Movies like Dear Ellis (2026)
The best movies like Dear Ellis (2026) are Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), My Mom Jayne (2025) and The Sense of an Ending (2017). If Dear Ellis hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Dear Ellis
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Father (2020)8.1/10 from 3,846 votes
- NewestA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)Released 2025
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Mom Jayne (2025)
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Sense of an Ending (2017)
A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Love Song for Latasha (2019)
A dreamlike conversation with the past and the present, reimagining Latasha Harlins' story by excavating intimate memories shared by those who loved her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lake House (2006)
When architect Alex Wyler moves into an unusual glass house on stilts over a lake, he discovers a note from the previous tenant in the mailbox--but no one's lived in the house for years. He replies and soon discovers that he's corresponding with a doctor named Kate Forster. Their correspondence, only through the 'magical' mailbox, turns romantic and their paths cross in unexpected ways, but when they try to truly connect, danger looms. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMan with No Past (2025)
Waking up in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory must confront the mysteries of his own identity. However, his desperate search to uncover the past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that ultimately reveals the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005)
All but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel, an elderly woman strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Family Thing (1996)
Earl Pilcher Jr. runs an equipment rental outfit in Arkansas, lives with his wife and kids and parents, and rarely takes off his gimme cap. His mother dies, leaving a letter explaining he's not her natural son, but the son of a Black woman who died in childbirth; plus, he has a half brother Ray, in Chicago, she wants him to visit. Earl makes the trip, initially receiving a cold welcome from Ray and Ray's son, Virgil. His birth mother's sister, Aunt T., an aged and blind matriarch, takes Earl in tow and insists that the family open up to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Woman (1988)
Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecret Admirer (1985)
An anonymous love letter left in Michael Ryan's locker on the last day of school wreaks havoc on his life and the lives of everyone who comes in contact with it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Photograph (2020)
When famed photographer Christina Eames dies unexpectedly, she leaves her estranged daughter, Mae, hurt, angry and full of questions. When Mae finds a photograph tucked away in a safe-deposit box, she soon finds herself delving into her mother's early life -- an investigation that leads to an unexpected romance with a rising journalist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
Sarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present... and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucky (2017)
Follows the journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. He finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBroken Flowers (2005)
An introverted man receives an anonymous letter from an ex-lover informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. A freelance sleuth neighbor motivates the man to embark on a cross-country search for his past flames, seeking answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnknown: Cave of Bones (2023)
Scientists examine underground clues from over 250,000 years ago that raise questions about our early relatives — and what it truly means to be human.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTell Me Who I Am (2019)
In this documentary, Alex trusts his twin, Marcus, to tell him about his past after he loses his memory. But Marcus is hiding a dark family secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe First Time (2012)
A spark of attraction smolders, then ignites, between two teens from different high schools who meet by chance at a party.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMessage in a Bottle (1999)
A woman finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore and tracks down the author, a widowed shipbuilder whose wife died tragically early. As a deep and mutual attraction blossoms, the man struggles to make peace with his past so that he can move on and find happiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReds (1981)
An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Father (2020)
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages and, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Dear Ellis?
The closest matches to Dear Ellis are Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), My Mom Jayne (2025) and The Sense of an Ending (2017). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Dear Ellis?
Start with Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), the closest match to Dear Ellis.
What is the highest-rated movie like Dear Ellis?
The Father (2020), rated 8.1/10 by 3,846 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Dear Ellis?
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Dear Ellis?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to Dear Ellis chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Dear Ellis, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.