Quality Minus Stress and Sadness
Perhaps you're having a bad day or going through a hard time or maybe you just prefer happier movies. Whatever the reason, it can be hard to know what are "safe" movies to watch. Bridesmaids may be a comedy, but for someone struggling to make ends meet, parts of it can bring up bad feelings. And sure, you can generally rely on Adam Sandler to keep it light, but a lot of us want higher quality films. So this is a list of movies that are both decent quality and generally free from stress and sadness (you may shed a few tears of joy, but I figured that was ok). I tried to include a variety of genres. Feel free to make suggestions or to let me know if any of these have stressful triggers I've forgotten about.
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- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsTom HanksElizabeth PerkinsRobert LoggiaAfter wishing to be made big, a teenage boy wakes the next morning to find himself mysteriously in the body of an adult.
- DirectorGeorge ArmitageStarsJohn CusackMinnie DriverDan AykroydMartin Blank is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence, his ten-year high school reunion party is taking place there at the same time.
- DirectorCharles CrichtonJohn CleeseStarsJohn CleeseJamie Lee CurtisKevin KlineIn London, four very different people team up on a jewel heist, then try to double-cross one another for the loot, complicated by their efforts to fool a very proper barrister.
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsTom HanksGeena DavisLori PettyTwo sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amid their own growing rivalry.Hmm there is one sad moment when someone finds out someone has died, but it moves on quickly to happier moments.
- DirectorRandall WallaceStarsDiane LaneJohn MalkovichMargo MartindalePenny Chenery Tweedy and colleagues guide her long-shot but precocious stallion to set, in 1973, the unbeaten record for winning the Triple Crown.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.A classic to be sure. Older movies are generally a good bet for those looking for stress-free, quality movies.
- DirectorBen StillerStarsBen StillerKristen WiigJon DalyWhen both he and a colleague are about to lose their job, Walter takes action by embarking on an adventure more extraordinary than anything he ever imagined.
- DirectorIvan ReitmanStarsBill MurrayDan AykroydSigourney WeaverThree parapsychologists forced out of their university funding set up shop as a unique ghost removal service in New York City, attracting frightened yet skeptical customers.
- DirectorDouglas McGrathStarsGwyneth PaltrowJames CosmoGreta ScacchiWhile matchmaking for friends and neighbours, a young 19th Century Englishwoman nearly misses her own chance at love.
- DirectorJohn CrowleyStarsCillian MurphyKelly MacdonaldColin FarrellA variety of losers in Dublin have harrowingly farcical intersecting stories of love, greed and violence.
- DirectorRégis RoinsardStarsRomain DurisFéodor AtkineDéborah François1958. Rose is a terrible secretary but a demon typist. Her handsome boss resolves to turn her into the fastest girl in the world.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsClark GableClaudette ColbertWalter ConnollyA rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.
- DirectorJohn HughesStarsMatthew BroderickAlan RuckMia SaraA popular high school student, admired by his peers, decides to take a day off from school and goes to extreme lengths to pull it off, to the chagrin of his Dean, who'll do anything to stop him.
- DirectorDoug LimanStarsFranka PotenteMatt DamonChris CooperA man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and suffering from amnesia, before racing to elude assassins and attempting to regain his memory.
- DirectorLasse HallströmStarsJuliette BinocheJohnny DeppJudi DenchA French woman and her young daughter open up a chocolate shop in a small remote village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community.There are some melancholy moments, including a death, but the film keeps everything pretty light.
- DirectorWayne BlairStarsChris O'DowdDeborah MailmanJessica MauboyIn 1968, four talented young Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship, and war when their all-girl group The Sapphires entertains the US troops in Vietnam.A stressful moment or two in Vietnam but otherwise safe.
- DirectorSteven SoderberghStarsGeorge ClooneyJennifer LopezVing RhamesA career bank robber breaks out of jail, and shares a moment of mutual attraction with a U.S. Marshal he has kidnapped.
- DirectorKenny OrtegaStarsChristian BaleBill PullmanRobert DuvallA musical based on the New York City newsboy strike of 1899. When young newspaper sellers are exploited beyond reason by their bosses they set out to enact change and are met by the ruthlessness of big business.By and large musicals are usually a good choice in this situation. And this one has Christian Bale singing and dancing in his very good-looking younger days :)
- DirectorRitesh BatraStarsIrrfan KhanNimrat KaurNawazuddin SiddiquiA mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.
- DirectorBennett MillerStarsBrad PittRobin WrightJonah HillOakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardHenry BergmanThe Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
- DirectorNigel ColeStarsBrenda BlethynCraig FergusonMartin ClunesA small-town English widow, facing financial troubles after her husband's suicide, turns to agriculture of an illegal kind.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsTom HanksDaryl HannahEugene LevyA young man is reunited with a mermaid he briefly encountered as a boy and falls in love with her without knowing her secret.
- DirectorJoel ZwickStarsNia VardalosJohn CorbettMichael ConstantineA young Greek woman falls in love with a non-Greek and struggles to get her family to accept him while she comes to terms with her heritage and cultural identity.
- DirectorJohn LasseterStarsTom HanksTim AllenDon RicklesA cowboy doll is profoundly threatened and jealous when a new spaceman action figure supplants him as top toy in a boy's bedroom.(Toy Story 3 is NOT a safe choice - you will cry your head off - fyi)