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Movies like The Way Through the Bleak Woods (1997)

The best movies like The Way Through the Bleak Woods (1997) are The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), Adopt a Highway (2019) and Home Run (2013). If The Way Through the Bleak Woods hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)

    Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. Adopt a Highway (2019)

    Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  3. Home Run (2013)

    A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. The Girl in the Book (2015)

    The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  5. F.I.S.T. (1978)

    Johnny Kovak joins the Teamsters trade-union in a local chapter in the 1930s and works his way up in the organization. As he climbs higher and higher his methods become more ruthless and finally senator Madison starts a campaign to find the truth about the alleged connections with the Mob.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  6. All Together Now (2020)

    An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. Gigi & Nate (2022)

    A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)

    The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  9. The Giver (2014)

    In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. The Sound of Silence (2019)

    A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  11. Journeyman (2018)

    A boxer suffers a serious head injury during a fight, and must deal with the consequences.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. Tyson's Run (2022)

    When fifteen-year-old Tyson attends public school for the first time, his life is changed forever. While helping his father clean up after the football team, Tyson befriends champion marathon runner Aklilu. Never letting his autism hold him back, Tyson becomes determined to run his first marathon in hopes of winning his father's approval. With the help of an unlikely friend and his parents, Tyson learns that with faith in yourself and the courage to take the first step, anything is possible.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  13. Helen (2009)

    On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. Wonderstruck (2017)

    The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Battleground (1949)

    Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  16. TalhotBlond (2012)

    Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. The Scarlet and the Black (1983)

    Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  18. Resurrecting the Champ (2007)

    Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man ("Champ") only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away. What begins as an opportunity to resurrect Champ's story and escape the shadow of his father's success becomes a personal journey as the ambitious reporter reexamines his own life and his relationship with his family.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. A Question of Faith (2017)

    When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  20. What Maisie Knew (2013)

    In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  21. East of Eden (1955)

    In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  22. Titanic (1997)

    101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  23. Out of Africa (1985)

    Tells the life story of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on her 1937 autobiographical novel.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  24. The Last Emperor (1987)

    A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  25. Molly Bawn (1916)

    Molly Bawn. British silent drama movie. Directed by Cecil M Hepworth. Starring Alma Taylor, Stewart Rome an Violet Hopson. adaptation of the1878 Irish novel of the same name by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. Molly Bawn the novel by M. W. Hungerford contains her most famous idiom: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It is also referenced in chapter 8 of James Joyce's Ulysses.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  26. Avalon (1990)

    A Polish-Jewish family comes to the U.S. at the beginning of the twentieth century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  27. Jules and Jim (1962)

    In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  28. Queen Marie of Romania (2019)

    Devastated by the First World War and plunged into political controversy, Romania's every hope accompanies its Queen on her mission to Paris, to lobby for its great unification's international recognition at the 1919 Peace Talks.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  29. The Scent of Rain in the Balkans (2011)

    Trials and tribulations of a Jewish family from Sarajevo during turbulent times between 1914 and 1945. Based on TV series of the same title.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

  30. Photographing Fairies (1997)

    Photographer Charles Castle is numbed with grief following the death of his beautiful bride. He goes off to war, working in the trenches as a photographer. Following the war and still in grief Charles is given some photographs purporting to be of fairies. His search for the truth leads him to Burkinwell, a seemingly peaceful village seething with secrets

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Like The Way Through the Bleak Woods and something else?

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

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Way Through the Bleak Woods?

The closest matches to The Way Through the Bleak Woods are The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), Adopt a Highway (2019) and Home Run (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Way Through the Bleak Woods?

Start with The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972), the closest match to The Way Through the Bleak Woods.

What is the highest-rated movie like The Way Through the Bleak Woods?

Titanic (1997), rated 7.9/10 by 28,068 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Way Through the Bleak Woods?

Gigi & Nate (2022) is the most recent release on this list.

How are movies similar to The Way Through the Bleak Woods chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Way Through the Bleak Woods, 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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