Movies like There Was a Father (1942)
The best movies like There Was a Father (1942) are Daddy Longlegs (2010), I Never Sang for My Father (1970) and The Beautiful Country (2004). If There Was a Father hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Pursuit of Happyness (2006)7.9/10 from 11,012 votes
- NewestRancho Mirage (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseThe Only Son (1936)Also in Japanese
Daddy Longlegs (2010)
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.
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 thisThe Beautiful Country (2004)
After reuniting with his mother in Ho Chi Minh City, a family tragedy causes Binh to flee from Viet Nam to America. Landing in New York, Binh begins a road trip to Texas, where his American father is said to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath of a Salesman (1985)
Willy Loman, an aging, failing salesman, struggles to accept reality and his failure to achieve the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
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 thisThe Only Son (1936)
A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher struggling to support his wife and son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlex of Venice (2015)
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Lost Bus (2025)
A determined father risks everything to rescue a dedicated teacher and her students from a raging wildfire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Gift Wrapped Christmas (2015)
Personal shopper Gwen's newest client, Charlie, is a high-rolling, workaholic, single father. When Gwen meets his 8-year-old son, Owen, during a package drop, she is saddened to see just how little time Charlie spends with him. Determined to get Charlie to appreciate his family, Gwen makes it her Christmas mission to get him into the festive spirit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thing with Feathers (2025)
Following the death of his wife, a young father's hold on reality crumbles, and a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
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 thisThis Boy's Life (1993)
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEvil Does Not Exist (2023)
Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi's house offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to nature.
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 thisBrave the Dark (2025)
When Mr. Deen discovers one of his students has been living out of his car and thrown into jail, he decides to bail him out. Determined to curb Nate’s self-destructive behavior, Deen quickly discovers a host of dark secrets slowly tearing Nate apart. What began as a good deed becomes a desperate fight to save Nate from his own demons. As Nate spirals deeper into despair, Deen must decide how far he’s willing to go to save a kid on the brink of losing everything—even himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMary and Martha (2013)
Wealthy American housewife Mary Morgan takes her bullied son George out of school for home education,including a trip to Southern Africa. Whilst in Mozambique George is bitten by a mosquito which crawls through a hole in his net and dies of malaria. After his funeral at home Mary feels a compulsion to return to Africa where she meets English woman Martha O'Connell,whose 24 year old son Ben, a teacher with voluntary service overseas,has also died of malaria. Ben gave his net to one of his pupils,believing adults cannot catch malaria. The two women are shocked to see the high death rate caused by the disease and,whilst Martha stays in Africa as a voluntary helper,Mary petitions the American government to change things. Martha turns up at Mary's house unannounced and,helped by Mary's ex-diplomat father,they address a senate committee on health spending,persuading them to do more to combat malaria. They meet with some success though a coda states that much more can be done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLike Father, Like Son (2013)
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSweet Sixteen (2002)
Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Holland's Opus (1995)
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScaffolding (2017)
17-year-old Asher is split between his charismatic teacher and his brash father, who wants him to take over his scaffolding business.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Silent Landscape (2003)
Hamid is an Iranian teenage boy whose sexuality brings him into conflict with his family's Muslim beliefs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
May December (2023)
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou Came Back (2020)
Marco and Anita discover they are expecting a child. Finally a ray of light in Marco’s life after his heartbreak following the loss of Leo, his first born with his former wife Clara. Suddenly, however Perla, the new owner where the couple lived until the tragic accident, bursts into Marco’s and his ex-wife’s lives. The mysterious woman claims she keeps feeling a strange presence and hearing the voice of a child that is tormenting her and her son. Marco therefore finds himself torn between the ties of the past and an unwritten future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisFloated By (2025)
A young adult silently drowning in trauma, yearning to let out what’s inside of him, navigates a series of encounters—each revealing fragments of his inner struggle, toxic masculinity, and unspoken vulnerability, as well as the painful dissonance between his desires and his actions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rancho Mirage (2026)
To avoid being put in memory care by his son, a man with Alzheimer's runs away to visit his deceased brother in Las Vegas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Red (2008)
Avery, a reclusive older man, has a best friend in his dog, Red. When three teens kill Red without reason, Avery sets out for justice and redemption, attempting to follow the letter of the law. But when the law fails him, and the boys' father clearly defines right and wrong in his own way, Avery must avenge himself by any means possible.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like There Was a Father and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like There Was a Father?
The closest matches to There Was a Father are Daddy Longlegs (2010), I Never Sang for My Father (1970) and The Beautiful Country (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after There Was a Father?
Start with Daddy Longlegs (2010), the closest match to There Was a Father.
What is the highest-rated movie like There Was a Father?
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), rated 7.9/10 by 11,012 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like There Was a Father?
Rancho Mirage (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like There Was a Father?
Yes: The Only Son (1936), Evil Does Not Exist (2023) and Like Father, Like Son (2013).
How are movies similar to There Was a Father chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside There Was a Father, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.