There’s nothing wrong with being in touch with your emotions, and our list of ten movies like The Ultimate Gift will have even those with the hardest of hearts bawling their eyes out.
Michael O. Sajbel’s weepy drama tells the story of a wealthy man who goes on a journey of self-discovery to earn his wealthy grandfather’s inheritance, but discovers so much more along the way.
Love, life lessons, loss, and personal growth are the order of the day as we round up ten titles guaranteed to put tears in your eyes by the time the credits roll.
10 Heart-Wrenching Movies Like The Ultimate Gift
1. Dying Young (1991)
Joel Schumacher’s literary adaptation boasts a starry cast that includes Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, and Vincent D’Onofrio that makes a direct assault on your emotions from the word go.
Roberts’ character becomes the caretaker to Scott’s leukemia sufferer, and the wildly different personalities end up teaching each other a thing or two, and of course, they inevitably fall in love.
Movies like The Ultimate Gift face an uphill battle to tell an emotional story without falling into saccharine cliches, and the talent involved means Dying Young just about pulls it off.
2. My Sister’s Keeper (2009)
Another page-to-screen adaptation, My Sister’s Keeper contains some heavy stuff, as a child sues her parents for emancipation to escape her existence as a savior child.
Directed by The Notebook’s Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack, the tear-jerking drama was clearly designed for awards season glory.
It didn’t quite manage to achieve those goals, but if you want a real test of your tear ducts when it comes to watching movies like The Ultimate Gift, few trigger the waterworks quite like this one.
3. The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Two teenage cancer patients falling in love doesn’t sound like the basis of an uplifting and entertaining romance, but Josh Boone’s The Fault in Our Stars was an absolute triumph.
A huge success at the box office and with critics, it handled the delicate subject matter expertly without devolving into exploitative territory thanks to some great acting and smart writing.
Films about serious illnesses can often be life-affirming and joyous, although there’s also a serious amount of tragedy and heartbreak to be found in The Fault in Our Stars.
4. The Cure (1995)
An 11-year-old who got AIDS from a blood transfusion teams up with his new friend to try and find a cure in Peter Horton’s heartwarming comedy-drama.
Brad Renfro and Jurassic Park’s Joseph Mazzello are excellent as the title duo, although if you want movies like The Ultimate Gift that end on a happier note, then you might want to steer clear.
As downbeat as The Cure gets, two impeccable lead performances and a rich vein of humor stop it from becoming too morbid.
5. An Unfinished Life (2005)
A-listers Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman lead Lasse Hallstrom’s tear-jerker about an alcoholic rancher struggling to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
The three leads deliver the sort of performances you’d expect from such cinematic heavyweights, and they stop the cliche-riddled story from being dragged down into mediocrity.
If you’re looking for a movie like The Ultimate Gift that packs a whole lot more star power, then An Unfinished Life should be your first port of call.
6. Seven Pounds (2008)
A man with a tragic secret sets out to change the lives of seven strangers in Gabriele Muccino’s glossy drama led by Will Smith and co-starring Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Octavia Spencer, and Barry Pepper.
Movies like The Ultimate Gift don’t always have to stick to convention, and Seven Pounds adopts elements of the mystery genre as Smith’s character slowly reveals the motivation behind his supposedly random acts of kindness.
A solid success at the box office, Seven Pounds hammers the message home a little too hard at points and the plot is full of holes, but some of the revelations in the story will have a huge emotional impact on a lot of viewers.
7. Letters to God (2010)
As you may have guessed from the title, co-directors David Nixon and Patrick Doughtie take a more faith-based angle than most movies like The Ultimate Gift as a mail-man befriends a young cancer patient.
A fictionalized version of a true story, Letters to God is aimed squarely at one demographic in particular, which may or may not affect your enjoyment of the movie as a whole.
Almost sentimental to a fault, the schmaltzy drama fared much better in certain critical circles than it did in others.
8. You’re Not You (2014)
Acclaimed playwright George C. Wolfe helms the tale of a woman suffering from ALS who has to deal with a new assistant and a marriage on the rocks.
Hilary Swank stars and produces, with Emmy Rossum as the feisty young assistant and Josh Duhamel as the increasingly distant husband in an earnest and straightforward literary adaptation.
The best movies like The Ultimate Gift try and handle the delicate subject matter with a degree of subtlety and narrative ingenuity, but You’re Not You is happy to stick rigidly to formula.
9. Fireproof (2008)
Writer, director, and producer Alex Kendrick is known for his faith-based output, so it isn’t a surprise that Fireproof follows suit.
If the presence of Kirk Cameron wasn’t enough of a giveaway, the movie centers on a firefighter who turns to a Christian self-help book to try and save his failing personal life.
Not all movies like The Ultimate Gift have to be relentlessly tragic, and Fireproof at least aims to be optimistic.
10. The Ultimate Life (2013)
A billionaire has trouble making anyone else the center of his world in Michael Landon Jr.’s often forgotten sequel to The Ultimate Gift.
Very few of the original cast members return for a follow-up story that hits many of the same narrative and emotional beats and frequently retreats into familiar territory.
If you’re looking for movies like The Ultimate Gift, then you can’t go too far wrong with the sequel if you simply want more of the same.