30 Best Movies About Loneliness & Love
We all feel lonely from time to time and are in search of love. If you are in that mood and looking for movies about loneliness and love, you are in the right place. In this article, we are bringing you exactly that.
Not all movies on this list will be about both topics, even though some will be. Some will also depict a horror side of loneliness, so if you are looking for that, we have you covered with a few scary gems as well.
Whichever kind of loneliness or love movie you are looking for, you will certainly find something for yourself on our list below, so check it out.
Chungking Express (1994)
The film begins on the night of April 30-May 1, 1994 in “Chungking House,” a maze-like shopping complex. A Chinese woman with a blonde wig tries to hide heroin with Pakistanis hired to smuggle drugs out of the country. May 1 also marks a month since police officer no. 223 left by the girl. He vows to fall in love with the first girl he sees: it turns out to be a blonde heroin smuggler…
The Age of Adaline (2015)
In the 1930s, an unusual fate befell Adaline Bowman. After a car accident, this beautiful young woman remains trapped in the body of a 29-year-old woman and manages to hide her secret for almost eight decades. Until the charismatic Ellis Jones appears in her life.
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Cast Away (2000)
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a top professional whose deadlines govern both his business and private life, and the company FedEx, whose employee he is, often sends him on assignments around the world. His dizzying pace of life is tragically interrupted by the crash of the plane in which he was traveling on another assignment.
Chuck manages to survive, but remains alone on a remote island, cut off from civilization and the possibility of salvation. Deprived of the conveniences of modern life, Chuck must first provide himself with the basic conditions of life, such as water, food and shelter, but once he does this, the real challenge begins – waiting for an uncertain future.
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After four years of seclusion, he is given the opportunity to return to the world, where he finds himself faced with an emotional challenge more difficult than all the physical demands of the desert island.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are two lonely Americans in Tokyo. Bob is a movie star whose fame is slowly fading, and he is shooting a video for whiskey in Japan, while Charlotte is a young woman who arrived in Tokyo with her photographer husband. They meet by chance in a hotel bar, and their friendship soon develops into a surprising friendship.
At first glance, young Charlotte and middle-aged Bob have almost nothing in common, except that they speak the same language. Surrounded by Japanese people, lost in their own and other people’s worlds, they will form a special bond that will probably not last long, but will live in their memories forever
Into the Wild (2007)
“Into The Wild” tells the story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a student who attends Emory University. Along with excellent grades, Christopher also excels in sports activities. After graduation, McCandless decides to give his entire savings, 24,000, to charity. When he gets rid of the money in the bank, he destroys all his documents and the money in his wallet.
Christopher decided to get away from civilization and spend some time traveling the country to prepare for the ultimate test of endurance, life in Alaska. During his travels, he meets many different characters whose lives he influences more than he thought.
The Lighthouse (2019)
The plot of the terrifying work of Robert Eggers, who enchanted the audience and the critics with the horror film ‘The Witch’, takes us to New England in the 19th century, where we follow two lighthouse keepers as they try to preserve their sanity on an eerie, remote island.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Nine-year-old Max (Max Records), after another argument with his mother (Catherine Keener), runs away from home and sails across the sea to a fantastic land of huge shaggy monsters, where he declares himself a king who can solve all their problems. But the position of king is not as carefree fun as it seems.
Moon (2009)
Sam Bell still has two weeks left on the three-year contract he signed with Lunar Industries. During those three years, Sam’s job was to collect and send Helium-3 to Earth. Since he has no direct communication with Earth, except for messages from his own wife that arrive from time to time, Sam’s only friend is GERTY, an intelligent computer whose function is to take care of his daily needs.
With almost no human contact, Sam begins to believe that three years of isolation from the rest of civilization is too much and is convinced that he is beginning to hallucinate. All he wants is to return to Earth to enjoy himself with his wife and three-year-old daughter who was born just before he left for the moon.
However, two weeks before the end of the contract, Sam has an accident with one of the machines that collect Helium-3, and after he wakes up, he discovers a terrifying secret that makes him question his sanity, his own identity, the company he works for and even the computer GERTY.
Joker (2019)
I’m always in a crowd, Arthur Fleck is a man who seeks closeness. But as he walks the beaten streets of Gotham and rides the public transport of a hostile city full of division and discontent, Arthur wears two masks.
One he wears for his job as a clown, and the other he can never take off. It is a mask he projects in a futile attempt to feel like a part of the world around him, rather than a misunderstood man who is constantly defeated by life.
The Shining (1980)
Writer Jack Torrance (J. Nicholson) is in a creative crisis. When he is offered a job as a security guard at the secluded Overlook Hotel in the mountains of Colorado, it seems like a good solution to his problems. Namely, during the winter the hotel is closed, and he and his family – wife Wendy (S. Duvall) and little son Danny (D. Lloyd) – will be its only tenants for several months. Soon a snowstorm cuts off the Torrances from the rest of the world.
Danny, who is clairvoyant and has the ability to communicate telepathically – “radiate” – with other worlds, soon discovers that the hotel is populated by ghosts, former employees and guests, dating back to the early 20th century. Unaware of such phenomena, Jack begins to drink more and more, is dissatisfied with his writing and cannot get rid of writer’s block.
Moreover, he becomes increasingly grumpy and aggressive, especially after hanging out with Mr. Grady (P. Stone), a former security guard who killed his wife and twin daughters.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
A romantic drama about the friendship of a withdrawn fifteen-year-old who is just starting high school and two teenagers who are finishing it. Charlie (L. Lerman) is smart and tries to find his place at school, but the other kids bully him and don’t accept him. By chance, he meets the elder Patrick (E. Miller) and his half-sister Sam (E. Watson), who accept him…
Life of Pi (2012)
The film tells the story of Pi Patel, the son of a zookeeper. The family has decided to move from India to Canada and embarks on a big voyage on a cargo ship. After being shipwrecked, Pi floats in the Pacific Ocean.
His companion is a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. When everything you know is lost, hope remains, which gives you the strength to fight relentlessly.
127 Hours (2010)
The true story of climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) who fights for bare survival after an accident that happened to him in the middle of a desolate cliff he was climbing on in Utah. Over the next five days, trapped under a large rock without the ability to move, Ralston will reassess his life and realize that he has the strength and will to resist death, climb the cliff and find salvation.
During his journey, Ralston will remember his friends, love (Clemence Poesy), family and two female climbers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met just before the accident. Will they be the last people Ralston meets in his life?
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
After the death of his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler), Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is shocked to learn that Joe has named him the sole guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Taking days off from work, Lee reluctantly returns to his hometown to care for Patrick, a lively 16-year-old.
He is forced to face the past that separated him from his wife Randi (Michelle Williams) and the community in which he was born and raised. Bonded by the man who held their family together, Lee and Patrick struggle to adjust to a world without him.
Magnolia (1999)
Is human life a series of coincidences or is it predetermined at every moment? The powerful TV producer Earl Partridge (J. Robards) has no more time for such doubts, because he is dying of cancer, and his only wish is to see his son Frank (T. Cruise) again, from whom he was estranged after the divorce. Meanwhile, Frank has changed his last name and T. J. Mackey runs a “Seduce and Destroy” men’s seminar where he teaches his frustrated trainees how to win a woman’s affection and then mercilessly dump her. Earl’s new wife Linda (J. Moore) is twice his husband’s age and although she married for wealth, she is only now realizing how much she is in love with him.
Earl’s popular quiz “What do kids know?” is also run by the terminally ill Jimmy Gator (P. B. Hall) and, just like the employer, has problems with his daughter Claudia (M. Dillon) who is increasingly addicted to cocaine despite the affection of the police officer Jim Kurring (J. C. Reilly). The star of this hugely watched the TV show, little Stanley Specter (J. Blackman), who is on his way to surpassing the record score of 60’s contestants Donnie Smith (W. H. Macy), is brutally exploited by his father Rick (M. Bowen). And while Earl is counting the last moments of his life, his caregiver Phil (P. S. Hoffman) goes in search of Frank.
Coraline (2009)
Coraline is a girl surrounded by alienation and misunderstanding, both from her closest relatives (parents) and from the neighborhood she moved to. A small hidden door that leads to a world similar to hers, but apparently with much more understanding and warmth, is a real way out of the grayness of everyday life.
But when the parallel reality wants to keep her, Coraline begins to fight for her own life, but also the lives of her parents and ghosts imprisoned on the other side of the mirror. Beneath the macabre layers is actually a very interesting story that, like all fairy tales, has a lesson – what is visible on the surface is not always the truth.
The Conversation (1974)
Harry Caul is a paranoid eavesdropper who runs his own firm in San Francisco and is highly regarded by his colleagues in the profession. Caul is obsessed with his own privacy: his apartment closes with a triple-locked door, he uses a payphone for phone calls and claims he doesn’t have a house phone, while his office is tucked away in the corner of a much larger warehouse. Caul is extremely professional at work, but has a hard time making personal connections. He is extremely uncomfortable in a crowd of people, while in intimate situations he is repulsive and silent.
Caul is assigned the task of recording the conversation of a couple walking through Union Square in San Francisco. After successfully completing the job, Caula is torn by a sense of doubt about the true meaning of the conversation and what might happen to the couple when the client obtains the tape.
During the film, Caul repeatedly plays the recording trying to figure out its true meaning (after a while he discovers an ambiguous sentence hidden under the sound of a street musician: “He would kill us if he had a chance”) and constantly reinterprets its meaning in the light of what he knows and what he assumes.
Taxi Driver (1976)
New York, 1970s. Former Marine and Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle (R. De Niro) suffers from insomnia and starts working nights as a taxi driver. Driving through the most dangerous neighborhoods, Travis observes prostitutes, criminals and the rest of the world, feeling called to change things in the city. Asocial Travis has no friends and goes to obscure porn movies.
Noticing the beautiful political activist Betsy (C. Shepherd), engaged in the presidential campaign of Senator Charles Palantine (L. Harris), Travis invites her to lunch, but the acquaintance between them ends after he takes her to a porn movie. Convinced that he must do something urgent with himself and his company, Travis buys several revolvers. While driving through New York, a minor prostitute Iris (J. Foster) catches his eye.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
A fantastic satire of the show business world, whose main character is Riggan Thomson, an actor who for years has been seen exclusively as the superhero Birdman because of the specific trash role he once played.
To finally break free from the yellow bird costume, the struggling Riggan plans to put on a play on Broadway. He wrote the script for it himself, is its director and is one of the actors. However, the road to renewed glory is anything but easy.
The Martian (2015)
Astronaut Watney is left alone on a merciless planet with only meager supplies and must rely on his inventiveness, ingenuity and spirit to survive and find a way to send a signal to Earth that he is still alive.
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Millions of kilometers away, NASA and a team of international scientists are working tirelessly to bring “The Martian” home, while his crewmates simultaneously hatch a plan for a daring, and perhaps impossible, rescue mission. As the story of incredible bravery unfolds, the world unites in wanting Watney to return safely to Earth.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Joel (Jim Carrey) is a bit withdrawn and silent guy. His girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) is his exact opposite: a chatterbox who dyes her hair a different color every now and then, tells very strange stories and is full of positivity. The story begins when Joel realizes that Clementine, after a long-term relationship, underwent an experimental memory erasure procedure and completely erased her memory of him.
Whether for revenge on her, or for the fact that he loves a person who doesn’t even know who he is, Joel decides to do the same thing. During the process, he realizes that he made a mistake, but there is no turning back.
Amélie (2001)
Amélie Poulain (A. Tatou) is a sensitive, imaginative and timid waitress at the “Two Windmills” cafe-bar in Paris, who lives completely isolated in her own world, enjoying small everyday joys, such as breaking the crust of creme brulee with a spoon or dipping her palm into a basket of cereals. An isolated childhood without a mother made her more of an observer than a participant in life, and like a good fairy, a guardian angel, or a saint from the suburbs, she watches over the unhappy, little people of Montmartre, making them happy with simple solutions.
But he never does it directly, but invisibly, in a roundabout way. The turning point in her life was the discovery of an old box from the childhood of a boy who long ago lived in the apartment where Amélie is now. Amélie wants to find that former boy, now a middle-aged man, and cheer him up with a box. After that event, she very easily found other people whose lives needed to be enriched and cheered up…
Barton Fink (1991)
Barton Fink, a successful screenwriter, moves from New York to Los Angeles to work for Capitol Pictures, specifically for studio head Jack Lipnick. Fink moves into the dilapidated Earle Hotel and tries to write a script for a B-movie about professional wrestling.
Attacks of claustrophobia prevent him from getting an idea for a script. His neighbor, Charlie Meadows, a traveling salesman, often visits Barton to talk. Barton, though he considers himself a lover of the “common man”, views Charlie as an irritating intruder.
Solaris (2002)
Traumatized by the suicide of his beloved wife Rhea (Natascha McElhone), psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) arrives at the invitation of an astronaut friend to a space station orbiting the oceanic planet Solaris, in order to analyze unusual events. At the station, a surprised Kelvin meets Rhea, and over time he realizes that she was actually created by the effect of Solaris on his subconscious.
I Am Legend (2007)
“My name is Robert Neville. I survived. If there is anyone else, anyone.. know you are not alone!” – is the desperate message of genius scientist Robert Neville. But science could not stop the deadly virus, terrible, cruel and – made by human hands.
Inexplicably immune, Robert is the only human survivor in what’s left of New York, and possibly the world. As the last hope for the human race, he tries with all his might to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood, but he is ambushed by mutated victims of the scourge.
Passengers (2016)
During a routine journey through space that takes them to their new home, the two travelers wake up ninety years too early, after the ship breaks down. Soon, Jim and Aurora are faced with the fact that they will spend the rest of their lives on a ship where they will enjoy all the benefits they could ever imagine, and not long after that mutual sympathy appears… Until they discover that the ship is in mortal danger. With the lives of five thousand passengers they are responsible for, Jim and Aurora will have to work together to save them all.
Wings of Desire (1987)
Two angels (B. Ganz and O. Sander), invisible to people, walk through West Berlin before the wall was demolished and listened to the thoughts of Berliners.
One of them (B. Ganz) is particularly interested in a French circus performer (S. Dommartin) and an American actor (P. Falk) who is starring in a movie that is currently being filmed, but he suddenly notices that the actor is addressing him directly as if he sees him…
Fight Club (1999)
The narrator (E. Norton) is tormented by life without meaning and a future, a corporate career and the consumer culture to which his generation is condemned. Without family and close friends, he often, for the sake of company, goes to meetings of people suffering from cancer or some other disease, pretending to be one of them.
On them, he notices Marla (H. Bonham-Carter), a girl who, like him, doesn’t belong there. Returning from a business trip on the plane, he meets a charismatic like-minded person, Tyler Durden (B. Pitt), with whom he befriends and founds a secret new club where young people like them get a chance to express their frustrations through brutal mutual fights.
The popularity of the club grows to unprecedented proportions, forcing them to open many new ones across the country. Durden soon transformed into a cultural figure of epic proportions, a new messiah for a lost generation. However, he is driven by hidden motives, much more violent and destructive.
Her (2013)
Set in near-future Los Angeles, the film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a complex spiritual man who earns his living by writing touching, personal letters for other people who pay him to do so. Heartbroken after a long love affair failed, Theodora is intrigued by a new advanced operating system – which is actually a self-contained artificial intelligence.
After starting it, he meets “Samantha” (Scarlett Johansson), a bright female voice that is at the same time insightful, sensitive and surprisingly humorous. As her needs and desires grow in tandem with his, their friendship deepens into a love affair…
Three Colors: Blue (1994)
In a serious car accident, Julie (J. Binoche) loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer, and her minor daughter. Left alone, after recovering in the hospital, Julie tries to return to a more or less normal life: she distances herself from acquaintances in order to preserve anonymity and protect herself from potential gossip and malicious stories, and lives alone in her Paris apartment.
Soon, despite the fact that she doesn’t want it, people from her “past” life start to appear, making her current life difficult. Namely, she learns that the composition that made her husband famous was not written at all, that her marriage was not at all as happy as she thought, and she herself begins to discover some new faces that were constantly close to her, and she did not notice them.
