Movies like The Words (2009)
The best movies like The Words (2009) are And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007), Death of a Salesman (1985) and The Killing of Two Lovers (2021). If The Words hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
The Words
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCourageous (2011)7.7/10 from 436 votes
- NewestIn The Hour of Darkness (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchMalabar Princess (2004)Also in French
And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)
The story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath of a Salesman (1985)
Willy Loman, an aging, failing salesman, struggles to accept reality and his failure to achieve the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killing of Two Lovers (2021)
In a rural Utah town, David, a father of four, grapples with his separation from wife Nikki as she pursues a new relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalabar Princess (2004)
A man leaves his 8-year old son with his father-in-law who lives near the glacier where the boy's mother died.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCourageous (2011)
Law enforcement officers Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, and their partners stand up to the worst the streets have to offer with confidence and focus. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood. They know that God desires to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, but their children are beginning to drift further and further away from them. When tragedy hits home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God... and to their children?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'll Be Home for Christmas (2016)
Jackie Foster, a dynamic Assistant District Attorney and single mom, is looking forward to wrapping up her latest case and spending Christmas with Gracie, her adorable and precocious, eight-year old daughter. But when Jackie’s estranged dad, Jack , a gruff retired police officer, unexpectedly shows up at her door, they will be forced to confront old wounds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLight of My Life (2019)
Years after a pandemic wipes out most of the female population, a father struggles to shield his daughter from a dangerous and predatory world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beautiful Country (2004)
After reuniting with his mother in Ho Chi Minh City, a family tragedy causes Binh to flee from Viet Nam to America. Landing in New York, Binh begins a road trip to Texas, where his American father is said to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn His Shadow (2023)
After the death of their father, two half-brothers find themselves on opposite sides of an escalating conflict with tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDamage (2009)
An ex-con battles it out in the cage to pay for the operation that would save the daughter of his victim. Along the way he finds fatherly love, and friendship, in the most unlikely of places.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnox Goes Away (2024)
A contract killer, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kingdom (2024)
Lesia, a teenager, is taken by a man to a villa where her fugitive father and his men are hiding. A war erupts, leading to death and a chase where father and daughter bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Judge (2014)
A successful lawyer returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to discover that his estranged father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shack (2017)
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called 'The Shack'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCargo (2013)
Stranded in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, a man sets in motion an unlikely plan to protect the precious cargo he carries: his infant daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDaddy Longlegs (2010)
After months of living a solitary existence, Lenny, 34, picks up his kids from school. Every year he spends a couple of weeks with his sons Sage, 9, and Frey, 7. Lenny hosts his kids within a midtown studio apartment in New York. During these two weeks, he must figure out if he wants to act as their father or be their friend. Ultimately, their trip upstate results in complete lawlessness taking over their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVela (2023)
Young Xime hopes to restore her grieving family by arranging a Día de Los Muertos altar...meanwhile a looming presence closes in.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Perfect Host: A Southern Gothic Tale (2018)
While sorting her dead grandmother's affairs, a young woman boards in a southern mansion and soon discovers the matriarch may desire more than just her company.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Loop (2017)
Some time ago, Mima had a car accident and a man died. She has almost managed to forget about it when someone starts sending her birthday cards perfumed with a man's fragrance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Facing the Wind (2018)
Monica, a renowned choreographer, returns to Spain after a 20 year absence to see her sick father. Upon arriving her father has already died and her mother asks her to stay to sell the family home. In delaying her return to Buenos Aires Monica rediscovers her childhood landscapes and is forced to confront the past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Negativ (2023)
A photographer during the Soviet-Afghan war becomes obsessed with a mysterious figure that appears in his images every time the person photographed dies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Brute (1953)
A tough young man, who helps to kick poor people out of their houses, falls in love with a girl. She lives with her father in the building about to be demolished.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnimal Farm (2021)
Award-winning political playwright Tatty Hennessy (A Hundred Words for Snow, F*Off) adapts George Orwell’s classic as an allegory for our own times exploring themes of revolution, the price of sovereignty and power with humour and sharp wit. When the downtrodden animals of a farm overthrow their master to run the show themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of independence and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them start to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another and independence isn’t what they were promised it would be Directed with playful invention by Ed Stambollouian (Pinter at the Pinter, West End), this Made in Northampton production, in association with Kneehigh Theatre, will star Britain’s best young performing talent from the 2020 National Youth Theatre REP Company.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hadi Be Oğlum (2018)
Ali, who works as a fisherman, has dedicated his life to his young son, Efe. However, Efe struggles with communication; he is not a child who laughs, plays, or shows reactions to what he hears.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Brothers Karamazov (1958)
Ryevsk, Russia, 1870. Tensions abound in the Karamazov family. Fyodor is a wealthy libertine who holds his purse strings tightly. His four grown sons include Dmitri, the eldest, an elegant officer, always broke and at odds with his father, betrothed to Katya, herself lovely and rich. The other brothers include a sterile aesthete, a factotum who is a bastard, and a monk. Family tensions erupt when Dmitri falls in love with one of his father's mistresses, the coquette Grushenka. Two brothers see Dmitri's jealousy of their father as an opportunity to inherit sooner. Acts of violence lead to the story's conclusion: trials of honor, conscience, forgiveness, and redemption.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn The Hour of Darkness (2026)
A burnt-out medical student confronts the guilt behind his need to save others.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Words and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Words?
The closest matches to The Words are And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007), Death of a Salesman (1985) and The Killing of Two Lovers (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Words?
Start with And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007), the closest match to The Words.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Words?
Courageous (2011), rated 7.7/10 by 436 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Words?
In The Hour of Darkness (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Words?
Yes: Malabar Princess (2004), In His Shadow (2023) and The Kingdom (2024).
How are movies similar to The Words chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Words, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.