The 15 Most Tear-Jerking Movies Streaming On Amazon Prime Right Now

Jason Segel is primarily known for starring in comedies you can’t help but watch on repeat, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man. But the How I Met Your Mother actor shows off his dramatic acting skills in 2019’s Our Friend. The movie, also starring Dakota Johnson and the controversial Casey Affleck, showcases the power of friendship.

Based on a heartwarming true story, Johnson plays Nicole, who’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer, with Affleck as her journalist husband, Matt. The day-to-day responsibilities of raising a family and dealing with Nicole’s illness begin to weigh heavily on the two. That’s where their friend Dane (Segel) steps in to help as he moves into their home.

Our Friend is based on a true story from a magazine article written by the real-life Matt, who is also a journalist.

Sept. 11 remains a day forever etched in the memory of all, due to the harrowing terrorist attacks that occurred in America on the date in 2001. The 2009 documentary 9/11 Phone Calls From the Towers goes a step further in analyzing the terrifying events of that day through recorded messages sent by some of the victims on that fateful day.

This movie isn’t for the faint of heart and may certainly trigger some who decide to watch it. Still, it stands as a potent reminder of that infamous day in U.S. history and the weight of words during a crisis. You’ll never look at text and voice messages the same way again after watching this movie.

This Drew Barrymore-led movie is based on writer Beverly Donofrio’s real life. Taken from the pages of her first book of the same name, it portrays the future bestselling author (played by Barrymore) between the ages of 15 to 35. The road to Donofrio’s success, however, is paved with hardships, as viewers see her become a teen mom and suffer fractured relationships with the men in her life as she dreams of becoming a writer.

The 2001 movie also features a star-studded cast, including the late Brittany Murphy, Steve Zahn, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Lorraine Bracco, and Peter Facinelli.

Chloë Grace Moretz is Cameron Post, a teenage girl sent to a gay conversion camp by her conservative aunt after she’s caught kissing her girlfriend in this 2018 drama. While at the camp, Cameron befriends two other outcasts, Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane) and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck). The trio bands together to make it through the everyday particulars of conversion therapy. Set in the 1990s, the movie was adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s coming-of-age book of the same name.

Danforth stated in a 2013 interview that Cameron was “a character built from pieces of my experience growing up gay in Eastern Montana in the early 1990s.” Director Desiree Akhavan has alternately said that she used her own experience at a rehabilitation center for eating disorders as inspiration for the project. She told film critic Emanuel Levy, “I love stories that take place in rehabilitation centers, and I’ve always wanted to do a project that talked about what it felt like to be in those rooms.”

Seeing everything that real-life couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon went through will leave you heartbroken, but thankfully they have a happy ending that’ll make you cry tears of joy, too. Nanjiani and Gordon wrote The Big Sick’s screenplay based on their true love story, as their romance was once beset by illness and familial disapproval. Nanjiani plays himself alongside Zoe Kazan as Gordon, who goes into a coma due as a result of Still’s disease.

Gordon herself told Bustle that while she’s still living with the disease, The Big Sick was always going to “have a comedic bent to it.” The producer and podcast host also called the romantic comedy “the most intimate thing” she’s ever penned.

Words on Bathroom Walls follows high school student Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer), who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Despite his diagnosis, Adam continues to navigate his senior year of school and a growing romance with a girl named Maya (Taylor Russell). He’s confronted with whether or not to tell Maya about his mental illness while struggling with psychotic episodes and the prospects of his post-grad life.

The 2020 film is based on Julia Walton’s 2017 book of the same name and also stars AnnaSophia Robb (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Andy Garcia (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Walter Goggins (Sons of Anarchy), and Devon Bostick (Diary of a Wimpy Kid).

Riverdale’s very own Lili Reinhart continues to brood as a different character in this hopelessly romantic drama. She plays Grace Town, a new student who arrives at the same high school Henry Page (Austin Abrams) attends. Henry falls head over heels for Grace, which appears to be a slightly bad idea considering that Grace is harboring a dark secret. However, the two are pulled toward one another like magnets, which perhaps serves as even more reason to watch the engrossing tale.

Chemical Hearts is the first movie executive produced by Reinhart. In 2020, she told Entertainment Weekly, “People haven’t really seen what I’m fully capable of. Maybe they only see me as being on a commercial television show, and I hope that this shows people that my heart is really in film.”

Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell share a complicated relationship as son and father in the 2018 drama Beautiful Boy. Co-produced by Brad Pitt, Beautiful Boy is based on memoirs written by Nic Sheff, played by Chalamet, and his father, journalist David Sheff, played by Carell. The movie puts a spotlight on drug addiction and its harrowing effects on the family.

Carell’s character goes to painstaking lengths to protect his son, while the latter fights his dependency on drugs such as methamphetamines. Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) told W that he auditioned for the role of Nic “many, many times.” In regard to the movie’s theme, he added, “It is a really serious subject and a lot of people in the world, in America, and a lot of people my age are going through this with opiates. [But] there’s still a taboo.”

Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck star as best friends who end up falling for the same woman in this wistful 2001 movie set during World War II. The woman who catches the eye of both lieutenants is Kate Beckinsale as Nurse Evelyn Johnson. Her romance with Rafe McCawley (Affleck) heats up first, but when tragedy strikes Rafe, Evelyn’s loving attention turns to Danny Walker (Hartnett).

Two real-life pilots’ story is “loosely depicted” in Pearl Harbor, but it’s a Michael Bay movie, so expect a lot of big-budget action moments and passionate love scenes.

At first glance, Cyberbully could be dismissed as a hokey cautionary tale about the pitfalls of social media. But the movie packs a stinging punch for viewers, especially thanks to Emily Osment’s profound acting skills. The former Hannah Montana actor plays Taylor, a teen who gladly receives a laptop for her 17th birthday and wastes no time signing up for a popular online networking website widely used by her high school peers. When she soon becomes the victim of online bullying, it leads to depression and other shocking consequences.

Osment won both a Canadian Screen Award and Prism Award for her realistic performance in Cyberbully. It’s hard not to cry as a result of watching it.

Love Story has been a long-regarded classic among romance movie viewers. Star-crossed lovers Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neal) and Jennifer “Jenny” Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw) are from completely different social circles but nonetheless fall in love. Oliver is a wealthy, ice hockey-playing Harvard student from the East Coast, and Jenny is a Radcliffe College music student from a working-class family.

Despite their contrasts, the two forge a romantic relationship, even as an illness threatens to rupture their bond. Love Story is considered one of the “100 greatest love stories of all time” by the American Film Institute, clocking in at number nine.

Oscar Isaac first came into our lives in Inside Llewyn Davis as a folk singer desperately trying to make his dreams come true while dealing with the suicide of his musical partner. The 2013 movie looks at one week in the life of Llewyn making ends meet in New York City and meeting a host of characters in the Greenwich Village folk music scene of 1961.

Many familiar faces also star in the Coen brothers’ award-winning film, such as Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Adam Driver, and John Goodman. Isaac’s singing talents (that’s his real voice in the movie’s songs!) and the touching story of Inside Llewyn Davis will both move your soul and break your heart.

This 2014 movie stars Lily Collins as Rosie and Sam Claflin as Alex, childhood best friends whose relationship is forever changed on Rosie’s 18th birthday, thanks to misinterpreted words leading to unrequited love. Different partners and other obstacles also appear to block Alex and Rosie’s true feelings for one another, but as time passes on, both characters eventually come to understand the power of fate, divine timing, and love.

Love, Rosie is based on Cecelia Ahern’s bestselling 2004 novel titled Where Rainbows End.

Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne’s friend Andrew Bagby was murdered by his ex-girlfriend Shirley Turner after he decided to end their relationship. But soon after, Turner found out she was pregnant with his child. Turner eventually killed herself and their child, Zachary, in a murder-suicide years after murdering Bagby, but Kuenne had spent years making a documentary with interviews with those who knew Bagby the best to show Zachary in the future.

The 2008 film is one of the most painful yet heartwarming documentaries you’ll see, and its release even led to the establishment of a Canadian law set to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.

La Bamba is based on the true story of late rock-and-roll singer-songwriter Ritchie Valens. Known as the forefather of Chicano rock, his journey from growing up as an impoverished Mexican American labor worker to an international superstar is told in this 1987 movie. The young performer’s musical talents were discovered and parlayed into superstardom by the age of 16, particularly due to his hit 1958 track “La Bamba.”

A year later, Valens tragically died in a plane crash with fellow famous singers Buddy Holly (who was 22 at the time) and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson (who was 29). La Bamba stars Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens in his first major role.

If you need a good sob, any of these movies will be an excellent choice.