Movies like Bright Star (2009)
The best movies like Bright Star (2009) are Mary Shelley (2017), Great Expectations (2012) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997). If Bright Star 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 ratedLost Illusions (2021)7.4/10 from 581 votes
- NewestEmily (2022)Released 2022
Mary Shelley (2017)
The love affair between poet Percy Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin resulted in the creation of an immortal novel, “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.”
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGreat Expectations (2012)
Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOscar and Lucinda (1997)
After a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmily (2022)
The imagined life of one of the world’s most famous authors, Emily Brontë, as she finds her voice and writes the literary classic Wuthering Heights. Explore the relationships that inspired her – her raw, passionate sisterhood with Charlotte and Anne; her first aching, forbidden love for Weightman and her care for her maverick brother whom she idolises.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJane Eyre (1996)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirelight (1998)
In 1838, lovely governess Elisabeth Laurier agrees to bear a child of an anonymous English landowner, and he will in return pay her father's debt. At birth, she, as agreed, gives up the child. Seven years later, she is hired as governess to a girl on a remote Sussex estate. The girl's father, Charles Godwin, turns out to be that anonymous landowner. So Elisabeth has to be her own daughter's governess, and she can't reveal the secret of her tie with little Louisa.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWuthering Heights (1998)
Gypsy boy Heathcliffe is adopted by God-fearing landowner Earnshaw in 19th-century northern England and grows up as the soulmate of the daughter, Cathy. However, their romance suffers various tragedies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Great Expectations (1999)
Orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
A Quiet Passion (2016)
The story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImpromptu (1991)
In 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder The Greenwood Tree (2005)
Set in a rustic English village in the mid 19th century, Under The Greenwood Tree tells the story of a poor young man who falls for a middle-class schoolteacher and attempts to win her over.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Lost Illusions (2021)
Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVictoria & Abdul (2017)
Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady Macbeth (2016)
Rural England, 1865. Katherine, suffocated by her loveless marriage to a bitter man and restrained by his father's tyranny, unleashes an irresistible force within her, so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFar from the Madding Crowd (2015)
In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a hardworking young sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnna Karenina (1997)
In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJude (1996)
In late 19th-century England, Jude aspires to be an academic, but is hobbled by his blue-collar background. Instead, he works as a stonemason and is trapped in an unloving marriage to a farmer's daughter named Arabella. But when his wife leaves him, Jude sees an opportunity to improve himself. He moves to the city and begins an affair with his married cousin, Sue, courting tragedy every step of the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFar from the Madding Crowd (1998)
This powerful adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel spins a story of passion and destruction set in the nineteenth century. The proud, flighty and bewitching Bathsheba Everdene finds herself entangled into the passions of three men and her impulsive nature pushes her into a web of deceit and destruction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Bel Ami (2012)
Georges Duroy travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEmma. (2020)
In 1800s England, a well-meaning but selfish young woman meddles in the love lives of her friends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSense and Sensibility (1995)
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects of marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. After Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son. These circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's wife and daughters without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Age of Innocence (1993)
In 19th century New York high society, a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMansfield Park (2007)
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEmma (1996)
Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightley.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColette (2018)
After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as Willy, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTotal Eclipse (1995)
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna Karenina (2012)
In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Walk Invisible (2016)
To Walk Invisible takes a new look at the extraordinary Brontë family, telling the story of these remarkable women who, despite the obstacles they faced, came from obscurity to produce some of the greatest novels in the English language.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiss Austen Regrets (2008)
Jane Austen is about to turn 40, but she still hasn't found her ideal man. When Jane is approached by her niece Fanny and asked to help select the perfect husband for the young girl, the aging spinster begins to wonder why it is that she never found a man to share her own life with.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEiffel (2021)
The French government is asking Gustave Eiffel to design something spectacular for the 1889 Paris World Fair, but he simply wants to design the subway—until he crosses paths with a mysterious woman from his past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Bright Star?
The closest matches to Bright Star are Mary Shelley (2017), Great Expectations (2012) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bright Star?
People who watched Bright Star most often go on to Mary Shelley (2017), Great Expectations (2012) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997).
What is the highest-rated movie like Bright Star?
Lost Illusions (2021), rated 7.4/10 by 581 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bright Star?
Emily (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Bright Star?
Yes: Mary Shelley (2017), Great Expectations (2012) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997).
How are movies similar to Bright Star chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bright Star, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.