Movies like Anna Karenina (1948)
The best movies like Anna Karenina (1948) are Anna Karenina (2012), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). If Anna Karenina 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 ratedThe Shawshank Redemption (1994)8.7/10 from 31,829 votes
- NewestPurple Hearts (2022)Released 2022
Anna 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Zhivago (1965)
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLady Chatterley's Lover (2015)
An early-20th-century tale of love across class boundaries which tells the legendary and romantic story of Lady Chatterley’s affair with her gamekeeper. Jed Mercurio’s adaptation of DH Lawrence’s classic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreathe (2017)
Based on the true story of Robin, a handsome, brilliant and adventurous man whose life takes a dramatic turn when polio leaves him paralyzed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Tamarind Seed (1974)
During a Caribbean holiday, a British civil servant finds herself falling in love with a Russian agent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaras Bulba (1962)
Ukraine, 16th century. While the Poles dominate the Cossack steppes, Andrei, son of Taras Bulba, a Cossack leader, must choose between his love for his family and his folk and his passion for a Polish woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAli and Nino (2016)
Muslim prince Ali and Georgian aristocrat Nino have grown up in the Russian province of Azerbaijan. Their tragic love story sees the outbreak of the First World War and the world’s struggle for Baku’s oil. Ultimately they must choose to fight for their country’s independence or for each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTristan & Isolde (2006)
An affair between the second in line to Britain's throne and the princess of the feuding Irish spells doom for the young lovers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPurple Hearts (2022)
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
In the 1930s, British officer John Truscott journeys to a remote village in colonial Malaysia to educate and Westernize the local Iban population. There, he's introduced to the lovely Selima. In keeping with tradition, Selima is assigned to sleep with Truscott and teach him the native language and customs. But when they fall in love, both colonists and natives object to their plans to marry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Gatsby (2013)
Nick Carraway arrives in New York in 1922, an era of loose morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick encounters the mysterious millionaire Gatsby and his bewitching cousin Daisy. Soon, Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super-rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. Bearing witness to this new world, Nick pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and unforgettable tragedy -- mirroring our own times and struggles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlind (2017)
A novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRacing with the Moon (1984)
In a small coastal California town, Henry and Nicky are pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be wealthy. Mischievous and irresponsible, Nicky gets into trouble which forces the other two to become involved, testing their relationship, as well as the friendship between the boys.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lucky One (2012)
A Marine travels to Louisiana after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Choice (2016)
Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPride & Prejudice (2005)
A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBUtterfield 8 (1960)
Gloria Wandrous, a promiscuous fashion model, falls in love with Weston Liggett, the hard drinking son of a working class family who has married into money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Beautiful Mind (2001)
From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his career and stands on the brink of international acclaim. But as the handsome and arrogant Nash accepts secret work in cryptography, he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. His life takes a nightmarish turn and he soon finds himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDesert Hearts (1985)
While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisContempt (1963)
Art film producer Jeremy Prokosch, unhappy with the work of his director, hires Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb, he brings in a screenwriter to energise the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChocolat (2000)
In the winter of 1959, a single mother and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town, where they open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBenedetta (2021)
A 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta's shocking religious visions that threaten to shake the Church to its core.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild at Heart (1990)
Young lovers Sailor and Lula hit the road to start a new life together away from the wrath of Lula’s deranged, disapproving mother, who has hired a team of hitmen to cut the lovers’ surreal honeymoon short.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Mile (1999)
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRonia: The Robber's Daughter (1984)
Ronia lives happily in her father's castle until she comes across a new playmate, Birk, in the nearby dark forest. The two explore the wilderness, braving dangerous Witchbirds and Rump-Gnomes. But when their families find out Birk and Ronia have been playing together, they forbid them to see each other again. Indeed, their fathers are competing robber chieftains and bitter enemies. Now the two spunky children must try to tear down the barriers that have kept their families apart for so long.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Devil Wears Prada (2006)
A young woman from the Midwest gets more than she bargained for when she moves to New York to become a writer and ends up as the assistant to the tyrannical, larger-than-life editor-in-chief of a major fashion magazine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Anna Karenina?
The closest matches to Anna Karenina are Anna Karenina (2012), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Anna Karenina?
Start with Anna Karenina (2012), the closest match to Anna Karenina.
What is the highest-rated movie like Anna Karenina?
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), rated 8.7/10 by 31,829 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Anna Karenina?
Purple Hearts (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Anna Karenina?
Yes: Anna Karenina (2012), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Doctor Zhivago (1965).
How are movies similar to Anna Karenina chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Anna Karenina, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.