Best drama movies who have good and sometimes tragic stories

by radu_darck_black | created - 21 May 2011 | updated - 17 Jul 2013 | Public

Not in order but some of the best

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1. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

70 Metascore

Two friends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Director: Woody Allen | Stars: Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Christopher Evan Welch

Votes: 268,940 | Gross: $23.22M

2. Stoker (2013)

R | 99 min | Drama, Thriller

58 Metascore

After India's father dies, her Uncle Charlie, who she never knew existed, comes to live with her and her unstable mother. She comes to suspect this mysterious, charming man has ulterior motives and becomes increasingly infatuated with him.

Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Dermot Mulroney

Votes: 114,554 | Gross: $1.70M

3. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

R | 134 min | Drama, Romance

87 Metascore

Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.

Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid

Votes: 382,383 | Gross: $83.04M

4. Awake (2007)

R | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

33 Metascore

A wealthy young man undergoing heart transplant surgery discovers that the surgical team intend to murder him.

Director: Joby Harold | Stars: Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin

Votes: 80,607 | Gross: $14.38M

5. Killing Me Softly (2002)

R | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

A young American woman living in London begins a passionate and kinky affair with a handsome stranger who may have a dark and dangerous past.

Director: Kaige Chen | Stars: Heather Graham, Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Thomsen

Votes: 19,334

6. Precious (II) (2009)

R | 110 min | Drama

78 Metascore

In New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.

Director: Lee Daniels | Stars: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey

Votes: 116,271 | Gross: $47.57M

7. The Lovely Bones (2009)

PG-13 | 135 min | Drama, Fantasy, Thriller

42 Metascore

Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from purgatory. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Susan Sarandon

Votes: 179,971 | Gross: $43.82M

8. The Young Victoria (2009)

PG | 105 min | Biography, Drama, History

64 Metascore

A dramatization of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria's rule, and her enduring romance with Prince Albert.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson

Votes: 66,411 | Gross: $11.00M

9. The Duchess (2008)

PG-13 | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History

62 Metascore

A chronicle of the life of 18th-century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was revered for her extravagant political and personal life.

Director: Saul Dibb | Stars: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling

Votes: 87,304 | Gross: $13.82M

10. Anna Karenina (I) (2012)

R | 129 min | Drama, Romance

63 Metascore

In late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.

Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen

Votes: 106,573 | Gross: $12.82M

11. Revolutionary Road (2008)

R | 119 min | Drama, Romance

69 Metascore

A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children.

Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jonathan Roumie

Votes: 225,046 | Gross: $22.91M

12. Little Children (2006)

R | 137 min | Drama, Romance

75 Metascore

The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations in suburban Massachusetts.

Director: Todd Field | Stars: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley

Votes: 116,790 | Gross: $5.46M

13. All Good Things (2010)

R | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

57 Metascore

David Marks, a real estate scion, is suspected of killing his wife Katie, who disappeared in 1982.

Director: Andrew Jarecki | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Lily Rabe

Votes: 60,135 | Gross: $0.58M

14. Girl, Interrupted (1999)

R | 127 min | Biography, Drama

51 Metascore

A directionless teenager, Susanna, is rushed to Claymoore, a mental institution, after a supposed suicide attempt. There, she befriends a group of troubled women who deeply influence her life.

Director: James Mangold | Stars: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Brittany Murphy

Votes: 211,440 | Gross: $28.87M

15. Country Strong (2010)

PG-13 | 117 min | Drama, Music

45 Metascore

A rising country-music songwriter works with a fallen star to work their way to fame, causing romantic complications along the way.

Director: Shana Feste | Stars: Garrett Hedlund, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester, Tim McGraw

Votes: 18,950 | Gross: $20.22M

16. For Colored Girls (2010)

R | 133 min | Drama

50 Metascore

Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general and women of color in particular.

Director: Tyler Perry | Stars: Janet Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Whoopi Goldberg, Kimberly Elise

Votes: 8,198 | Gross: $37.72M

17. According to Greta (2009)

PG-13 | 92 min | Drama, Romance

A suicidal and rebellious teenager is sent to live with her grandparents for the summer, where life takes an unexpected turn.

Director: Nancy Bardawil | Stars: Hilary Duff, Evan Ross, Michael Murphy, Ellen Burstyn

Votes: 10,360

18. An American Crime (2007)

R | 98 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.

Director: Tommy O'Haver | Stars: Elliot Page, Hayley McFarland, Nick Searcy, Romy Rosemont

Votes: 36,988

19. Original Sin (2001)

R | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

33 Metascore

A woman, along with her lover, plans to con a rich man by marrying him, earning his trust, and then running away with all his money. Everything goes as planned until she falls in love with him.

Director: Michael Cristofer | Stars: Antonio Banderas, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Jane, Jack Thompson

Votes: 59,814 | Gross: $16.25M

20. The Notebook (2004)

PG-13 | 123 min | Drama, Romance

53 Metascore

An elderly man reads to a woman with dementia the story of two young lovers whose romance is threatened by the difference in their respective social classes.

Director: Nick Cassavetes | Stars: Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling

Votes: 620,494 | Gross: $81.00M

21. A Walk to Remember (2002)

PG | 101 min | Drama, Romance

35 Metascore

Two North Carolina teens, Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan, are thrown together after Landon gets into trouble and is sentenced to perform community service.

Director: Adam Shankman | Stars: Mandy Moore, Shane West, Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah

Votes: 221,422 | Gross: $41.28M

22. Closer (I) (2004)

R | 104 min | Drama, Romance

65 Metascore

The relationships of two couples become complicated and deceitful when the man from one couple meets the woman of the other.

Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts

Votes: 236,149 | Gross: $33.99M

23. Eye for an Eye (1996)

R | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

25 Metascore

When the courts fail to keep behind bars the man who raped and murdered her daughter, a woman seeks her own form of justice.

Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris, Olivia Burnette

Votes: 18,940 | Gross: $26.79M

24. An Education (2009)

PG-13 | 100 min | Drama

85 Metascore

A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.

Director: Lone Scherfig | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams

Votes: 138,167 | Gross: $12.57M

25. Blue Velvet (1986)

R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

75 Metascore

The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern

Votes: 215,806 | Gross: $8.55M

26. The Reader (2008)

R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

58 Metascore

Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.

Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Jeanette Hain

Votes: 259,980 | Gross: $34.19M

27. Zodiac (2007)

R | 157 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

79 Metascore

Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.

Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards

Votes: 598,659 | Gross: $33.08M

28. 8 Mile (2002)

R | 110 min | Drama, Music

77 Metascore

Follows a young rapper in the Detroit area, struggling with every aspect of his life; he wants to make it big but his friends and foes make this odyssey of rap harder than it may seem.

Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Eminem, Brittany Murphy, Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer

Votes: 321,045 | Gross: $116.72M

29. The Blind Side (2009)

PG-13 | 129 min | Biography, Drama, Sport

53 Metascore

The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.

Director: John Lee Hancock | Stars: Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Jae Head

Votes: 360,649 | Gross: $255.96M

30. The Killer Inside Me (2010)

R | 109 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

53 Metascore

A West Texas Deputy Sheriff is slowly unmasked as a psychotic killer.

Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Ned Beatty

Votes: 35,740 | Gross: $0.21M

31. The Joneses (2009)

R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama

55 Metascore

A seemingly perfect family moves into a suburban neighborhood, but when it comes to the truth as to why they're living there, they don't exactly come clean with their neighbors.

Director: Derrick Borte | Stars: Demi Moore, David Duchovny, Amber Heard, Benjamin Hollingsworth

Votes: 41,814 | Gross: $1.47M

32. Buried (2010)

R | 95 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

65 Metascore

Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.

Director: Rodrigo Cortés | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, José Luis García-Pérez, Robert Paterson, Stephen Tobolowsky

Votes: 168,578 | Gross: $1.03M

33. The Romantics (2010)

PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

43 Metascore

Seven close friends reunite for the wedding of two of their friends. Problems arise because the bride and the maid of honor have had a long rivalry over the groom.

Director: Galt Niederhoffer | Stars: Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, Josh Duhamel, Malin Akerman

Votes: 12,528 | Gross: $0.10M

34. The Kids Are All Right (2010)

R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

86 Metascore

Two children conceived by artificial insemination bring their biological father into their non-traditional family life.

Director: Lisa Cholodenko | Stars: Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska

Votes: 134,458 | Gross: $20.81M

35. Identity (2003)

R | 90 min | Mystery, Thriller

64 Metascore

Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.

Director: James Mangold | Stars: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes

Votes: 267,335 | Gross: $52.16M

36. Twelve (2010)

R | 93 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

22 Metascore

A young drug dealer watches as his high-rolling life is dismantled in the wake of his cousin's murder, which sees his best friend arrested for the crime.

Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, Philip Ettinger

Votes: 12,661 | Gross: $0.18M

37. Enough (I) (2002)

PG-13 | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

25 Metascore

After running away fails, a terrified woman empowers herself in order to battle her abusive husband.

Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, Tessa Allen, Juliette Lewis

Votes: 47,775 | Gross: $40.01M

38. Young Adult (2011)

R | 94 min | Comedy, Drama

71 Metascore

Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend who is now happily married and has a newborn daughter.

Director: Jason Reitman | Stars: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, Elizabeth Reaser

Votes: 87,947 | Gross: $16.31M

39. Up in the Air (I) (2009)

R | 109 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

83 Metascore

Ryan's job is to travel around the country firing off people. When his boss hires Natalie, who proposes firing people via video conference, he tries to convince her that her method is a mistake.

Director: Jason Reitman | Stars: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman

Votes: 349,445 | Gross: $83.82M

40. Obsessed (2009)

PG-13 | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller

25 Metascore

A successful executive's seemingly perfect career and marriage starts falling apart when his firm hires a seductive office temp.

Director: Steve Shill | Stars: Beyoncé, Idris Elba, Ali Larter, Jerry O'Connell

Votes: 34,365 | Gross: $68.26M



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