Movies like Finding Joy (2003)
The best movies like Finding Joy (2003) are The Lost Husband (2020), All of You (2025) and Purple Hearts (2022). If Finding Joy hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLife in a Year (2020)8.2/10 from 2,026 votes
- NewestDoing Life (2026)Released 2026
The Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll of You (2025)
Laura and Simon have been best friends since college. Over the years, they've realized their bond is more than platonic. Can they—and should they—risk everything to explore a love that has existed all along?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPurple Hearts (2022)
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNine Lives (2005)
Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Brilliant Career (1979)
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy First Summer (2020)
Isolated on a remote property, 16-year-old Claudia finds her world transformed when a spirited girl named Grace wanders into her garden.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe World to Come (2021)
In 1856, two women forge a close connection despite their isolation on the American frontier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinter Spring Summer or Fall (2024)
Remi and Barnes, two very different teenagers, meet by chance in the winter of their senior year, then spend four days together over the course of a year that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Fish (2021)
A couple fights to hold their relationship together as a memory loss virus spreads and threatens to erase the history of their love and courtship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Edge of Love (2008)
When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his flirtatious wife Caitlin sweep into war-torn London, the last thing they expect is to bump into Dylan's childhood sweetheart Vera. Despite her joy at seeing Dylan after so many years, Vera is swept off her feet by a dashing officer, William Killick, and finds herself torn between the open adoration of her new found beau and the wily charms of the exotic Welshman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife in a Year (2020)
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLove Everlasting (2016)
Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoing Life (2026)
A single mother and an incarcerated man forge an unlikely bond through heartfelt letters, unlocking a door to redemption, hope and love against all odds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between (2022)
Clare and Aidan make a pact to break up before college — no regrets, no broken hearts. But will one epic goodbye date offer them a last chance at love?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMe Before You (2016)
Lou Clark, a directionless 26-year-old from the English countryside, takes a job at the local castle as a caregiver and companion to a wealthy young banker, Will Traynor. Wheelchair-bound from an accident two years prior, the once adventurous Will has all but given up — that is until Lou determines to show him that life is worth living.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBecoming Jane (2007)
Though young Jane Austen's financially strapped parents expect her to marry the nephew of wealthy Lady Gresham, Jane herself knows that such a union will destroy her creativity and sense of self-worth. Instead, she becomes involved with Tom Lefroy, a charming but penniless apprentice lawyer who gives her the knowledge of the heart she needs for her future career as a novelist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShiloh (1996)
An abused beagle runs away from his owner. On the road, he meets young Marty Preston and follows him home. The boy immediately forms a bond with the dog and names him Shiloh. His stern father won't let him keep the dog because it belongs to Judd Travers, a local hunter. After Shiloh is mistreated again, he runs away and returns to Marty. Knowing his father will once again make him bring Shiloh back to Judd, he makes a home for the dog in an old shed up the hill from the Prestons' house and hides him from his family. His secret is soon discovered when a stray attacks the dog one night and he must turn to his father for help.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)
The unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy's search for home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLucid Love (2024)
Juno, an ordinary man, always feels insecure because he has a beautiful girlfriend, while Trish, a beautiful woman, is always played by men. They never expected to meet in a place full of wonders, a place that would determine their love lives, in a lucid dream.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Tere Bin : Brain Overpowering Heart (TBA)
In a near-future world where emotions can be scientifically altered, a young man is confronted with a revolutionary neural technology designed to suppress emotional pain. As love, memory, and logic collide, he must decide whether a life free from heartbreak is worth the cost of losing genuine human emotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
The Quiet Man (1952)
An American man returns to the village of his birth in Ireland, where he finds love and conflict.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarried Life (2008)
A very gentle middle-aged man is married, but when he falls in love with another woman, he decides that to divorce his wife would humiliate her too much – so instead he decides to kill her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisBroken Embraces (2009)
Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNino Live (2017)
“Every man is surrounded by a neighborhood of voluntary spies.”” – George Washington Spying has always claimed the highest position in the hierarchy of human behavior. And thus it forms the crux of the film ‘Nino Live’. Based in the modern age, the film shows how an entire life can go public in this era of wires and networks. The film revolves around the journey of a child from adolescence to early manhood, all caught on celluloid.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Those Left Behind (2017)
A family finally comes to terms with the grief over their son's suicide 25 years earlier.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Annas Mutter (1984)
Based on the actual case of Marianne Bachmeier from 1981, the film tells the story of a mother who in a calm and determined manner shoots the murderer of her daughter seven times in the court room.The man dies at the crime scene. The media jumps at this tragedy and Bachmeier′s action is even spontaneously applauded by some. But soon, the attractive woman is cast under a pall when the media starts to look for "disclosing" details from her private life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SEAMUS. Now, Then and Before (2024)
An intertwining story of coincidence and closure. Now, then and before the "death" of his YouTube partner and best friend, Seamus tries to come to terms with his new predicament and create a final video for the channel, a sendoff to the last five years of friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Finding Joy and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Finding Joy?
The closest matches to Finding Joy are The Lost Husband (2020), All of You (2025) and Purple Hearts (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Finding Joy?
Start with The Lost Husband (2020), the closest match to Finding Joy.
What is the highest-rated movie like Finding Joy?
Life in a Year (2020), rated 8.2/10 by 2,026 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Finding Joy?
Doing Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Finding Joy?
Yes: The Lost Husband (2020), All of You (2025) and Purple Hearts (2022).
How are movies similar to Finding Joy chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Finding Joy, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.