I can't believe this Top 5 is getting no action. I'm with DB Sweeney (who was probably just sucking up, but whatever); I think it's a great topic. In a sense, in fact, just about every movie fits the description. At some crucial point in pretty much every movie, one of the main characters "starts over" in some significant sense. At the end of the movie, if nowhere else.
So, I made a couple of rules about movies I wouldn't include in mine. A) No movies where the only "starting over" is at the end. And 2) No addiction-recovery movies. That's its own genre, of course, even if it is an entire genre focused on the process of starting over.
Also, before I start, I have to mention one that didn't quite make the cut—Truly, Madly, Deeply. I think it's a real overlooked gem. It didn't make this list, though, because she really only starts over in one area of her life (as I recall). Sure, it's entirely about that process. And sure, it does a really wonderful job of telling that particular story. Still, I didn't think it really qualified.
Oh, and I also didn't put The Bourne Identity on my list, even though it would have come in near the top, because both Adam and Sam had it on their lists.
So, without further ado . . .
5. A tie: American Me and The Hurricane. They're actually quite different, but I used the similarity (they're both about someone getting out of prison) as an excuse to squeeze them both in. American Me I love, and few movies so successfully tell the story of someone who desperately wants to start over, who gives it everything he has, and yet in the end cannot do it. Absolutely love this movie. The Hurricane might seem to violate my first rule, but keep in mind that it's also about Lesra starting over. Still, I would have put it in because even though Ruben's starting over comes at the end, the entire movie is about them trying to achieve it.
4. The Talented Mr. Ripley. All he can seem to do is start over. And over, and over, and over again.
3. The Station Agent. One of the few, I think, where someone starts over with no idea what that will even mean. And the more he tries to control it, the less control he seems to have.
2. The Matrix. Come on, huh? Neo starts over in another CINECAST!ing universe, basically.
1. Kieslowski's entire Three Colors trilogy. They're each supposed to be addressing different themes—liberty, equality, and "fraternity"—and in that sense I think they're really interesting. But if you think about it, the thing that ties all three movies together is that the protagonists are starting over. As are some of the secondary characters. They're wonderfully intimate portraits of the very process, in all its facets.