By the Grace of God to 45 Years: the seven best films to watch on TV this week

By the Grace of God to 45 Years: The Seven Best Films to Watch on TV This Week

In a world where streaming algorithms often dictate our viewing choices, there’s something profoundly comforting — even sacred — about gathering around the television for a curated cinematic experience. This week, television screens glow with a remarkable lineup of films that span genres, decades, and emotional landscapes. From poignant reflections on faith and redemption to thrilling journeys through time and justice, these seven films offer something deeper than mere entertainment: they invite contemplation, spark empathy, and remind us of the transformative power of storytelling.

This week’s selection is anchored by the powerful phrase “By the Grace of God,” a title that echoes through one of the most compelling films in the lineup, but also serves as a thematic thread weaving through the others. Whether it’s grace in the form of forgiveness, second chances, providence, or quiet resilience, each film presents a moment where humanity turns a corner — not by force, but by grace.

So, dim the lights, pour a cup of tea (or a glass of wine), and settle in. Here are the seven best films to watch on TV this week — a cinematic blessing in seven acts.

1. By the Grace of God (2018) – Dir. François Ozon

Channel: BBC Four, Friday at 9:00 PM

We begin where the week’s theme finds its namesake: François Ozon’s fearless, unflinching drama By the Grace of God. Loosely based on true events in France, the film chronicles the courageous efforts of three adult men — Alexandre, François, and Emmanuel — who come forward to expose decades of sexual abuse committed by a Catholic priest. What makes this film so devastating — yet ultimately redemptive — is not just its subject matter, but its approach: measured, compassionate, and fiercely grounded in moral inquiry.

Ozon, known for his stylistic range, opts for subtlety here, letting the emotional weight of each conversation carry the narrative. The film’s title is not spoken lightly. It appears in a pivotal moment when a character, grappling with guilt and trauma, declares that he survived and found the courage to speak out “by the grace of God.” The phrase is neither triumphal nor religiously dogmatic. Instead, it’s a human cry of gratitude for the strength to confront evil — not with vengeance, but with truth.

Watching this film on TV, rather than in a streaming queue, gives it a communal gravity. It’s a story that demands silence, reflection, and perhaps a conversation afterward. Don’t just watch it. Bear witness to it.

2. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – Dir. Gabriele Muccino

Channel: ITV3, Saturday at 7:30 PM

Faith, in its broadest sense, is the belief in something beyond the present moment — the conviction that tomorrow might be better. The Pursuit of Happyness captures that spirit with heartbreaking authenticity. Will Smith delivers one of his most powerful performances as Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman in 1980s San Francisco who, along with his young son (played beautifully by Jaden Smith), faces homelessness while pursuing an unpaid internship at a prestigious stock brokerage.

The film is inspired by a true story, and its emotional arc hinges on perseverance — a kind of secular grace. Chris never asks for miracles, only opportunities. But in the quiet moments — when he rocks his sleeping son in a public restroom, or when he stares blankly at a reflection, exhausted and soul-weary — we see the grace of resilience. It’s not divine intervention, perhaps, but something equally sacred: human dignity refusing to be erased.

Watching it on a Saturday evening feels appropriate. There’s a rhythm to the film that mirrors the grind of everyday life — the getting up in the morning, the small victories, the crushing defeats — and it leaves you with a lump in your throat and a renewed sense of hope. It’s a reminder that grace often arrives not as a lightning bolt, but as a persistent whisper: Keep going.

3. Spotlight (2015) – Dir. Tom McCarthy

Channel: Sky Arts, Sunday at 6:00 PM

If By the Grace of God is a personal reckoning, Spotlight is its institutional counterpart — an exposé of systemic abuse and the grace of journalistic integrity. The film chronicles the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team, whose 2001 investigation uncovered widespread child sexual abuse within the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the church’s efforts to cover it up.

What makes Spotlight so compelling is its restraint. There are no melodramatic confrontations, no heroic monologues. The journalists — played with understated brilliance by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James — do their work with dogged precision and moral clarity. The film’s power lies in its accumulation of detail. Case after case, document after document, the truth emerges not with a bang, but with the quiet horror of realization.

Watching Spotlight on Sky Arts, a channel dedicated to culture and the arts, adds a poetic layer. It frames journalism not as entertainment, but as a public service — a form of grace in action. The film reminds us that truth is not always dramatic, but it is always necessary. And sometimes, grace looks like a reporter double-checking a source at midnight.

4. 45 Years (2015) – Dir. Andrew Haigh

Channel: BBC Two, Monday at 10:15 PM

Grace also appears in the guise of patience — in the quiet endurance of love tested by time and memory. 45 Years, one of the most emotionally devastating films of the 2010s, follows Kate (Charlotte Rampling) and Geoff Mercer (Tom Courtenay), a seemingly content couple preparing to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. Days before the event, Geoff receives news that the body of Katya, his former lover who died in a glacier accident decades earlier, has been unearthed.

What follows is not a sweeping drama, but a masterclass in psychological realism. Director Andrew Haigh uses restraint to amplify tension, allowing tiny gestures — a lingering glance, an unspoken thought — to carry immense weight. As Kate grapples with a past she never knew existed, we see the fragility of memory and the quiet pain of comparison.

Rampling’s performance is a revelation. Her eyes convey decades of love, doubt, and grief. The film’s final scene — a dance at the anniversary party — is one of the most haunting in recent cinema. Is the love still there? Has it changed? The answer is not in words, but in the unspoken space between them.

This is grace not as forgiveness, but as coexistence — the choice to stay, even when the foundation of a life has shifted beneath you. Watching it on a Monday night, as the week begins, offers a profound meditation on long-term relationships: not glamorous, but deeply true.

5. The Father (2020) – Dir. Florian Zeller

Channel: More4, Tuesday at 9:00 PM

Time, memory, and identity unravel in The Father, a film that places us directly inside the deteriorating mind of Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), an 80-year-old man with dementia. Adapted from Zeller’s own play, the film uses shifting sets, recurring actors in different roles, and disorienting edits to mirror Anthony’s confusion. Rooms change overnight. Faces morph. Time folds in on itself.

Hopkins won an Academy Award for his performance, and deservedly so. He oscillates between charm, cruelty, vulnerability, and childlike fear with astonishing precision. Olivia Colman, as his daughter Anne, matches him in emotional depth — her quiet despair as she watches her father disappear is almost unbearable.

But where is the grace in such a story? It lies in the moments of clarity — brief, fleeting, but luminous. When Anthony momentarily recognizes Anne, or recalls a lullaby from childhood, or holds her hand with sudden tenderness — those are moments of grace. Not in the triumph over illness, but in the love that persists despite it.

Watching The Father on TV, in your own living room, makes it all the more intimate. It’s a film that forces you to confront your own fears about aging, memory loss, and care. And in doing so, it offers a strange comfort: that even when the mind fails, love remains — if only for a moment.

6. Selma (2014) – Dir. Ava DuVernay

Channel: Channel 4, Thursday at 9:00 PM

Grace, in its most active form, is justice pursued with unwavering moral courage. Selma, Ava DuVernay’s stirring biographical drama, chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 campaign to secure equal voting rights through the Selma to Montgomery marches. David Oyelowo delivers a career-defining performance as King — not as a statue, but as a man: tired, tempted, faithful, flawed.

The film doesn’t shy away from the brutality of the era. The infamous “Bloody Sunday” scene, where peaceful marchers are attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, is harrowing — a visceral reminder of the cost of justice. Yet woven through the violence is a thread of grace: in King’s speeches, in the hymns sung in churches, in the quiet resolve of ordinary people walking forward despite fear.

What makes Selma essential viewing on television is its communal power. It’s not just a history lesson; it’s a call to conscience. As King stands before a crowd, his voice rising, “How long? Not long!” — you feel the weight of history and the urgency of the present. Grace here is not passive. It’s active, relentless, and rooted in love.

Watching it midweek, as Thursday fades into Friday, offers a chance to reflect: What are we marching for today? And who are we marching beside?

7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – Dir. Michel Gondry

Channel: Film4, Friday at 11:05 PM

We end the week not with solemnity, but with surrealism — a film that dances on the border between dream and memory. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a sci-fi romance wrapped in melancholy and wonder. When Joel (Jim Carrey) discovers that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has erased all memories of their relationship through a medical procedure, he decides to do the same. But as his mind disintegrates the shared past, he fights to preserve it.

Gondry crafts a visual poetry of fractured recollections — beaches collapsing into walls, childhood snowscapes bleeding into adult apartments. The narrative loops, skips, and repeats like a broken tape. Yet at its heart is a simple, painful truth: even love that ends is worth remembering.

The grace in Eternal Sunshine is the grace of imperfection. Joel and Clementine are deeply flawed. Their relationship is messy, passionate, and ultimately unsustainable. Yet the film asks: If you knew it would end in pain, would you do it again? And the answer, whispered in the fading memories, is yes.

Watching it late on a Friday night — the week’s final film — feels like a benediction. It’s a reminder that grace isn’t about perfect love, clean slates, or happy endings. Sometimes, grace is simply choosing to remember, even when forgetting might hurt less.

Final Thoughts: A Week of Grace

This week’s television lineup offers more than escapism. It offers revelation. From By the Grace of God to 45 Years, from the pursuit of justice to the unraveling of memory, these films explore what it means to endure, to forgive, to remember, and to love in the face of loss.

They ask hard questions:

• Can grace emerge from institutional betrayal?
• Can love survive the erosion of memory?
• Can truth triumph without vengeance?
• Can we find peace in imperfection?

And they answer, quietly but clearly, that yes — grace is possible. Not as a miracle, but as a choice. A choice to speak out. To stay. To fight. To remember.

So as you flip through the channels this week, don’t just scroll past these titles. Press play. Let them in. In a world that often feels fractured and loud, these films are a quiet reminder: by the grace of stories, we might just understand each other a little better.

Until next week — may your screen be bright, and your heart open.