Crying can be therapeutic -- ever see Holly Hunter bawl in Broadcast News?

Which is why some of us -- not just women, mind you -- actually enjoy watching movies that stimulate the tear ducts. But why?

``For many people, the themes and scenes depicted in the cinema are evocative of all kinds of poignant experiences in their own lives,'' says Steven Freemire, a California family therapist. ``It's a deeply personal thing.''

Here are a few movies compiled by McClatchy Newspapers' Chuck Barney that may make your eyes glaze over in a fine mist -- or, as he prefers to call it, retinally perspire.

• Terms of Endearment: Talk about bringing the pain. Debra Winger tells her sons that she's dying and game over.

• Field of Dreams: Whoever said ``There's no crying in baseball'' never played catch with his dead dad in a cornfield.

• Titanic: Box-office champ combines a love story with a catastrophe to leave us with a sad, sinking feeling.

• Saving Private Ryan: The poignant cemetery scene at the end has us giving a three-hankie salute.

• Steel Magnolias: A steel heart is what you might have if you don't grieve along with Sally Field.

• Ordinary People: All that family dysfunction makes you just want to reach out and give poor, guilt-ridden Timothy Hutton a hug.

• Brian's Song: When Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) dedicates an award to his dying friend (James Caan), it absolutely destroys us.

• E.T.: Who knew a goofy-looking, bug-eyed alien could so easily turn on our heartlights?

• Old Yeller/Marley & Me: Do all movie dogs go to Heaven? We certainly hope so.

• Ghost: A pottery urn, the Righteous Brothers and lots of groping between a woman and an apparition. Gets us every time.

• Up: The montage of scenes that encapsulated a lifelong love affair between an elderly widower and his spouse can reduce many to a blubbering wreck. A pox on those crafty Pixar geeks!