefith]

“I could have done more” by Liam neeson in Shindlers list

[u/kkirstenc]

Every fucking one of the main actors in Hereditary, but particularly Toni Collette and Alex Wolff.

[u/bangbangbatarang]

Paul Mescal in Aftersun.

Calum tries so hard to contain his anguish, so when his pain comes out in private—when he spits at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, walks into the ocean, and sobs over his postcard to Sophie—it's almost violent. The fact that he's trying to make peace with his death and give his daughter a final holiday to remember him by makes his moments of real joy absolutely excruciating.

By the time he says goodbye to Sophie at the airport, smiles, and turns off the camera to walk through the door and into the dark, I was inconsolable. Mescal was a revelation.

[u/SilverGirlSails]

Miss Piggy and Kermit as the grieving Crachitts in The Muppet Christmas Carol are better actors than some humans. Their quiet devastation at the loss of Tiny Tim is surprisingly realistic.

[u/Then-Yam-2266]

Tom Hanks at the end of Captain Phillips.

[u/zk3033 → u/Then-Yam-2266]

Tom Hanks in castaway. Him losing Wilson, with the swelling music in the background.

[u/MegaMan3k → u/Then-Yam-2266]

Excellent example that's more subdued than most others.

[u/SuperDanOsborne]

Hereditary is definitely GOAT.

But there's a scene in The Patriot where Mel Gibson does a phenomenal portrayal of grief. That always pops into my head.

[u/Psychological_Cow956 → u/SuperDanOsborne]

Second the Patriot. There are some incredibly well acted moments of despair in grief in that film that always get me.

[u/Suspicious-Elk-3631 → u/SuperDanOsborne]

I thought about Mel Gibson in the patriot as well. When his eldest son dies and he is repeating "God help me, God help me" I about lost it because I've had that response to an emotional trauma.

[u/Tomgar]

Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Just a man drowning in a deep well of abject despair. Also, watching Elizabeth Shue's slowly increasing desperation as she watches someone she's grown to care for just deliberately self destruct.

[u/Expat-Red]

Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice as the titular Sophie who makes many choices. She can do anything but this was the film that introduced me to her when I was a teen. Saw it at the theater on a whim with my dad. We were both weeping messes at the end. The film is full of excellent, emotive performances. Sophie making her most fateful choice is, of course, the climax of the story but we see it in flashback. Her face on the train platform at Auschwitz is a mask of horror and pain as she sends her daughter to the gas chamber so her son can live. When we come back to the present day Sophie, recounting the worst moment of her life, she’s sad but the horror is gone, her face almost blank, displaced by all the other horrors she lived through. And with her eternal question—why did she live when so many died? What a film, and what a performance.

[u/sofapizza]

When the mom (Jodie Whittaker) finds out her son died in Broadchurch.. damn her acting felt so real I couldn't help but sob along with her.

[u/beanscans → u/sofapizza]

For me it was the scene at the end of season 1, when Olivia Colman figures it out. In fact, I came here to see if anyone mentioned that one. I was utterly blown away by the realism of her reaction.

[u/Ambitious-Touch-58]

Not a movie, but season 4 episode 3 of Succession has four different incredible performances where they all show emotions in such different ways to a single event. 

[u/timhamilton47]

Kate Hudson as Penny Lane in “Almost Famous” when she finds out that she was traded to the band Humble Pie for $50 and a case of beer.

[u/-Wall-of-Sound- → u/timhamilton47]

“…What kind of beer?” world’s saddest laugh

[u/MissSassifras1977 → u/timhamilton47]

The way she flicks that single tear away and then smiles that million watt Goldie smile....

"What kind of beer?"

[u/greggery → u/timhamilton47]

Came here to say this, just the stages of grief you see her go through just by her facial expressions is astounding

[u/ithinkther41am]

Brie Larson in Room when she reunites with Jack outside the room.

[u/Syncopian]

Mel Gibson does a great job of this in 'Signs.'

Specifically in the scene where he's talking to Ray in his car.

[u/sween1911]

Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo at the end of the original First Blood telling the story of his friend dying.

[u/driveonacid]

Steel Magnolias. At Shelby's funeral when M'Lynn absolutely breaks down. When I was younger, I cried at that part because Shelby had died. Now, I cry because of her mother's pain.

Sally Field crushed that scene. I'm actually tearing up just thinking about it right now.

[u/LSama]

It may not seem like much to others, but there's an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, in which Mariska Hargitay's character is standing right in front of another woman who abruptly commits suicide after helping Hargitay's character catch and stop a serial rapist. Hargitay's reaction to that suicide in the moment when it happens was one of the most real, visceral reactions I've ever seen out of an actor: a brief, panicked scream of dismay at what she's seeing - and the awareness she can't do anything to stop it - followed by that scream abruptly ending when the gun fires. Hargitay's look of pure horrified confusion on her face right as the gun goes off is spot on.

Also: Viola Davis' entire performance in Fences.

[u/hailingburningbones]

Not a movie, but in Better Call Saul when Kim starts sobbing on the bus. 

Also: Bjork in Dancer in the Dark. I was so upset watching the ending that I was nauseous. 

[u/Dotsmom → u/hailingburningbones]

She was so fantastic in that show, she should have won the Emmy for that scene alone.

[u/WildDogMoon70]

Tim Robbins as Jacob Singer in Jacob's Ladder. Loas of a son, loss of a family. Fear, death, peace.

[u/StrawberryJinx]

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, when they find out that Ashley Judd's fiancé died and his mother sobs on the floor.

[u/KoalaQueen87 → u/StrawberryJinx]

I grew up watching that movie and remember enjoying it. So I put it on for my husband thinking it will be a good time. It was so emotionally raw and real I could barely handle finishing it

[u/bix902 → u/StrawberryJinx]

Speaking of Divine Secrets, the beating scene

Ashley Judd, Allison Bertolini, Sarah Huck, Austin R. Cooper, and Alex Cooper absolutely act their hearts out and I feel absolutely sick whenever I see that scene

[u/armand11]

The scene is Deadwood where Timothy Olyphant and Anna Gunn say the final goodbye to their dead son is one of the best moments of grief I’ve ever watched. Maybe because I’m a parent but holy hell that scene is rough. So well acted even for that show.

[u/igor4pres]

Robert De Niro in Sleepers when they're telling him what happened to them in prison. He doesn't say a word, he just ages a decade in 20 seconds. Incredibly powerful.

[u/TheBoozyNinja87]

Thomas Jane in The Mist. That ending, my god. Those awful wailing screams just haunted me for years afterwards. Incredible.

[u/TheBlackCycloneOrder]

Rocket’s reaction in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 after High Evolutionary kills Lylla, Teefs, and Floor after a seemingly successful escape

[u/Cheese_Dinosaur → u/TheBlackCycloneOrder]

I had to keep pausing this film for a cuppa and to compose myself 🫣 I sobbed so much!

[u/snugglesmacks]

Jason Robards in Magnolia. "The goddam regret!"

There's a lot of good performances in that movie

[u/OldBearEric]

To me it will always be Lee Byung-hun in the end (or the whole, really) I Saw The Devil.

I won’t spoil it here. But it is soul-rending…

I watch it when I need a good cry. Please give it a good try. It’s worth it.

Honorable mention to Choi Min-sik in Oldboy. I love that man in everything…

[u/figuringthingsout__]

There are so many powerful emotional scenes.

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have some powerful scenes in Before Sunset, the 2nd movie in the Before trilogy.

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver have this emotional scene in Marriage Story.

Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen had some emotional fights in Succession. This was one of the most emotional scenes in the series. It's also incredible acting when you take into account the fact that neither of them have a natural American accent.

[u/bix902]

Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island

>! The full flashback of how his wife murdered their children. How he sees their bodies floating in the water, leaps in, tries to breathe life into his daughter and begins desperately trying to pull all of their bodies towards himself while sobbing and screaming "no." And then after he carries their bodies out and lays them gently on the shore and he takes his daughter's shoe off and begins rubbing her foot in a futile attempt to warm her up. !<

It kills me every time

[u/NoAssociation6868]

The first two movies that come to my mind are the execution of John Coffey in Green Mile and the boys saying goodbye to Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society. Probably because I watched them as a kid and they left a huge impact on me.

[u/killingmehere]

TV but all of Winona Ryder in the first season of Stranger Things, it was palpable the whole time.

[u/Apoll0Moon]

Ewan McGregor on the phone in The Impossible

Kurtwood Smith in Dead Poet’s Society

[u/skihist]

Scenes where there are few to no words, no screaming, flailing, or other outward demonstrations hit me harder.

Tom Hanks has a few scenes that make me tear up every time I see them.

1) Philadelphia - walking out of Denzel Washington's office, it was likely his last ditch attempt to get a lawyer to take his case. His despair at that moment was palatable.

2) Forrest Gump - He's recalling his last moments with Bubba. " That's all I have to say about that." and his face is telegraphing the most profound grief.

[u/jinx_remover]

Manchester by the sea

[u/The_Lone_Apple]

Simon Russell Beale in The Death Of Stalin when he's screaming, "All of you." The desperation in his voice as he realizes they're thinking of coming for him is just top notch.

[u/YourPlot]

Sheryl Lee in the Twin Peaks movie, Fire Walk with Me. Her absolute pain as Laura Palmer being sexually abused by a demon wearing her father’s body and her desperately doing anything to avoid it for 2 hours is excruciating to see. She shouldve gotten an Oscar for it.

[u/Yooooorch100]

Sarah Michelle Gellar in the episode The Body of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I would also mention her character in the final scene of Cruel Intentions, when she realizes her reputation has completely crumbled

[u/Hot_Space_1982]

Leo Di Caprio in The Basketball Diaries

[u/Coffeeshop36 → u/Hot_Space_1982]

That movie is so good and sadly largely forgotten.

[u/thebublight]

Hugh jackman in prisoners

[u/2988206]

Cloris Leachman at the end of The Last Picture Show. I'd never seen anything like it when I watched it for the first time.

[u/MrBartokomous]

The camera's so tight on her face it kinda feels like cheating, but Anne Hathaway's "I Dreamed A Dream" in Les Mis absolutely wrecks me.

There's a scream of anguish from Ana De Armas near the end of Blonde that still sticks with me years later, but it's off camera, so not really one I've "seen".

[u/ALF839]

Richard Fransworth's sadness in The Straight Story was strikingly real, and it made a lot of sense after reading about that period of his life. He was dealing with 2 cancers and took his own life a year after the movie came out.

[u/ChocoDrop]

Not a movie, but Stephen Graham at the end of episode 4 of Adolescence is gut-wrenching

[u/TheJugOfNugs]

Ed Harris in the abyss

[u/SadDancer]

Look, not a perfect movie, but there’s one scene in Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood where a mother finds out her son died in the war. She wails and then eventually hides her head in her dress skirt like a child, just really transcribes how grief strips you down to your roots.

[u/mark_is_a_virgin]

I literally just watched Three Billboards last night for the first time. Amazing performances all around. You're right about that scene, gut wrenching emotion

[u/Girl-From-Mars]

Jennifer Aniston in The Break Up. The fact it was so close to her real life break up I think meant there was a lot of real emotion in there.

[u/DJFlorez → u/Girl-From-Mars]

The scene where she is explaining she wants him to want to be helpful….everytime I think about it, it hits me. It’s not overacted, it’s spot on capturing the moment of giving up. That whole movie is creepily accurate with the having to stay in the same residence while the other person is “dating” until you can afford to move out etc.

It’s not Oscar worthy or anything, but it is fucking accurate

[u/TheMRC]

Interstellar, when Cooper watches all the videos from his kids after losing all those real time years on the planet close to the black hole.

[u/Contact_Pleasant]

Edie Falco in the Sopranos, when she kicks Tony out, when Tony’s in a coma, when AJ tries to commit suicide, masterclass in acting

[u/colinisthereason]

Sally Field at the funeral in Steel Magnolias

“No. No! It’s not supposed be this way. I’m supposed to go first. I’ve always been ready to go first!”

[u/bgea2003]

Al Pacino on the steps of the opera house at the end of Godfather Part III

[u/nonbeenary]

The ending of portrait of a lady on fire. Adele Haenel experiencing the music while thinking on her lost love was one of the best parting glances in film.

[u/_The_Bearded_Wonder_]

I haven't seen it mentioned, so I'm going to say it: Godzilla Minus One. 

I remember the whole audience going from "Oh!" to "Oh..." the moment Godzilla launched that nuclear breath in the city. And that scream of anguish, my god that was powerful. 

[u/toiletcleaner999]

Sean Penn in mystic river where hes screaming IS THAT MY DAUGHTER IN THERE. That scene rips my soul apart

[u/WileECoyotePHD]

Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9vj2Wf57rQ

Part of the effect is the nonverbal element of Oskar accepting the ring from Stern. He drops the ring out of shock and grief, as Stern quotes the Talmud: "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

Niagara Falls. Makes me tear up every time.