Misery's The River of the World

There is a certain type of gritty, dramatic film that I never deal with very well.
The films of Ken Loach and certain drug movies I often find unbearable to watch.
The story arc starts near the bottom, and moves progressively downwards.
I tend to avoid seeing them at the cinema, and have found that I usually have to do the DVD in a a couple of sittings.
Nil By Mouth, Requeim For A Dream (the more depressing film I can think of), Ladybird Ladybird are all examples of these types of films.
In these films there is usually a moment where in all the awfulness there seems to be one ray of light.
This ray of light is inevitably squashed and killed.
The reason I mention these films is because last night I watched a nice family chucklefest from New Zealand called Once Were Warriors.
It's a movie I've been avoiding for year and it was every bit as depressing as I thought it would be.
I recommend it highly but perhaps you'll only need to watch it once.
Drunkeness, wife bashing, suicide: it's all there.