10 Feel Good Movies With Heartbreaking Hidden Secrets

10. Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is the first Tom Hanks movie of the list, but it won’t be the last. That’s largely because Hanks is such a warm and fuzzy actor that ‘feel good’ is his brand, but also a talented enough actor to make fairly straightforward movies into great masterpieces.

Forrest Gump is probably the best ever example of these two styles colliding, and there’s a lot of layers in the ending.

It ends with Forrest finding out he has a son by Jenny, and endeavouring to raise it all on his own. Though Jenny’s cause of death is never explicitly named, there is a heavy implication that it’s from the big disease with the little name: AIDS/HIV.

That means there is a significant chance that little Forrest Junior was born HIV positive. Already quite a heartbreaking twist on the usually bitter sweet and comforting ending. However Forrest Senior’s mother’s death as another element to the equation too.

Forrest Senior is a very nice man, but he’s not exactly what you would call fatherhood material. People with learning difficulties can be fantastic parents but they usually have a support network around them. Without Jenny or his mother, Forrest may not have that.