It was difficult because of the titles (nine in all) I had to jettison to reach my final five. Here are capsule reviews of some of those movies, plus two released since 2022.
‘Freaky Friday’ (1976)
Starring Barbara Harris (as mother Ellen) and Jodie Foster (as daughter Annabel), this Gary Nelson-directed comedy was the first (and still the best) of seven film adaptations of the 1972 novel by Mary Rogers.
A prime example of the oft-employed body-swap sub-genre, the movie also explores both the “grass is always greener” and “be careful what you wish for” motifs. Each believing the other lives a much better existence, Ellen and Annabel end up spending a single day (Friday the 13th) in each other’s bodies.
Both Harris and Foster received Golden Globe nominations (in the same category) for their performances, which were entirely deserved.
‘Places in the Heart’ (1984)
The first of two movies on this list starring Sally Field, it also earned her second Academy Award for Best Actress. Written and directed by Robert Benton (“Kramer vs. Kramer”), it is set during the Great Depression in northeastern Texas and features Field as Enid, the recent widow of a murdered husband.
With foreclosure of her failing cotton farm looming, Edna takes on two unlikely workers to avoid bankruptcy. One is black drifter Moze (Danny Glover), and the other is Will (John Malkovich), the blind brother of the banker threatening to repossess Edna’s farm.
‘Not Without My Daughter’ (1991)
Based on a harrowing true story, this dramatic thriller from director Brian Gilbert is based on the book by Betty Mahmoody and William Hoffer.
Sally Field stars as Mahmoody, a Michigan woman married to Sayyed (Alfred Molina), an Iranian doctor. Under the impression that Sayyed wants to merely visit his family in his homeland for two weeks, Betty agrees.
Not surprisingly, Sayyed’s family disapproves of Betty’s Western origins and rejects her. When it comes time to leave, Sayyed informs her he never intended to return to the United States and that they will be living under sharia law moving forward. This includes the couple’s preschool daughter.
‘Where'd You Go, Bernadette’ (2019)
Director Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” (based on the novel by Maria Semple) provides yet another stunning acting showcase for Cate Blanchett’s title character.
The narrative is alternately offbeat and touching and will appeal to women who’ve both failed and succeeded at balancing motherhood and a rewarding career. In Bernadette’s case, she can do only one of those things at a time, and, to her credit, her primary concern is the happiness and future of her only child, Bee (Emma Nelson).
The story opens with the revisiting of a decade-old half-hearted promise by Bernadette: She promised to reward an unspecified academic achievement by Bee. Way back when it was a pony, now it’s a trip to … Antarctica.
‘Hamnet’ (2025)
Based on the 2020 historical fiction novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, ‘Hamnet’ centers on the death of a preteen male child and how his parents deal differently with their grief. For the son’s father, William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), he worked through his sorrow by writing the best-known, most performed English-language stage play in history (“Hamlet”).
Honorable Mention: ‘Cabrini’ (2024)
Neither a biological nor an adoptive mother, Cabrini nonetheless served as a symbolic matriarch to thousands of orphaned children the world over beginning in the late 19th century. Starting in Chicago, Mother Cabrini, as she was known, went on to found more than 60 schools, children’s hospitals, and orphanages across the planet.
Director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde (“Sound of Freedom”) performs a delicate balancing act and is careful to make clear that Cabrini was neither a shrinking violet nor a woman looking to be a global power player, but instead, one of God’s devoted children acting as the protector and savior to the less fortunate.
