Film
The Stone Angel
- Drama
- Slow-burning
Ellen Burstyn anchors this Canadian drama about an elderly woman reckoning with a lifetime of fierce independence and hard choices. Structured between present-day flight and memory, it's intimate and unsentimental, tracing how pride and stubbornness shaped both her triumphs and her regrets. For those drawn to character-driven stories about aging and consequence.
If you liked this
Summertime2015
A quiet, observant portrait of a widow navigating solitude and small moments of connection. Like Stone Angel, it trusts viewers to find meaning in ordinary life and the accumulated weight of years lived.
But Very little happens by conventional dramatic standards. The pacing is deliberately slow, which some find meditative and others find glacial.

45 Years2015
Charlotte Rampling is magnificent as a woman whose marriage unravels in the week before an anniversary party. It's about how one revelation can reframe a lifetime, echoing Stone Angel's theme of reckoning with the past.
But The emotional stakes are internal and quiet. If you need big confrontations or cathartic moments, this won't provide them.

The Straight Story1999
David Lynch made a film about an elderly man's cross-country journey to reconcile with his brother. It's gentle and sincere—proof that profound stories can live in restraint and forgiveness.
But It's almost defiantly wholesome. Lynch fans expecting darkness will be baffled. The pace is deliberately unhurried.

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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Stalker1979
Both trust silence and observation over explanation. Both are interested in internal spiritual journeys—how a person comes to terms with their life and their choices—rather than external conflict.
Tarkovsky's slow masterpiece about a man guiding others through a mysterious zone. It's meditative and philosophical—about desire, mortality, and what we actually want versus what we think we want.
But It's 163 minutes of intentional slowness. Some will find it profound; others will find it punishing. It requires surrender.

More like this (6)
The Passion of Joan of Arc1928
Renée Jeanne Falconetti's performance transcends its era—raw, exhausted, human. Stone Angel shares its interest in a woman's indomitable will colliding with circumstance and mortality.
But It's silent film, which demands adjustment. The religious context is dense, and the ending offers no comfort.

A Woman's Life2016
Sylvie Testud carries this French drama about a woman reflecting on marriage, motherhood, and the gap between expectation and reality. Both films examine how a life actually lives, not how we thought it would.
But It's bleak without being dramatic. The tonal register is resignation rather than catharsis, which some find depressing.

Made in Dagenham2010
Sally Wainwright wrote and directed this story of working-class women demanding dignity. It shares Stone Angel's belief that ordinary women's choices and convictions matter deeply.
But It's more conventionally dramatic—more plot, more uplift. If you want subtlety over earnestness, look elsewhere.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel2012
A ensemble film about aging people finding unexpected second acts. It's sunnier than Stone Angel, but shares the conviction that growing old is not the end of the story.
But It veers toward comfort and charm. Stone Angel is harder and less forgiving; this might feel too tidy for comparison.

Philomena2013
Judi Dench plays a woman excavating trauma and family secrets across decades. Both films trace how the past doesn't stay past, and how facing it matters.
But It's more narrative-driven and emotionally explicit. Stone Angel's restraint is its power; Philomena tends toward sentiment.

Happy as Lazzaro2018
Both examine how a life shaped by pain and circumstance can achieve an unexpected kind of grace—not through resolution, but through the clarity that comes with accepting what has been.
Alice Rohrwacher's Italian fable about a man time-displaced from peasant servitude into modern Italy. Like Stone Angel, it's preoccupied with how we endure hardship and what it costs us—filtered through an almost magical register.
But It's surreal and elliptical. The genre shifts mid-film. It demands active interpretation rather than passive absorption.

People
Cast
Ellen BurstynHagar
Christine HorneYoung Hagar
Cole HauserYoung Bram
Kevin ZegersJohn
Elliot PageArlene
Dylan BakerMarvin
Wings HauserOlder Bram
Jordan TodoseyChild Lottie
Landon NorrisYoung John
Sheila McCarthyDoris
Devon BostickTeen Marvin
Aaron AshmoreMatt
Directing
- Kari SkoglandDirector
- Elaine YarishScript Supervisor
Writing
- Margaret LaurenceNovel
- Kari SkoglandScreenplay
Production
- Jim HeberCasting
- Lindsay ChagCasting
- Stephanie GorinCasting
- Bryan GlisermanExecutive Producer
- Guy CollinsExecutive Producer
- Michael MacMillanExecutive Producer
- Phyllis LangExecutive Producer
- Seaton McLeanExecutive Producer
- Kari SkoglandProducer
- Liz JarvisProducer
- Brandy HagborgProduction Assistant