Cherry Picks
Movies & Shows to Watch When Your Marriage Is Over
By Miranda Bailey
May 14, 2026
Let me set the scene. My husband “put in his notice.” That’s how I say it because I refuse to be a victim, and “put in his notice” sounds like he was quitting a job—which, after 20 years, I suppose he was.
What followed were months of crying, months of feeling like I had failed. I had built a career in filmmaking and raised two children, yet somehow, mid-life, I found myself sitting with a divorce attorney instead of a script. The shame is real. The embarrassment is real. And nobody warns you about the friends, the ones who disappear when things get hard, as if divorce is contagious. As if it’s herpes.
Spoiler: it’s not. (Probably.)
I was lucky. Some friends showed up in ways I never expected. Therapy helped enormously, though I may have slightly overdone it on the therapy because, at this point, I seem to be functioning like a relatively normal human being, which feels suspicious. But here I am, one week after my divorce was finalized, doing what any self-respecting filmmaker would do: making a list of films and TV I wish I had over the last year.
If you’re going through a divorce, thinking about one, or just got out on the other side—this one’s for you. Pour yourself something good and press play.
Use these cherry flutes to toast your next chapter…
- Marriage Story
Start here. Noah Baumbach’s devastating, deeply personal film follows Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) as they navigate the end of their marriage with the best of intentions until the lawyers get involved. It’s heartbreaking and painfully real, and the scene where they finally scream everything they’ve been holding back at each other might just make you feel seen in a way no therapist ever could. And I say that as someone who has spent a lot of time with therapists lately.
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- Kramer vs. Kramer
The gold standard. Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep both won Oscars for this story of a couple whose divorce becomes an all-out custody battle and what it does to everyone involved, especially their young son. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s a necessary one. It will remind you that, even in the messiest endings, people are doing the best they can. Most of them, anyway.
Get the book…
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- It’s Complicated
Okay, we need a palate cleanser. Meryl Streep plays a divorced woman who finds herself in an affair…with her ex-husband. Alec Baldwin is the ex who left her for a younger woman, and Steve Martin is the charming architect offering her something entirely new. It’s funny, warm, and deeply satisfying to watch a woman in her fifties realizing her life is far from over. I needed this movie. I watched it twice and not just because Zoe Kazan, a fave of mine, is in it.
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- Waiting to Exhale
Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett anchor this iconic film about four women navigating love, betrayal, and the very specific exhaustion of being done with a man who was never worth it to begin with. The scene where Bernadine (Bassett) sets her husband’s car on fire? Cathartic doesn’t begin to cover it. This movie is a hug, a scream, and a glass of wine all at once. - Crazy, Stupid, Love
Steve Carell’s character gets blindsided by his wife asking for a divorce and finds himself completely lost until Ryan Gosling’s impossibly gorgeous bachelor takes him under his wing. It’s funny, surprisingly tender, and ends with enough hope to make you believe that the story doesn’t end just because a marriage does. One of the rare divorce movies that actually leaves you feeling good.
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- Eat Pray Love
Look, sometimes you need to watch a woman blow up her entire life, travel to Italy, India, and Bali, eat an obscene amount of pasta, and find herself again. Is it a little indulgent? Yes. Is Julia Roberts impossibly beautiful while falling apart? Also yes. But the core of it is a woman choosing herself after years of losing herself in a marriage. That is something I understand on a molecular level right now.
Get the book…
- Mrs. Doubtfire
Robin Williams disguises himself as a Scottish nanny to be near his kids after his divorce. It sounds like a comedy, and it is, but underneath all the prosthetics and chaos is one of the most honest portrayals of what it feels like to have your family restructured against your will. The ending, which refuses to give you a tidy bow, is more realistic and more moving than you’d expect from a movie where a man puts his face in a cake.
- The First Wives Club
Three women, played by Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton, reunite after their husbands leave them for younger women and decide to get even. It is an unapologetic and fabulously costumed revenge fantasy, and it is precisely what the doctor ordered…my doctor, at least. Watch it with your best girlfriends who showed up for you. They know who they are. - Something’s Gotta Give
Jack Nicholson plays a man who has spent his entire life dating younger women, until he falls for the sharp, brilliant, very-recently-heartbroken Diane Keaton. It’s clever and funny and ultimately about people who thought their romantic lives were behind them discovering they were wrong. Keaton writes through her heartbreak. She types and cries and types and cries and honestly, I see myself. I see myself completely.
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- & 11. The War of the Roses (1989) + The Roses (2025) – (a double feature!)
You really should watch both of these back to back—consider it a masterclass in how to adapt a story for a new era. The original, directed by Danny DeVito and starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, is a vicious and darkly hilarious portrait of a divorce so ugly it becomes a battle of wills inside a beautiful house neither of them will give up. It’s chaos. It’s brilliant.
Then watch the 2025 reimagining, The Roses, directed by Jay Roach and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman, which takes the same premise and makes it something you can actually root for (or at least watch without feeling like you need a shower afterward). With a screenplay by Tony McNamara (who also wrote Poor Things), it’s sharper, more human, and far easier to watch. The original makes you say “Never let it get that far.” The remake makes you say “Oh. Oh no. I understand them both.” As a filmmaker, I find the comparison between the two endlessly fascinating and, as a recently divorced woman, I find it deeply relatable. Make the popcorn.
Get the book…
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- The Four Seasons
Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in this underappreciated 1981 gem, one of the top box office hits of its year, alongside Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, and Jack Weston. Three married couples take annual vacations together, until one of the husbands divorces his wife and tries to introduce his new, much younger girlfriend into the group. What unfolds is a quietly devastating study of how one divorce sends shockwaves through everyone around it. The friends who pull away. The ones who stay. The awkwardness that nobody knows how to name. Sound familiar? It should.
Bonus: The Four Seasons on Netflix
Then immediately watch the 2025 Netflix TV adaptation created by Tina Fey, who updates the story brilliantly with Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, and Will Forte. All eight episodes are streaming on Netflix, and it’s one of the best things the streamer has produced in years. Here’s the cherry on top: Alan Alda himself has a cameo in the series, which is clearly a love letter from the remake to the original. The writing is razor-sharp, the casting is perfect, and it captures the very specific grief of watching a divorce ripple through a friend group in a way that is almost uncomfortably accurate. Season 2 is already in the works. You’re welcome.
Pack for a getaway…
- Your Friends & Neighbors
Jon Hamm plays a recently divorced hedge fund manager who, after losing his job, starts quietly robbing his wealthy neighbors to maintain the lifestyle his family has always known. It sounds like a crime drama (and it is), but it’s really about the identity crisis that comes when the life you built, the marriage you thought defined you, and the social circle that kept you afloat all disappear at once. What do you do when you’re suddenly just…a person? A single, financially spiraling, extremely well-dressed person who may or may not be committing felonies? Hamm is magnetic, and the second season premiered in April 2026. It’s dark, funny, and weirdly therapeutic. And I hate that I have to wait every week for a new episode. Also it’s the best thing Olivia Munn has ever been in.
- Divorce
Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Frances, a suburban New York woman who realizes mid-life that her marriage has hollowed her out and then discovers that actually leaving is so much harder than she thought. Created by Sharon Horgan (who also made Bad Sisters, another excellent watch), this series is sharp and painfully funny about the logistics, humiliation, and strange freedom that come from a marriage ending. Three seasons on HBO Max. All worth watching. Especially if you’re looking to find comfort that you’re not alone. - The First Wives Club (bonus encore!)
I already included this in the list, but I’m keeping it here as a standalone reminder: Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton, revenge, incredible outfits, and the line, “Don’t get mad, get everything.” Well, it’s a slightly cliché and sexist line today considering a majority of the women who are divorcing are the actual bread winners, but I still love it! If you watch nothing else on this list, watch this. Then call your girlfriends. The real ones.
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- Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Tyler Perry wrote this one, and before you say anything, I know. But hear me out. Kimberly Elise plays Helen, a devoted wife who comes home on the eve of her 18th wedding anniversary to find her husband literally packing her belongings into a U-Haul to make room for his mistress. On their anniversary. The audacity. What follows is a story of a woman rebuilding herself from zero. But with the help of family, faith, and the unforgettable Madea, it feels absurdly relatable. It veers between comedy and melodrama in ways that shouldn’t work but somehow do. The audiences adored it, making it a $50M box office hit. The theme of a woman who gave up everything for a marriage, then had to rediscover who she was, hits differently when you’re living a version of that story yourself.
- Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black
One of my all-time favorites, Meagan Good, stars as Ava, a successful bank professional whose seemingly perfect marriage falls apart when her husband abruptly walks out without explanation. What unfolds is a psychological thriller-drama about emotional abuse, gaslighting, and the slow, difficult process of reclaiming your own sense of reality after someone has spent years reshaping it. It generated nearly 500 million minutes of viewing in its first four days on Amazon Prime. So, clearly, a lot of women needed this movie. - Waiting to Exhale (reminder!)
Already on this list, yes, but worth flagging again specifically here: Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon. Four women. Four different flavors of “done.” This film belongs in its own category as a masterwork of female solidarity after a man has shown you exactly who he is. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this list and go watch it right now. I’ll wait.
- Beef
Ali Wong and Steven Yeun star in Season 1 of Netflix’s A24 dark comedy series about two strangers whose road rage incident spirals into a full-scale obsession that consumes both their lives and Ali Wong’s marriage. Wong plays Amy, a high-achieving entrepreneur whose immaculate exterior (the wardrobe of which is made up of Mohawk General Store fashion – you’re welcome) is held together with resentment and exhaustion, while Yeun plays Danny, an almost criminal contractor running on failure and wounded pride.
Beneath the road rage and escalating chaos, this is a show about people trapped in lives that look right from the outside and feel unbearable from the inside. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. And here’s a detail I find quietly remarkable: Ali Wong was going through her own real divorce while filming it. The parallels between her and Amy’s crumbling marriage give the performance of a lifetime. The question of whether women can “have it all” is not subtle, certainly not to me who has tried both and succeeded and failed at the same time. Season 2 just dropped in April 2026 with an entirely new cast, but start with Season 1. For some, it’s difficult to watch due to the negativity, but trust me on this, make it to episode three, and you’ll be hooked.
To help calm you…
20. Past Lives
This is the one that will stay with you longest. Korean-Canadian director Celine Song’s debut film follows Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), two childhood friends from Seoul who are separated when Nora’s family emigrates and who keep finding their way back to each other across decades and continents. By the time they reunite as adults, Nora is married to a kind, loving American man named Arthur (John Magaro), and the film refuses to make Arthur a villain, Hae Sung a mistake, or Nora’s marriage a consolation prize. It’s a film about the choices that we make in life and the versions of ourselves we leave behind, honoring choices that might’ve been someone else’s. It’s also one of the most honest films ever made about what it means to build a life with someone and what it costs. It received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. As a filmmaker, this one is close to perfect. As a recently divorced person, it broke me open in the best possible way.
Another Bonus Rec:
Divorced Sistas on Prime Video
The reason for this list and pouring my heart out is to let you all know that divorce is not the end of the story. It is, as it turns out, just a very dramatic plot twist. If I can write a list this long with footnotes so soon after mine, you’re going to be just fine.
