Movies like The Only Thing (1925)
The best movies like The Only Thing (1925) are The Golden Bowl (2000), Strangers When We Meet (1960) and The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020). If The Only Thing hooked you with its romance and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Age of Adaline (2015)7.5/10 from 7,261 votes
- NewestIn Her Place (2024)Released 2024
The Golden Bowl (2000)
Wealthy American widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie live a refined life in Europe, surrounded by art. Maggie marries impoverished Italian Prince Amerigo, while Adam marries Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant. The Prince and Charlotte are having an affair, which Maggie discovers and navigates through a silent, psychological battle of wills, ultimately using her cunning to preserve her marriage and protect her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrangers When We Meet (1960)
A suburban architect loves his wife but is bored with his marriage and with his work, so he takes up with the neglected, married beauty who lives down the street.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret: Dare to Dream (2020)
A widow with three children hires a handyman to fix her house during a major storm. When not doing home repairs, he shares his philosophy of believing in the power of the universe to deliver what we want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalome (1953)
In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome, Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the king's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending him to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius are–contrary to Scripture–nearing conversion to the new religion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisLovely, Still (2009)
A holiday fable that tells the story of an elderly man discovering love for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeter Ibbetson (1935)
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Clock (1945)
A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Ring of Endless Light (2002)
When 15-year-old Vicky Austin, her sister Suzy and little brother Rob visit their grandfather on Seven Bay Island, Vicky faces several unexpected challenges. Her beloved grandfather, retired Reverend Eaton, seems to be seriously ill, but tries to pretend that nothing is wrong. Vicky met the rich but emotionally troubled Zachary Gray the previous summer, and he reappears to renew the acquaintance. Another boy, 17-year-old Adam Eddington, recruits Vicky to help him with a research project, working with a dolphin called Basil. Vicky discovers she can communicate telepathically with the dolphin and his mate - and possibly with Adam as well
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wedding March (2016)
When former college sweethearts Olivia Pershing and Mick Turner are unexpectedly reunited the weekend of Olivia's wedding, the former couple initially locks horns but as the events of the weekend unfold, Olivia and Mick find old feelings rising to the surface. Will the bride-to-be walk down the aisle as planned or will she decide to give her first love a second chance?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Age of Adaline (2015)
After 29-year-old Adaline recovers from a nearly lethal accident, she inexplicably stops growing older. As the years stretch on and on, Adaline keeps her secret to herself until she meets a man who changes her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlamingo Road (1949)
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisBad Girl (1931)
A man and woman, skeptical about romance, nonetheless fall in love and are wed, but their lack of confidence in the opposite sex haunts their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorthanger Abbey (2007)
A young woman's penchant for sensational Gothic novels leads to misunderstandings in the matters of the heart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Autumn Romance (2021)
When librarian Taylor Harris suddenly loses her job, she decides to visit her brother in a small town in Montana. There, she gets involved in the fight to help save her brother's hotel from tycoon Joel Sheenan, who wants to renovate it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good Witch's Gift (2010)
Almost as soon as Jake and Cassie decide to get married on Christmas Eve, complications arise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Woman Without Love (1952)
After indulging in an affair with a man (a friend of the family) she truly loves, a woman returns to her young son and husband for good, and loses contact with the man. Her husband is unaware of the affair. Twenty years later, there is news that the friend has died and left all of his money to the younger son in the family, which leads us to question this younger son's biological origin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Kristin Lavransdatter (1995)
The daughter of a prominent medieval Norway landowner, Kristin grows up in total harmony with the ideals of the time: strong family ties, social pride and devout Christianity. As she accepts the fact that she has been arranged to marry the son of another landowner, Kristin's beauty, innocence and purity evokes violent emotions around her: envy, lust, murder, revenge. She seeks refuge in a convent, awaiting marriage. Here, the passion of her life strikes, the knight Erlend Nikulaussonn. However, their love cannot be private, and suddenly Kristin is the centre of a scandal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
The Lion in Winter (2003)
Christmas 1183, Angevin Empire: King Henry II plans to announce his successor to the throne. Jockeying for the crown, though, is complex. Henry has three sons and wants his boy Prince John to take over. Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor, believes their son Prince Richard should be king. As family and various schemers gather for the holiday, each tries to make the indecisive king choose their option.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Death in a French Garden (1985)
A wealthy wife's affair with her daughter's guitar tutor is threatened when the tutor is attacked and rescued by a hired killer, leading him to suspect their secret is out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust My Luck (2006)
Manhattanite Ashley is known to many as the luckiest woman around. After a chance encounter with a down-and-out young man, however, she realizes that she's swapped her fortune for his.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBig Girls Don't Cry (2002)
Kati and Steffi have been best friends forever. Now that their love lives are heating up, they're hitting the books less and going out to nightclubs more. But when Steffi sees her father out with another woman, her life begins to spiral out of control.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Her Place (2024)
After Chilean writer María Carolina Geel murders her lover, the case captivates shy legal secretary Mercedes, sparking a connection between the two women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Women (1933)
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSinful (2019)
The Seven Deadly Sins - Are they true to being called sins or are they simply human impulses? To what is a sin and what is not? Such is a question worth pondering. In the end - do as you wilt.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Only Thing?
The closest matches to The Only Thing are The Golden Bowl (2000), Strangers When We Meet (1960) and The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Only Thing?
Start with The Golden Bowl (2000), the closest match to The Only Thing.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Only Thing?
The Age of Adaline (2015), rated 7.5/10 by 7,261 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Only Thing?
In Her Place (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Only Thing?
Yes: The Golden Bowl (2000), Strangers When We Meet (1960) and The Secret: Dare to Dream (2020).
How are movies similar to The Only Thing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Only Thing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.