About Single Mothers
by mariojacobs | created - 12 Mar 2021 | updated - 09 May 2021 | PublicWhich movie about single mothers is your favorite?
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1. Mommy (I) (2014)
R | 139 min | Drama
A widowed single mother, raising her violent son alone, finds new hope when a mysterious neighbor inserts herself into their household.
Director: Xavier Dolan | Stars: Anne Dorval, Antoine Olivier Pilon, Suzanne Clément, Patrick Huard
Votes: 61,799 | Gross: $3.49M
2. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Votes: 154,606 | Gross: $106.26M
3. Jerry Maguire (1996)
R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston
Votes: 286,884 | Gross: $153.95M
4. Room (I) (2015)
R | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
A little boy is held captive in a room with his mother since his birth, so he has never known the world outside.
Director: Lenny Abrahamson | Stars: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson
Votes: 450,233 | Gross: $14.68M
5. Erin Brockovich (2000)
R | 131 min | Biography, Drama
An unemployed single mother becomes a legal assistant and almost single-handedly brings down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, David Brisbin, Dawn Didawick
Votes: 221,082 | Gross: $125.60M
6. Joy (I) (2015)
PG-13 | 124 min | Biography, Drama
Joy is the story of the title character, who rose to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramírez
Votes: 145,084 | Gross: $56.45M
7. Little Man Tate (1991)
PG | 99 min | Drama
A single mother raises a child prodigy on her own, struggling to give him every opportunity he needs to express his gift.
Director: Jodie Foster | Stars: Jodie Foster, Dianne Wiest, Adam Hann-Byrd, Alex Lee
Votes: 16,022 | Gross: $25.01M
8. Flightplan (2005)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Kate Beahan
Votes: 171,756 | Gross: $89.71M
9. Inside (2007)
R | 82 min | Horror
Four months after the death of her husband, a woman on the brink of motherhood is tormented in her home by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.
Directors: Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury | Stars: Alysson Paradis, Jean-Baptiste Tabourin, Claude Lulé, Dominique Frot
Votes: 44,666
10. Precious (II) (2009)
R | 110 min | Drama
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: 116,204 | Gross: $47.57M
11. Goodnight Mommy (2014)
R | 99 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Twin boys move to a new house with their mother after she has face-changing cosmetic surgery, but under the bandages is someone the boys don't recognize.
Directors: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz | Stars: Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz, Susanne Wuest, Hans Escher
Votes: 59,731 | Gross: $1.17M
12. Mommie Dearest (1981)
R | 129 min | Biography, Drama
The abusive and traumatic adoptive upbringing of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen queen Joan Crawford, is depicted.
Director: Frank Perry | Stars: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva
Votes: 18,324 | Gross: $19.03M
13. One Fine Day (1996)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The lives of two strangers and their young children unexpectedly intersect on one hectic, stressful day in New York City.
Director: Michael Hoffman | Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney, Mae Whitman, Alex D. Linz
Votes: 48,504 | Gross: $46.15M
14. It's Complicated (2009)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When attending their son's college graduation, a couple reignite the spark in their relationship. But the complicated fact is they're divorced and he's remarried.
Director: Nancy Meyers | Stars: Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski
Votes: 98,470 | Gross: $112.74M
15. The Single Moms Club (2014)
PG-13 | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
When five struggling single moms put aside their differences to form a support group, they find inspiration and laughter in their new sisterhood, and help each other overcome the obstacles that stand in their way.
Director: Tyler Perry | Stars: Nia Long, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Amy Smart, Zulay Henao
Votes: 6,977 | Gross: $15.99M
16. Mamma Mia! (2008)
PG-13 | 108 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
The story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular 1970s group ABBA.
Director: Phyllida Lloyd | Stars: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 274,087 | Gross: $144.13M
17. Changeling (2008)
R | 141 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
After Christine's son goes missing, she reaches out to the LAPD to find him. But when they try to pass off an impostor as her son to quieten public protests, she refuses to accept him or give up hope.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Colm Feore, Amy Ryan, Gattlin Griffith
Votes: 265,204 | Gross: $35.74M
18. The Babadook (2014)
Not Rated | 94 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book titled "Mister Babadook" manifests in their home.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney
Votes: 247,101 | Gross: $0.92M
19. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
PG-13 | 125 min | Comedy, Drama
After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife.
Director: Chris Columbus | Stars: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein
Votes: 290,711 | Gross: $219.20M
20. Where the Heart Is (2000)
PG-13 | 120 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A pregnant seventeen-year-old rebuilds her life after being abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma.
Director: Matt Williams | Stars: Natalie Portman, James Frain, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing
Votes: 36,346 | Gross: $33.77M
21. Mermaids (1990)
PG-13 | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
An unconventional single mother relocates with her two daughters to a small Massachusetts town in 1963, where a number of events and relationships both challenge and strengthen their familial bonds.
Director: Richard Benjamin | Stars: Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder, Michael Schoeffling
Votes: 35,828 | Gross: $35.42M
22. Enough Said (2013)
PG-13 | 93 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A divorced woman who decides to pursue the man she's interested in learns he's her new friend's ex-husband.
Director: Nicole Holofcener | Stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette
Votes: 66,339 | Gross: $17.54M
23. Tumbleweeds (1999)
PG-13 | 102 min | Comedy, Drama
A woman and her daughter have been constantly moving from town to town for years, but their newest home might be different from all the others.
Director: Gavin O'Connor | Stars: Janet McTeer, Kimberly J. Brown, Jay O. Sanders, Gavin O'Connor
Votes: 3,653 | Gross: $1.28M
24. Maid in Manhattan (2002)
PG-13 | 105 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Senatorial candidate falls for a hotel maid, thinking she is a socialite, when he sees her trying on a wealthy woman's dress.
Director: Wayne Wang | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci
Votes: 96,150 | Gross: $94.01M
25. Panic Room (2002)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A divorced woman and her diabetic daughter take refuge in their newly-purchased house's safe room when three men break-in, searching for a missing fortune.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam
Votes: 296,787 | Gross: $96.40M
26. Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
R | 116 min | Drama
An urgent phone call pulls a Yale Law student back to his Ohio hometown, where he reflects on three generations of family history and his own future.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso, Haley Bennett
Votes: 46,433
27. Bird Box (2018)
R | 124 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.
Director: Susanne Bier | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson
Votes: 385,977
28. The Florida Project (2017)
R | 111 min | Drama
Set over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World.
Director: Sean Baker | Stars: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Rivera
Votes: 128,233 | Gross: $5.90M
29. Finding Neverland (2004)
PG | 106 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The story of Sir J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.
Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Mitchell
Votes: 211,996 | Gross: $51.68M
30. 20th Century Women (2016)
R | 119 min | Comedy, Drama
The story of a teenage boy, his mother, and two other women who help raise him among the love and freedom of Southern California of 1979.
Director: Mike Mills | Stars: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup
Votes: 49,355 | Gross: $5.66M
31. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
PG | 112 min | Drama, Romance
A recently widowed woman is on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Mia Bendixsen, Alfred Lutter III
Votes: 27,452 | Gross: $18.60M
32. Imitation of Life (1934)
Approved | 111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
Director: John M. Stahl | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks
Votes: 5,642
33. About a Boy (2002)
PG-13 | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Will, who attends single parent meetings to woo women, meets Marcus, a troubled 12-year-old boy. As they become friends, Will learns to be responsible while he helps Marcus with his studies.
Directors: Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz | Stars: Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Sharon Small
Votes: 191,624 | Gross: $41.39M
34. Baby Boom (1987)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of super-yuppie J.C. is thrown into turmoil when she inherits a baby from a distant relative.
Director: Charles Shyer | Stars: Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard, Harold Ramis, Kristina Kennedy
Votes: 19,145 | Gross: $26.71M
35. Places in the Heart (1984)
PG | 111 min | Drama
In central Texas in the 1930s, a widow with two small children tries to save her small 40-acre farm with the help of a blind boarder and an itinerant black handyman.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan
Votes: 13,524 | Gross: $34.90M
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