Two recent popular movies delve deeply and movingly into the psychology of grief.

In Train Dreams, based on a novella by Denis Johnson set in the backwoods of early-20th-century Idaho, a logger named Robert Grainier reacts with overwhelming guilt to the forest fire deaths of his wife and young daughter because he wasn’t at home to save them when the flames enveloped their log cabin. At the same time, part of him can’t or won’t accept they are gone; he continues to search the surrounding countryside for signs of them. He becomes profoundly depressed, going through the motions of life without purpose or joy.

Hamnet is based on the celebrated novel by Maggie O’Farrell about the impact the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, has on William Shakespeare and Agnes, his wife. Agnes blames Will for not being at home while Hamnet was in the death throes from the Black Plague. The intensity and persistence of her anger seem to sever any emotional connection between them. She turns inward; he turns toward transforming his grief into art.

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