Whenever I feel like a comfort watch where I can see a bit of my personality onscreen, I’m clicking on Jane the Virgin. Optimistic and sunny Jane Villanueva feels so close to home for me, from her tight-knit relationship with her Abuela to her dream of becoming a romance novelist. She was basically my TV therapy in the 2010s.
Recently, Reddit user u/mysweetlore decided to ask: “What movie character made you choke up because you saw yourself in that character?” Here are some of the answers they received:
“People used to tell me I looked like [Matilda] as a kid. I would read a book a day and hide from my brother who bullied me and my parents who enabled him. I got into classic literature at a precocious age. I had a rough time at school, too. Although there was no Miss Trunchbull, there wasn’t a Miss Honey figure either.”
2.
“Remy in Ratatouille got me emotional because I saw myself as the dreamer everyone said was chasing something impossible. When Chef Gusteau says, ‘Anyone can cook,’ it felt like the movie was telling me that my dreams weren’t stupid.”
3.
“BoJack Horseman. The self-sabotage, the regret, the moments where he almost gets better but falls back [into old habits]. Seeing someone that broken still try wrecked me because I saw my own cycles in him.”
“That show sneaks up on you. You go in laughing and end up staring at the ceiling thinking about your life choices.”
4.
“Evelyn from Everything Everywhere All At Once. My husband is just like Waymond. Luckily, our dynamic must be from part of the multiverse where Evelyn adores Waymond and they’re genuinely happy. But I still burst into tears during Waymond’s laundry and tax monologue.”
“Man, that movie hits different. Waymond’s kindness just gets to me every time.”
5.
“La La Land‘s Mia and Sebastian. The way they sacrifice parts of their dreams for each other, then realize [the relationship] wasn’t right. The ending montage where they imagine the life they could have had; I choked up because I lived a version of that regret.”
7.
“Leslie Knope [from Parks And Recreation] is who I’d be like if I didn’t grow up being told that I’m annoying and need to shut up.”
“Me, too! I think my optimism might be mortally wounded. I Iive in the US.”
8.
“Chidi in The Good Place. The overthinking, anxiety, and inability to decide on anything because everything feels too big. When he finally let go and trusted, I cried because that’s the freedom I still chase.”
“[I relate to] the way [Chidi] goes catatonic trying to weigh all the real and potential pros and cons of everything.”
9.
“Luisa Madrigal from Encanto. As the oldest parentified child, her song ‘Surface Pressure’ made me cry.”
“I feel you, friend. It definitely made me choke up, too.”
10.
“Amélie. A naive loner who loves the simple things, being by herself and just wants to help.”
11.
“Samwise in Lord of the Rings hits because I’ve been the friend who carries everything when others can’t.”
“Same here, man. Sam’s loyalty and heart just hit different when you’re that friend always supporting others.”
12.
“Hallorann in It: Welcome To Derry. [I get] the drained helplessness he feels after dealing with Pennywise, and he has no way to describe or explain it to any other human being. Because everyone is like, ‘No days off, come on!’ As a mental health person as well as someone who gets atypical migraines without even the decency of being something as recognizable as a headache, I might have gotten a little emotional [seeing his character].”
13.
“Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting hits hard because the ‘It’s not your fault’ scene felt like it had spoken to my guilt.”
14.
“Old curmudgeonly Luke Skywalker from The Last Jedi. So over the world, disillusioned with what I thought I believed in, and realizing I’m nowhere near as important as I thought I was when I was younger. I’d have thrown away my lightsaber, too.”
15.
“Inside Out destroyed me. Seeing Sadness realize that she actually matters… That one hit way too close to home.”
16.
“Anakin Skywalker. This might sound like the most cliché answer of all time, but it’s true.”
“I related to him hard when I was a teenager. In Attack of the Clones, he was an angsty young kid with issues dealing with his emotions. So was I.”
21.
“Curly Sue, especially when that woman asked her to spell cat. I was seen as an extremely intelligent child. As long as I was performing my party tricks (getting good grades and not acting out) everyone thought I was fine. But I was not fine. I lived in an abusive and neglectful home. No one could really see me. In the film, that woman saw Sue. She saw past the glitter and flash of a clever child. She saw that there was a real person in there. I saw that movie when I was 13, and that scene made me tear up. I didn’t quite know why. I watched it again as an adult and ugly cried. I’ll never watch it again. Loved it, but never again.”
23.
“Kate Winslet’s character in The Holiday. I was completely devoted to a man who strung me along for ages. Then I saw that he posted a bunch of pics on Facebook of his new girlfriend and I ugly cried for days.”
24.
“Ian Lightfoot from Onward. I watched that movie just after losing my dad and it broke me.”
25.
“Chris Pratt’s character in Passengers. During the scene where he almost spaces himself out of loneliness, it hit me like a freight train that’s pretty much how lonely I felt.”
27.
“Sarah in Labyrinth. I remember as a teenager being so torn between wanting to remain a child but also wanting that independence as a grown-up. It was so hard for me to vocalize how I was feeling because I didn’t feel like anyone around me was saying the same thing. However, when I watched Sarah being torn between remaining a child but also finding herself in those adults situations, it felt like I was being heard.”
28.
“Private Ryan at the very end of Saving Private Ryan. [The scene that resonates with me is] after he remembers all that was done for him and he asks his wife if he was a good man and worthy of all of it. I often wonder why others died and I didn’t and if I am worthy. I pray all the time that I am a good man and am honoring those I served with who didn’t come home.”
29.
“Riley from Inside Out. I moved across the country when I was 10. The part when she tried to go back to Minnesota always gets me; even though I never did anything like that, it was exactly how I felt when I was that age.”
30.
“Jim Hawkins in Treasure Planet. The ‘Makings of Greatness’ monologue gets me every time. I hadn’t seen the movie since I was a kid, and I sobbed so hard as an adult when I watched that scene again.”
What fictional character do you resonate with most? Drop your onscreen pick in the comments!