Movies like The Deep Blue Sea (1955)
The best movies like The Deep Blue Sea (1955) are Strangers When We Meet (1960), Unfaithful (2002) and Middle of the Night (1959). If The Deep Blue Sea 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 ratedAmerican Beauty (1999)8.0/10 from 13,541 votes
- NewestMaterialists (2025)Released 2025
Strangers When We Meet (1960)
A suburban architect loves his wife but is bored with his marriage and with his work, so he takes up with the neglected, married beauty who lives down the street.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnfaithful (2002)
A New York suburban couple's marriage goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiddle of the Night (1959)
Jerry Kingsley is a wealthy garment manufacturer left lonely in his 50s when his wife dies. Despite the difference in their ages, he strikes up a romance with divorced 24-year-old receptionist Betty. The relationship is dismissed by his daughter, Lillian, discouraged by his sister, Evelyn, and denounced by Betty's mother. But when Jerry begins to mention marriage, even Betty is forced to confront her ambivalence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shipping News (2001)
An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPersuasion (1995)
In early 19th-century England, dire financial straits reacquaint the aristocratic Anne Elliot with her wealthy ex-fiance Frederick Wentworth. The two must choose between either putting the past behind them or listening to their hearts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThe Burning Plain (2008)
A trailer is burning in the middle of a plain. The bodies of two adulterous lovers are found. Scenes from both families, before and after the dramatic events, suggest an unusual connection between them. But what is their secret?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mother (2003)
A grandmother has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaterialists (2025)
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Delinquent Season (2018)
In Dublin, two couples (Jim and Danielle; Yvonne and Chris) are seemingly living in marital bliss. However, when Chris's behaviour begins to change, Yvonne seeks solace in the arms of Jim, and before long they are in the midst of an affair. When a life-changing secret is later revealed, all four are forced to re-evaluate their lives, their marriages, and their friendships - but can anything be salvaged from the wreckage?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Palace (1990)
Max Baron is a Jewish advertising executive in his 20s who's still getting over the death of his wife. Nora Baker is a 40-something diner waitress who enjoys the wilder side of life. Mismatched or not, their attraction is instant and smoldering. With time, however, their class and age differences become an obstacle in their relationship, especially since Max can't keep Nora a secret from his Jewish friends and upper-crust associates forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadame Bovary (1949)
In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Night (2010)
Michael and Joanna are a young and successful married couple who appear to have it all. But when Michael finds himself alone on a business trip with an attractive new colleague and Joanna encounters the other great love of her life, each is thrust into an evening of temptation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNights in Rodanthe (2008)
Adrienne is trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not, and her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is travelling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn where she is staying.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClash by Night (1952)
An embittered woman seeks escape in marriage, only to fall for her husband’s best friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntimacy (2001)
Failed musician Jay abandoned his family and now earns a living as head bartender in a trendy London pub. Every Wednesday afternoon, a woman comes to his house for graphic, almost wordless, sex. One day, Jay follows her and learns about her. This eventually disrupts their relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFaces (1968)
Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdulterers (2016)
On a steamy New Orleans afternoon, Sam Deuprey decides to surprise his beautiful wife, Ashley, for their anniversary and comes home early. But Ashley is not alone in the bedroom. She and her lover, Damien are about to learn how far a jealous husband will go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCome Back, Little Sheba (1953)
A mismatched couple's marital problems come to the surface when the husband develops an interest in their pretty boarder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNotes on a Scandal (2006)
A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dreamers (2003)
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBirds Without Names (2017)
An unstable young woman pines for the ex-boyfriend who nearly beat her to death – and who has mysteriously disappeared.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Exchange Wife 2 (2023)
Kyeong-soo, an art dealer who specializes in painting, goes to evaluate the requested painting and accidentally damages it. Chang-in, the owner of the painting, suggests one thing from Kyung-soo, who was at a loss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUmberto D. (1952)
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCoffee and Cigarettes (2004)
An anthology of eleven vignettes featuring star-studded casts of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrash (1996)
A car crash victim inexplicably finds himself aroused by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground subculture of like-minded souls.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWillenbrock (2005)
Second-hand car sales man Willenbrock has everything that he could ever wish for. He is married, has two lovers, a cottage in the German city Grünen, and a BMW. Yet one day while at his cottage he gets mugged and his life is drastically changed. Little by little the world he once felt safe in falls apart around him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
It Was Infidelity in the Beginning (1999)
Annabelle is annoyed by family life. Most of all, she bothers her health-conscious, chain-smoking, know-it-all mother, Edda who visits regularly. When mother moves in her house for three months, because their house is being renovated, She enthusiastically takes the chance to go on a "relaxing weekend". On this occasion her girlfriend Doro, who was supposed to take care of the children, starts an affair with her husband, Friedrich. When she returns, she is appalled. She packs her things and leaves Friedrich and the family. Promptly she meets a young student at a party, who awakens the passion in her. Written by lament
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Deep Blue Sea and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Deep Blue Sea?
The closest matches to The Deep Blue Sea are Strangers When We Meet (1960), Unfaithful (2002) and Middle of the Night (1959). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Deep Blue Sea?
Start with Strangers When We Meet (1960), the closest match to The Deep Blue Sea.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Deep Blue Sea?
American Beauty (1999), rated 8.0/10 by 13,541 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Deep Blue Sea?
Materialists (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Deep Blue Sea?
Yes: Strangers When We Meet (1960), Unfaithful (2002) and Middle of the Night (1959).
How are movies similar to The Deep Blue Sea chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Deep Blue Sea, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.