Movies like Uncle Vanya (1957)
The best movies like Uncle Vanya (1957) are The Safety of Objects (2002), Eleanor the Great (2025) and Rogue Agent (2022). If Uncle Vanya hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)7.8/10 from 1,255 votes
- NewestOmaha (2025)Released 2025
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJimmy P. (2013)
At the end of WWII, Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot who fought in France, suffers from unexplainable symptoms and is admitted to a military hospital. When doctors suspect schizophrenia, an eccentric psychoanalyst takes up the case and starts a conversation with the veteran.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHelen (2009)
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBruised (2021)
Jackie Justice is a mixed martial arts fighter who leaves the sport in disgrace. Down on her luck and simmering with rage and regret years after the fight, she's coaxed into a brutal underground fight by her manager and boyfriend Desi and grabs the attention of a fight league promoter who promises Jackie a life back in the Octagon. But the road to redemption becomes unexpectedly personal when Manny - the son she gave up as an infant - shows up at her doorstep. A triumphant story of a fighter who reclaims her power, in and out of the ring, when everyone has counted her out
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Road Dance (2022)
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Never Sang for My Father (1970)
A man living in the towering shadow of his aging father finds it difficult to start a new chapter in his life by marrying his girlfriend and moving to California.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTrain Dreams (2025)
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTigertail (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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmaha (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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe General Retires (1988)
A general who devoted his life to the communist cause, retires, only to find that his household is in disarray, his grown children money-grubbing, and Vietnamese society far from the rosy picture of equality he'd imagined he'd helped make it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bad Timing (1982)
Nancy Savoca’s second student film follows two twelve-year olds, Bobby (Joey D’Arelli) and Denise (Kelly Cinnante) who run away to Hollywood. They land at an open mic night in a New Jersey bar where Bobby’s aunt and uncle (once aspiring actors) lay out the realities of life as a working actor. The film was inspired by performers Savoca met while making her first student film, most notably William DaPrato. Filled with wry humor and quiet revelations about the pursuit of artistic dreams, Bad Timing also features Marianne Leone and the on-screen debut of future Academy Award winner Chris Cooper.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Within The Woods - Fast Forward Pt.2 (2024)
Living in apparent self-sufficiency a lone man must confront his past and realise the difference between living and existing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Maya (1961)
Disillusioned with his wealthy friends, a man pretends to be poor and goes to live in the slums where he falls in love with a burglar's sister.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
About Love (2006)
Kairat, a teacher of mathematics, accidentally meets Aslar, along with whom he studied in university. Askar invites him to his home, where Kairat becomes acquainted with Togzhan, the wife of Askar. And he falls in love with her. Though this love was mutual, they couldn't step over the obstacles already made by their lives. Their emotions delayed. The script is based on the novel by Chekhov's About Love, Gooseberry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Swimmer (1968)
A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSue (1998)
An unemployed ex-office worker searching for work floats a fragile line of sanity as she struggles to find friendship and companionship. Her tenuous grasp on reality further fluctuates when a man whom she met in a restaurant and started an affair with is called to go to India for an assignment. The final straw occurs when she is evicted and moves into a sleazy hotel. She then starts seeking casual sex in unorthodox locations just to have human contact.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Three Days of Rain (2002)
Six Anton Chekhov short stories set in modern day Cleveland during a three day rain storm.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (1991)
For those who were young, living under the delusions of love and soft drugs in Paris, May 1968 - even if the guitar is still playing, they can't hear it any longer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Uncle Vanya and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Uncle Vanya?
The closest matches to Uncle Vanya are The Safety of Objects (2002), Eleanor the Great (2025) and Rogue Agent (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Uncle Vanya?
Start with The Safety of Objects (2002), the closest match to Uncle Vanya.
What is the highest-rated movie like Uncle Vanya?
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), rated 7.8/10 by 1,255 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Uncle Vanya?
Omaha (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Uncle Vanya?
Yes: The Safety of Objects (2002), Eleanor the Great (2025) and Rogue Agent (2022).
How are movies similar to Uncle Vanya chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Uncle Vanya, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.