Five Films to Inspire Hope This Winter

Alfred Tennyson wrote in his play The Foresters, “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’” To inspire the belief that “it will be happier,” especially during these wintery months, we are showcasing five films whose stories and characters look forward toward a better tomorrow.

Song Sung Blue

Writer-director Craig Brewer’s Song Sung Blue “is a hopeful ode to music, the Midwest, and making dreams come true,” writes Cinema Sugar. The film recounts the inspiring real-life story of Mike and Claire Sardina (Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson), a couple that fell in love when they teamed up to create the Neil Diamond tribute band, Lightning and Thunder. Their lives, like the songs they sing, are filled with heartbreak, hope, and a passion for something better. Hudson has been nominated for an Academy Award® and a BAFTA for her heartfelt performance in what the New York Times calls “a small-scaled, bighearted tale of a real-life Milwaukee duo who absorbed the hardest of life’s knocks and refused to stay down.”

Get tickets for Song Sung Blue now!

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Nominated for three BAFTA awards, The Ballad of Wallis Island—directed by James Griffiths and co-written by Tom Basden and Tim Key—is “a poignant and comical exploration of music, loss, nostalgia, and hope,” writes The Conversation. When Charles (Key) invites his musical idol, Herb McGwyer (Basden), to perform on a remote island, the one-time successful musician has no idea he’ll be reuniting with his ex-girlfriend and former musical partner, Nell (Carey Mulligan), or that Charles will be an audience of one. Thrown together for an uncomfortable weekend, the two men find common ground in their inability to alter the past and desire to change in the future. “The Ballad of Wallis Island is a big-hearted, consoling hug of a movie,” writes Empire Magazine.

Watch The Ballad of Wallis Island now!

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

In Anthony Fabian’s Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Lesley Manville plays the title character, a London charwoman whose decision to buy a Dior gown sends her to Paris for the adventure of her life. While delighting in high French fashion and buoyed by a remarkable supporting cast, the film never loses sight of Mrs. Harris’ real journey, her letting go of the past and joyfully reaching for a new existence. Screen Daily writes, “Lit from within by the sunny disposition of its main character, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a lovely, modest ode to kindness, anchored by Lesley Manville’s considered performance as a housekeeper who is tired of feeling invisible.”

Watch Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris on Apple TV or Amazon!

The Holdovers

In Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, three loners—a curmudgeonly classics teacher, Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti); an alienated student (Dominic Sessa); and a cook grieving a son who recently died in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph)—spend the dreary winter holiday together in a nearly empty New England prep school. But as the three get to know each other, something begins to thaw and open up hope for something different from life. Highlighting Giamatti’s award-winning performance, Vanity Fair writes, “Hunham has been journeying toward making some peace with the facts of himself, while daring, at least a little, to begin hoping for more and different.”

Watch The Holdovers on Apple TV or Amazon!

Touch

In Baltasar Kormákur’s Touch, an older man’s desire to find the woman he loved and lost 50 years earlier propels him on a journey of discovery across time and continents. As Kristofer (Egil Ólafsson) leaves Iceland for England, he remembers how, as a young man (Pálmi Kormákur), he fell in love with Miko (Kôki Kimura), the person with whom he yearns to reconnect. As the COVID epidemic begins to close down the world, Kristofer looks to open his heart. “The film’s embrace of compassion and forgiveness for everyone is heartwarmingly spacious,” RogerEbert.com writes. “It shimmers with grace.”

Watch Touch now!