Movies like What Dreams May Come (1998)
The best movies like What Dreams May Come (1998) are City of Angels (1998), A Ghost Story (2017) and What if... (2010). If What Dreams May Come hooked you with its drama and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIt's a Wonderful Life (1946)8.3/10 from 5,160 votes
- NewestThe Life of Chuck (2025)Released 2025
City of Angels (1998)
When a guardian angel – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Ghost Story (2017)
Recently deceased, a white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife, only to find that in his spectral state he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat if... (2010)
Fifteen years ago, Ben Walker made a decision to leave his college sweetheart and ultimately his faith, in order to pursue a lucrative business opportunity. Now with a high-paying career and a trophy fiancé, he is visited by an angel, who gives him a glimpse into what his life would look like had he followed his calling.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Matter of Life and Death (1946)
A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court, hoping to prolong his fledgling romance with an American girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
Due to a genetic disorder, handsome librarian Henry DeTamble involuntarily zips through time, appearing at various moments in the life of his true love, the beautiful artist Clare Abshire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhost (1990)
After a young man is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe In Between (2022)
After surviving a car accident that took the life of her boyfriend, a teenage girl believes he's attempting to reconnect with her from the after world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHereafter (2010)
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Life of Chuck (2025)
In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles 'Chuck' Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoll Flanders (1996)
The daughter of a thief, young Moll is placed in the care of a nunnery after the execution of her mother. However, the actions of an abusive priest lead Moll to rebel as a teenager, escaping to the dangerous streets of London. Further misfortunes drive her to accept a job as a prostitute from the conniving Mrs. Allworthy. It is there that Moll first meets Hibble, who is working as Allworthy's servant but takes a special interest in the young woman's well-being. With his help, she retains hope for the future, ultimately falling in love with an unconventional artist who promises the possibility of romantic happiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2014)
Told from the woman's perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Eyre (2011)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Leisure Seeker (2018)
A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey from Boston to Key West, recapturing their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lovely Bones (2009)
After being brutally murdered, 14-year-old Susie Salmon watches from heaven over her grief-stricken family -- and her killer. As she observes their daily lives, she must balance her thirst for revenge with her desire for her family to heal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIt's a Wonderful Life (1946)
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like this2 Hearts (2020)
When illness strikes two people who are polar opposites, life and death bring them together in surprising ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2014)
Told from the man's perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Live in Time (2024)
An up-and-coming chef and a recent divorcée find their lives forever changed when a chance encounter brings them together, in a decade-spanning, deeply moving romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisP.S. I Love You (2007)
A young widow discovers that her late husband has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChances Are (1989)
Louie Jeffries is happily married to Corinne. On their first anniversary, Louie is killed crossing the road. Louie is reincarnated as Alex Finch, and twenty years later, fate brings Alex and Louie's daughter, Miranda, together. It's not until Alex is invited to Louie's home that he begins to remember his former life, wife and best friend. Of course, there's also the problem that he's attracted to Louie's/his own daughter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGlastage (2007)
Rosalie, an aging art historian, falls in love with a troubled bisexual artist half her age. Their relationship becomes pure torture for them both.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
About Schmidt (2002)
A recently retired man embarks on a journey to his estranged daughter's wedding, only to discover more about himself and life than he ever expected.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLunch Time (2017)
A 16 year old girl has come to the hospital to identify the body of her mother. The people in charge at the hospital - due to her young age - won't let her into the morgue. After she insists that most of her family is in jail for criminal activities, they acquiesce...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Girl with the Needle (2024)
Struggling to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen, a newly unemployed and pregnant young woman is taken in by a charismatic elder to help run an underground adoption agency. The two form an unexpected bond, until a sudden discovery changes everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKill Me If You Dare (2024)
A winning lottery ticket has grave consequences for a married couple when they start hatching plans to kill each other for the prize money.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisIn the Belly of AI (2025)
Magical, autonomous, all-powerful… Artificial intelligences feed our dreams as well as our nightmares. But while tech giants promise the advent of a new humanity, the reality of their production remains totally hidden. While data centers are concreting landscapes and drying up rivers, millions of workers around the world are preparing the billions of data that will feed the voracious algorithms of Big Tech, at the cost of their mental and emotional health. They are hidden in the belly of AI. Could they be the collateral damage of the ideology of “Longtermism” that has been brewing in Silicon Valley for several years?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Death Watch (1980)
In a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the crude spectacle of death, the rare case of a dying woman becomes the morbid theme of a revolutionary reality show, broadcast through the curious eyes of a peculiar camera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattle Royale (2000)
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisText Messages from the Universe (2019)
A film that immerses its audience in subjective states of consciousness they might experience when they die, imagining what they can see and think and hear in a seamless but fragmentary flow of poetic images, words and music. The viewer undertakes a journey into their own interior world of dreams and projections in which time and space, and cause and effect logic, are turned on their heads. Text Messages from the Universe is inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a text which guides souls on their journey of 49 days through the 'Bardo', or intermediate state, between dying and rebirth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What Dreams May Come?
The closest matches to What Dreams May Come are City of Angels (1998), A Ghost Story (2017) and What if... (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What Dreams May Come?
Start with City of Angels (1998), the closest match to What Dreams May Come.
What is the highest-rated movie like What Dreams May Come?
It's a Wonderful Life (1946), rated 8.3/10 by 5,160 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What Dreams May Come?
The Life of Chuck (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like What Dreams May Come?
Yes: City of Angels (1998), A Ghost Story (2017) and What if... (2010).
How are movies similar to What Dreams May Come chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What Dreams May Come, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.