Movies like About Schmidt (2002)
The best movies like About Schmidt (2002) are The Bucket List (2007), 28 Days (2000) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). If About Schmidt hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Intouchables (2011)8.3/10 from 19,042 votes
- NewestBon Voyage, Marie (2025)Released 2025
The Bucket List (2007)
Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like this28 Days (2000)
After getting into a car accident while drunk on the day of her sister's wedding, Gwen Cummings is given a choice between prison or a rehab center. She chooses rehab, but is extremely resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs they have to offer, refusing to admit that she has an alcohol addiction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Miss Sunshine (2006)
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wedding (2004)
Wojnar is a wealthy man who is marrying off his beautiful daughter Kasia, in a small town in present day Poland. Wojnar had to bribe the groom with a fancy car, since Kasia was pregnant by another man. At the end of the ceremony, the car is delivered by a gangster, who immediately demands the promised money and the deed to land from Kasia's grandfather. Unfortunately grandpa is unwilling to let go of the land. Meanwhile each of the workers at the reception demand to be paid, so Wojnar, who is very reluctant to part with his money, tries to haggle and bribe his way out of all the situations.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Straight Story (1999)
Retired farmer and widower Alvin Straight learns one day that his estranged brother Lyle has suffered a severe stroke. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Descendants (2011)
With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront a young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrifting Clouds (1996)
The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Station Agent (2003)
When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Savages (2007)
A sister and brother face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNebraska (2013)
An aging, booze-addled father takes a trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim what he believes to be a million-dollar sweepstakes prize.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSideways (2004)
Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Farewell (2019)
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Man Called Ove (2015)
Despite being deposed as president of his condominium association, grumpy 59-year-old Ove continues to watch over his neighbourhood with an iron fist. When pregnant Parvaneh and her family move into the terraced house opposite Ove and she accidentally backs into Ove’s mailbox, it sets off a series of unexpected changes in his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)
After learning that a brain aneurysm will kill him in about 90 minutes, a perpetually unhappy man struggles to come to terms with his fate and make amends with everyone he has ever hurt.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisO'Horten (2007)
Odd Horton is dependable and contained: he's a train driver retiring after 40 years of service, living a simple life. His idea of adventure is to fly from one city in Norway to another. Starting on the night of his retirement dinner, Odd has a series of dislocating experiences: a boy insists that Odd sit by his bedside while he falls asleep; misadventure causes Odd to miss his last run; he witnesses an arrest; he assists an old man and makes a friend; he takes a trip with a blindfolded driver; he adopts a dog; he takes stock late one night at the roundhouse; he revisits his mother's disappointment in him. How should he live the rest of his life?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody's Fool (1994)
A rascally man nearing retirement juggles a workers' compensation suit while secretly working for his nemesis and flirting with his nemesis' young wife. As his estranged son returns, he faces new family responsibilities, while a banker plots to evict him from his home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbe & Phil's Last Poker Game (2018)
Dr. Abe Mandelbaum has just moved into a retirement home. After forming an unlikely friendship with a womanizing gambler, their relationship is tested when they each try to convince a mysterious nurse that they are her long-lost father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Love Is All You Need (2012)
Ida, a Danish hairdresser who has lost her hair to cancer, returns home from the hospital one day to find her husband is cheating on her. She decides to travel to Italy on her own for her daughter's wedding, but discovers on arriving that the wedding gathering will present its own challenges.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAugust: Osage County (2013)
An intense look at the lives of the strong-willed daughters of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional mother who raised them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverybody's Fine (2009)
Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Year (2010)
During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, the Marigold Hotel nevertheless slowly begins to charm in unexpected ways as the residents find new purpose in their old age.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow Viktor "The Garlic" Took Alexey "The Stud" to the Nursing Home (2017)
Viktor spends his free time trawling bars with ladies of questionable repute, from where he is picked up by a wife he doesn’t love, the mother of a child they never planned. Viktor himself was abandoned by his own father, his mother then committed suicide, and he was left to grow up in an orphanage. Years later, his errant dad returns, now a disabled felon, and Viktor discovers a timely legacy is in the offing – his father’s apartment. The documentation for securing dad’s move into an old people’s home is signed in a flash. Nevertheless, the only one that can take him is miles away and, what’s more, the invalid starts to recuperate during the journey, which is when their real problems begin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBon Voyage, Marie (2025)
An unexpected road trip brings a dysfunctional family together for one last journey with their elder, sparking moments of connection, joy, and reconciliation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012)
A fisheries expert is approached by a consultant to help realize a sheik's vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible possible.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHanging Up (2000)
Three sisters - Georgia, Eve, and Maddy - do what they do best with life, love, and lunacy on the telephone lines that bind - when their curmudgeonly father, Lou, is admitted to a Los Angeles Hospital. After years of wild living, intermittent affection, and constant phoning, he is finally threatening to die.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Man Called Otto (2022)
When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Intouchables (2011)
A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGoodrich (2024)
Andy Goodrich's life is upended when his wife enters a rehab program, leaving him on his own with their young kids. Goodrich leans on his daughter from his first marriage, Grace, as he ultimately evolves into the father Grace never had.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaptain Fantastic (2016)
Deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father devoted to raising his six kids with a rigorous physical and intellectual education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the world, beginning a journey that challenges his idea of what it means to be a parent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like About Schmidt?
The closest matches to About Schmidt are The Bucket List (2007), 28 Days (2000) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after About Schmidt?
People who watched About Schmidt most often go on to The Bucket List (2007), 28 Days (2000) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
What is the highest-rated movie like About Schmidt?
The Intouchables (2011), rated 8.3/10 by 19,042 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like About Schmidt?
Bon Voyage, Marie (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like About Schmidt?
Yes: The Bucket List (2007), 28 Days (2000) and Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
How are movies similar to About Schmidt chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside About Schmidt, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.