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Movies like What Are We Doing Here? (2014)

The best movies like What Are We Doing Here? (2014) are Mélo (1986), If Only (2004) and Collateral Beauty (2016). If What Are We Doing Here? 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

  1. Mélo (1986)

    In 1920s Paris, violinists and lifelong friends Pierre Belcroix and Marcel Blanc are happy with their lives, although Marcel has become famous and Pierre has not. Pierre is married to Romaine, a stylish young flapper. However, Marcel meets and falls in love with her, which Marcel little suspects.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

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  2. If Only (2004)

    After his impetuous musician girlfriend, Samantha, dies in an accident shortly after they had a fight (and nearly broke up), Ian Wyndham, a grief-stricken British businessman living in London gets a chance to relive the day all over again, in the hope of changing the events that led up to her getting killed.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. Collateral Beauty (2016)

    Retreating from life after a tragedy, a man questions the universe by writing to Love, Time and Death. Receiving unexpected answers, he begins to see how these things interlock and how even loss can reveal moments of meaning and beauty.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  4. Restless (2011)

    Two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

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  5. Finding You (2021)

    Finley, a talented aspiring violinist, meets Beckett, a famous young movie star, on the way to her college semester abroad program in a small coastal village in Ireland. An unexpected romance emerges as the heartthrob Beckett leads the uptight Finley on an adventurous reawakening, and she emboldens him to take charge of his future, until the pressures of his stardom get in the way.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama

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  6. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2014)

    Told from the man's perspective, the story of a couple trying to reclaim the life and love they once knew and pick up the pieces of a past that may be too far gone.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

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  7. Toni (1935)

    In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down for good — like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, romance, or enmity, and Toni becomes entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. What the Day Owes the Night (2012)

    Algeria, the 1930s. Younes is nine years old when he is put in his uncle's care in Oran. Rebaptized Jonas, he grows up among the Rio Salado youths, with whom he becomes friends. Emilie is one of the gang; everyone is in love with her. A great love story develops between Jonas and Emilie, which is soon unsettled by the conflicts troubling the country.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  9. Snow Cake (2006)

    A drama focused on the friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman and a man who is traumatized after a fatal car accident.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  10. Two English Girls (1971)

    In the early 20th-century, Frenchman Claude meets Englishwoman Ann in Paris. Ann invites him to her family home, intending him for her sister Muriel. Claude falls for Muriel, but families demand year-long separation before approving marriage.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

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  11. Raise Your Voice (2004)

    A coming-of-age story centered around a small-town singer brokenhearted by the death of her brother in a car crash, who had secretly submitted her for a summer session at a performing arts academy in Los Angeles. In the academy, she experiences a whole new way of life in the big city, far from the small town lifestyle she's used to.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. The 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

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  13. Love at Twenty (1962)

    Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. The Longest Ride (2015)

    The lives of a young couple intertwine with a much older man as he reflects back on a lost love while he's trapped in an automobile crash.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  15. Four Nights of a Dreamer (1972)

    Jacques, a young man with artistic aspirations, spends four nights wandering Paris with a young woman, whom he rescued from suicide.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  16. A Love Song (2022)

    Two childhood sweethearts, now both widowed, share a night by a lake in the mountains.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. I Still Believe (2020)

    The true-life story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp and his journey of love and loss that looks to prove there is always hope.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  18. All My Life (2020)

    It was a chance meeting started by one of Sol’s friends trying to chat up Jennifer. However, in the end, it was those two who hit it off. Sol enjoyed Jen’s smile, her effort, and how silly she could be. Jen enjoyed Sol’s cooking, his athleticism, and that he would join her in fun moments. As you can imagine, love bloomed, and things got serious. Jen’s investment in Sol led to her pushing him to follow his dreams and even move in to save money. Sol’s investment in Jen well, it led to him proposing. But what started as a liver tumor grew into full-on cancer, so with a diagnosis of 6 months to live, Sol and Jennifer try to make the best of it.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  19. Hotel America (1981)

    Helene, a pill-addicted anesthesiologist, is mourning the death of her boyfriend when, through a car accident she causes, she chances to meet the lethargic Gilles, a young man who lives for free at his mother's hotel. Gilles pursues Helene romantically, and she eventually softens up. Gilles, however, is also devoted to Bernard, a petty crook who revels in mugging gay men. All three struggle with relationships that seem to be going nowhere.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama

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  20. Nino (2025)

    Nino is a young man on a journey to reconnect with the world and himself in the streets of Paris, following the suggestion of his doctors. In three days, he will face a major challenge.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. a duck tale (TBA)

    Two boys, one afternoon, and the kind of hunger that food can't fix. In the backwaters of Kuttanad, a man struggles to find a duck for a child’ s denied lunch, while a schoolboy carries a lunchbox he’s too ashamed to open. A Duck Tale isa quiet story about pride, invisibility, and the soft humiliations we learn to live with.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance

  22. Swept from the Sea (1998)

    The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  23. The Passion of Anna (1969)

    A recently divorced man and an emotionally devastated widow begin a love affair.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  24. Umrika (2015)

    When a young village boy discovers that his brother, long believed to be in America, has actually gone missing, he begins to invent letters on his behalf to save their mother from heartbreak, all the while searching for him.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

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  25. La Bataille du Long Sault ou Dollard-des-Ormeaux (1912)

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  26. F*ckin' Coffin! (2021)

    May 20, 1980. After his father's passing, Raymond Tremblay, tax investigator, begins to suspect the funeral home of fraudulent activities. Accompanied by his daughter, little Lucy, he decides to go investigate in his native Saguenay against the backdrop of a referendum on Quebec's sovereignty.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  27. Wintertime (1943)

    Nora and her uncle get railroaded into spending the night at a broken-down hotel in Canada. After Nora falls for the handsome owner, she convinces her uncle to invest in the inn and modernize it. After the hotel opens, Nora's uncle faces financial ruin and her romance hit a snag in the form of pretty reporter.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance

  28. Des tournesols l'hiver (TBA)

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  29. A Respectable Woman (2023)

    Mrs. Lemay has been separated from her husband for 11 years, but takes him back after the death of her partner.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  30. Victoire (2023)

    Victoire Du Sault, founder of the shoemaking business that made the fortune of the Dufresne family, navigates a forbidden love triangle that holds a devastating family secret which threatens to surface and leave a trail of woe in its wake.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Like What Are We Doing Here? and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like What Are We Doing Here??

The closest matches to What Are We Doing Here? are Mélo (1986), If Only (2004) and Collateral Beauty (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after What Are We Doing Here??

Start with Mélo (1986), the closest match to What Are We Doing Here?.

What is the highest-rated movie like What Are We Doing Here??

All My Life (2020), rated 7.7/10 by 523 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like What Are We Doing Here??

Nino (2025) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there French movies like What Are We Doing Here??

Yes: Mélo (1986), Toni (1935) and What the Day Owes the Night (2012).

How are movies similar to What Are We Doing Here? chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What Are We Doing Here?, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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