Movies like The Spark Eternal (1914)

Imperial Dreams (2014)

A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Hounddog (2008)

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Gigi & Nate (2022)

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Savage Streets (1984)

Brenda, vivacious leader of the "Satins", a fun-loving group of pretty high school girls, searches for deadly vengeance against the gang members who assaulted her deaf-mute sister.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Won't Back Down (2012)

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Killer's Kiss (1955)

Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Safety of Objects (2002)

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Girl in the Box (2016)

The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Cardboard Boxer (2016)

Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Tigertail (2020)

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Each Dawn I Die (1939)

A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Head Full of Honey (2018)

A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Hands of Stone (2016)

The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Run (1991)

When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Enforcer (2022)

A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

In Too Deep (1999)

Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an assumed identity to penetrate Gittens' criminal empire, he makes a disturbing discovery -- he kind of likes being a gangster.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Eleanor the Great (2025)

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Battle of the Year (2013)

A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Bunraku (2010)

In a world with no guns, a mysterious drifter, a bartender and a young samurai plot revenge against a ruthless leader and his army of thugs, headed by nine diverse and deadly assassins.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Omaha (2025)

A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Surprises of an Empty Hotel (1916)

Regular guest Francis Marchmont visiting the seaside Hotel Continental, now mostly deserted due to a diphtheria epidemic, meets and befriends a mysterious woman, "Mrs. Lucie Fairbanks," only to discover she and another woman are rivals, both common-law claimants to the fortune of his hated enemy, the late copper magnate Thomas Cadwallader Bennet, leading to a night of intrigue and mistaken identities in the empty hotel.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Heavy Villains (1915)

Retired businessman F.G. Lawrence favors Philip Preston for a son-in-law; Mrs. Lawrence prefers Reggie, the Dainty Dude. There's trouble, right there. Mrs. L. becomes suspicious of a stout stranger prowling about the place and tells Mary, the husky cook, to point him out to Serena Slim, the slender sleuth. The mysterious fat man happens to be Mary's beau, so she sics Serena onto John Bouncer, Philip's fat uncle. Serena is some "shadow" and the police must be called in to stop the comedy of errors which follows. After explanations all around, Lucy nestles her pretty head on Philip's shoulder while her parents soothe Bouncer's ruffled feelings.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Rags and the Girl (1915)

Wealthy young broker Tom Raine is set upon in a lonely wood by a tramp, knocked out, and stripped of his clothes. Dressed in the tramp's rags, he reaches a hut in time to save veritable wood-nymph June from a beating at the hands of her cruel foster parents. They drive him from the place, but June saves him from being torn to pieces by their huge watchdog, and Tom falls deeply in love with June. They're seen talking by her foster parents, and the father goes after Tom with a club. A fearful fight results, but the timely arrival of Tom's family, who saw the affair from their auto, stops a tragedy. Tom explains matters, his family taking a liking to June, she returns home with them, and Tom and June marry.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

In Honor's Web (1919)

Wealthy businessman Frank Powell falls in love late in life with Olive Meade, the sister of Governor Carroll Carson's wife Irene. One day Frank sees Olive embracing his younger brother Bert. As he leaves dejectedly, Frank discovers Irene, whose busy elderly husband neglects her, with society idler Rodney Foster.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Shadows of the Sea (1922)

An idealistic sea captain, Dick Carson (Conway Tearle), is wounded by revenue officers while smuggling arms to a South American country. He finds aid and refuge at the home of Dr. Jordan (J. Barney Sherry) whose young wife, Dorothy (Doris Kenyon), is being courted by Andrews (Crauford Kent), who kills the doctor in a quarrel. To avoid the revenue officers, Carson takes them aboard his ship and sets sail for the Far East. He and Dorothy fall in love but, first, he must deal with a mutiny on his ship.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Barriers Burned Away (1925)

In 1871, a Chicago undercover detective gets a job as a porter in a disreputable saloon to get information on a stolen painting, which he believes will be fenced there by thieves. He soon falls in love with the saloon owner's daughter, who believes him to be just a porter. Soon his undercover work puts him and the girl in danger, from both the criminals who stole the painting and the infamous Chicago Fire of 1871.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Unconquered Woman (1922)

Helen offers herself in marriage to the winner of a poker game in order to obtain money to replace what her brother has stolen. Antonio, a half-breed, is the winner, but Helen is saved from fulfilling her bet by Bruce Devereux when he doubles the stakes and wins the girl. She marries Bruce but leaves for New York when she finds the marriage to be a fake one. There she marries her previous music teacher, but he proves to be faithless, leaving her with a small son. Bruce returns and assures her he had not arranged for a fake marriage. Her present husband, not able to cope with the pressures of his many affairs, kills himself, leaving Helen free to remarry Bruce.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Forger's Doom (1912)

Claire, the wife of a bank teller, has a liason with a mysterious stranger while her husband is away.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Lebenswogen (1917)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Valiants of Virginia (1916)

When his opponent is killed after a duel over the honor of Virginia belle Judith Fairfax John Valiant flees North. Before taking flight John entrusts a note of explanation for Judith to Major Bristow. Bristow, however, has designs on the belle and withholds the missive. As the years pass John founds a successful business, loses his wife in childbirth and Judith marries Tom Dandridge and has a daughter, Shirley. Many years later, John Jr., now head of the Valiant Corporation, returns to his father’s estate during a financial crisis and falls in love with Shirley Dandridge. To rekindle her romance with John, Katherine tells Shirley of the family feud and Shirley suddenly cools toward John. On his deathbed, Barstow finally gives Judith John's letter in which John reveals that Edward had shot himself during the duel. John and Shirley are happily reconciled.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama