Movies like The F**king Awful Mess (2018)
The best movies like The F**king Awful Mess (2018) are Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), Moonlight Mile (2002) and Collateral Beauty (2016). If The F**king Awful Mess hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHamnet (2025)7.7/10 from 1,762 votes
- NewestLove of Your Life (2026)Released 2026
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoonlight Mile (2002)
As he copes with the death of his fiancee along with her parents, a young man must figure out what he wants out of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCollateral Beauty (2016)
Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHamnet (2025)
The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReservation Road (2007)
Two fathers' lives intersect when one of them is involved in a terrible and sudden hit-and-run car accident that leaves the other's son dead. In response, the two men react in unexpected ways as a reckoning looms in the near future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStealing Home (1988)
Billy Wyatt, a former high school and minor-league baseball player, receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler, has died. Wyatt returns home to deal with this tragedy, reminiscing over his childhood growing up with his father, Katie, and best friend Alan Appleby.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack or White (2015)
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRestless (2011)
Two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaves (2019)
A controlling father’s attempts to ensure that his two children succeed in high school backfire after his son experiences a career-ending sports injury. Their familial bonds are eventually placed under severe strain by an unexpected tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOur Friend (2019)
After learning that his terminally ill wife has six months to live, a man welcomes the support of his best friend who moves into their home to help out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUncle Frank (2020)
In 1973, when Frank Bledsoe and his 18-year-old niece Beth take a road trip from Manhattan to Creekville, South Carolina for the family patriarch's funeral, they're unexpectedly joined by Frank's lover Walid.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Is Where I Leave You (2014)
When their father passes away, four grown, world-weary siblings return to their childhood home and are requested -- with an admonition -- to stay there together for a week, along with their free-speaking mother and a collection of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. As the brothers and sisters re-examine their shared history and the status of each tattered relationship among those who know and love them best, they reconnect in hysterically funny and emotionally significant ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRabbit Hole (2010)
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Man Called Otto (2022)
When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shack (2017)
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called 'The Shack'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Church (2016)
A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove of Your Life (2026)
After a chance encounter sparks a sweeping romance, Maya's future is suddenly upended, sending her on an unexpected journey to love and live again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBounce (2000)
Buddy Amaral, a successful and self-absorbed Los Angeles advertising executive, switches airline tickets with a stranger just before boarding a long-delayed flight so that he might enjoy an overnight fling with a pretty Dallas businesswoman. When the plane goes down, killing all aboard, Buddy's guilt soon turns into an alcohol problem. As part of his 12-step program, Buddy seeks atonement and decides to seek out the woman he thinks he's left a widow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like The F**king Awful Mess and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The F**king Awful Mess?
The closest matches to The F**king Awful Mess are Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), Moonlight Mile (2002) and Collateral Beauty (2016). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The F**king Awful Mess?
Start with Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), the closest match to The F**king Awful Mess.
What is the highest-rated movie like The F**king Awful Mess?
Hamnet (2025), rated 7.7/10 by 1,762 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The F**king Awful Mess?
Love of Your Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The F**king Awful Mess?
Yes: Things We Lost in the Fire (2007), Moonlight Mile (2002) and Collateral Beauty (2016).
How are movies similar to The F**king Awful Mess chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The F**king Awful Mess, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.