Movies like Manchester by the Sea (2016)
The best movies like Manchester by the Sea (2016) are Interiors (1978), Cassandra's Dream (2007) and In the Bedroom (2001). If Manchester by the Sea hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPrayers for Bobby (2009)8.1/10 from 663 votes
- NewestThe Son (2022)Released 2022
Interiors (1978)
When Eve, an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur, the emotionally glacial relationships of the three grown-up daughters are laid bare. Twisted by jealousy, insecurity and resentment, Renata, a successful writer; Joey, a woman crippled by indecision; and Flyn, a budding actress; struggle to communicate for the sake of their shattered mother. But when their father unexpectedly falls for another woman, his decision to remarry sets in motion a terrible twist of fate…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCassandra's Dream (2007)
The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Bedroom (2001)
Summertime on the coast of Maine, "In the Bedroom" centers on the inner dynamics of a family in transition. Matt Fowler is a doctor practicing in his native Maine and is married to New York born Ruth Fowler, a music teacher. His son is involved in a love affair with a local single mother. As the beauty of Maine's brief and fleeting summer comes to an end, these characters find themselves in the midst of unimaginable tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJames White (2015)
James White is a troubled twentysomething trying to stay afloat in a frenzied New York City. As he retreats further into a hedonistic lifestyle, his mother's battle with a serious illness faces a series of setbacks that force him to assume more responsibility. With the pressure on him mounting, James must find new reserves of strength or risk imploding completely.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRabbit Hole (2010)
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBirth (2004)
It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDad (1989)
A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisNoel (2004)
With Christmas Eve just around the corner in bustling New York, five lonely and sad strangers find their lives inadvertently intersected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Son (2022)
A successful lawyer, with a new wife and infant, agrees to care for his teenage son from a previous marriage after his ex-wife becomes concerned about the boy's wayward behavior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBait (2019)
Martin Ward is a cove fisherman, without a boat. His brother Steven has repurposed their father’s vessel as a tourist tripper, driving a wedge between the brothers. With their childhood home now a getaway for London money, Martin is displaced to the estate above the picturesque harbour. As his struggle to restore the family to their traditional place creates increasing friction with tourists and locals alike, a tragedy at the heart of the family changes his world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack or White (2015)
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Book of Henry (2017)
Susan, a single mother of two, works as a waitress in a small town. Her son, Henry, is an 11-year-old genius who not only manages the family finances but acts as emotional support for his mother and younger brother. When Henry discovers that the girl next door has a terrible secret, he implores Susan to take matters into her own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Church (2016)
A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Starling (2021)
A woman adjusting to life after a loss contends with a feisty bird that's taken over her garden — and a husband who's struggling to find a way forward.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrayers for Bobby (2009)
Bobby Griffith was his mother's favorite son, the perfect all-American boy growing up under deeply religious influences in Walnut Creek, California. Bobby was also gay. Struggling with a conflict no one knew of, much less understood, Bobby finally came out to his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAmerican Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAnd the Pain Remains (2016)
100 years since the beginning of First World War. Locality - French cemetery in Bitola. State protocol. There are deputies, ministers, ambassadors, military attaches, consuls, honorary consuls, media present - Priests - Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim. - Military band. Jean Batiste Valerie, an old man of about 77 years of age, arrives in Bitola for the first time. Tiny, petite, with thin and gray hair, arrives late at the sad ceremony held in honor of the fallen French soldiers in the First World War. According to correspondence and information from the French army, his predecessor with the same name and surname must be located somewhere nearby. The ceremony had already begun.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDer Fall Bachmeier - Keine Zeit für Tränen (1984)
The film deals with the criminal case involving Marianne Bachmeier, who shot her daughter's murderer in the courtroom in 1981.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt, Beatrice McCready hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro. The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Guardian (2006)
A high school swim champion with a troubled past enrolls in the U.S. Coast Guard's 'A' School, where legendary rescue swimmer Ben Randall teaches him some hard lessons about loss, love, and self-sacrifice.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flits in and out of his life as she grows up to be a dancer. Though he has all sorts of unusual adventures over the course of his life, it is his relationship with Daisy, and the hope that they will come together at the right time, that drives Benjamin forward.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnder the Sand (2001)
When her husband goes missing at the beach, a female professor begins to mentally disintegrate as her denial of his disappearance becomes delusional.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFive Times Two (2004)
As young French couple Gilles and Marion officially separate, we see, in reverse order, the milestone moments in their relationship: Gilles revealing his unfaithfulness at a tense dinner party; Marion giving birth to their premature son while Gilles is elsewhere; Gilles and Marion's joyous wedding; and, finally, the fateful moment when they meet as acquaintances at an Italian beach resort, and their love affair begins.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe New Interns (1964)
Young doctors mix romance with their careers in a big-city hospital.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Manchester by the Sea?
The closest matches to Manchester by the Sea are Interiors (1978), Cassandra's Dream (2007) and In the Bedroom (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Manchester by the Sea?
Start with Interiors (1978), the closest match to Manchester by the Sea.
What is the highest-rated movie like Manchester by the Sea?
Prayers for Bobby (2009), rated 8.1/10 by 663 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Manchester by the Sea?
The Son (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Manchester by the Sea?
Yes: Interiors (1978), Cassandra's Dream (2007) and In the Bedroom (2001).
How are movies similar to Manchester by the Sea chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Manchester by the Sea, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.