Movies like An Impossible Love (2018)
The best movies like An Impossible Love (2018) are Original Sin (2001), Come See the Paradise (1990) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). If An Impossible Love 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
- Highest ratedThe Dreamers (2003)7.2/10 from 3,210 votes
- NewestDoing Life (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchCuriosa (2019)Also in French
Original Sin (2001)
A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome See the Paradise (1990)
In this drama from director Alan Parker, on-the-lam Jack McGurn flees to Los Angeles and takes a job as a projectionist at a movie theater owned by a Japanese-American man. Jack falls for the owner's daughter, Lily, but they are forced to elope to Seattle when her father forbids the relationship. The couple marry and have a daughter, but when World War II breaks out, Jack is powerless to stop his new family's forced internment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCuriosa (2019)
A passionate love story set against a backdrop of sexual freedom, loosely based on the relationship between 19th century authors Pierre Louÿs and Marie de Régnier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Rays and Shadows (2026)
Jean and Otto, a French newspaperman and a young German Francophile, are fighting for peace in Europe. Jean’s daughter, Corinne, is launching a brilliant acting career in the film world, but war breaks out and France is occupied. The two friends have a major role to play in this new France. Jean becomes a big press baron and an ardent advocate of collaboration with the occupying forces, while Otto becomes the Reich’s ambassador in Paris. Corinne, meanwhile, finds herself thrown into the lion’s pit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pentagon Papers (2003)
This compelling political drama is based on the true story of high-ranking Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who, during the Nixon era, strove to preserve American democracy by leaking top-secret documents to the New York Times and Washington Post. The documents in question would eventually become famous as the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the true reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Mother (2003)
A grandmother has a passionate affair with a man half her age, who is also sleeping with her daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCesar and Rosalie (1972)
A young woman becomes entangled with a successful businessman, but her ex tries to win her back, provoking intense jealousy that leads her to reconsider her choice. Ultimately, one man's actions force a resolution to her dilemma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Burning Plain (2008)
A trailer is burning in the middle of a plain. The bodies of two adulterous lovers are found. Scenes from both families, before and after the dramatic events, suggest an unusual connection between them. But what is their secret?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Secret (2014)
In 1860s Paris, a young woman, Therese, is trapped in a loveless marriage to the sickly Camille by her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin. She spends her days behind the counter of a small shop and her evenings watching Madame play dominos with an eclectic group. After she meets her husband’s alluring friend, Laurent, she embarks on an illicit affair that leads to tragic consequences. Based on Emile Zola’s novel, Thérèse Raquin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNewness (2017)
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoing Life (2026)
A single mother and an incarcerated man forge an unlikely bond through heartfelt letters, unlocking a door to redemption, hope and love against all odds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFire with Fire (1986)
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Me Love Me (2026)
After her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in clandestine MMA fights—sparks a rivalry that quickly turns into irresistible attraction, June must choose between safety and a love that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this“Wuthering Heights” (2026)
Tragedy strikes when Heathcliff falls in love with Catherine Earnshaw, a woman from a wealthy family in 18th-century England.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWho's That Knocking at My Door (1968)
A Catholic New Yorker falls in love with a girl and wants to marry her, but he struggles to accept her past and what it means for their future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlan A (2021)
Germany 1945, Max, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, meets a radical group of Jewish resistance fighters, who, like him, lost all hope for their future after they were robbed of their existence and their entire families were killed by the Nazis. They dream of retaliation on an epic scale for the Jewish people. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Max starts identifying with the group's monstrous plans...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunset Song (2015)
The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWicked Minds (2003)
Holden returns home from college and is surprised to find his overpowering competitive father married to a much younger woman Lana. Holden quickly falls for the beauty and charisma of his step mother. A passionate affair begins between son and stepmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dreamers (2003)
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove in Thoughts (2004)
A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlbino (2016)
Yashima is a woman who works as a plumber. She is also uncomfortable with her own sexuality. One day she visits a home for a job and meets Kyu. Yashima senses Kyu's eyes watching her. They become intimate, but a dark secret is soon revealed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Saving Face (2004)
A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBecause I Said So (2007)
In an effort to prevent family history from repeating itself, meddlesome mom Daphne Wilder attempts to set up her youngest daughter, Milly, with Mr. Right. Meanwhile, her other daughters try to keep their mom's good intentions under control.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisDavid (1997)
A distinguished military leader whose reign was touched by great scandal, shocking betrayals and rousing victories. A simple shepherd boy chosen to be king, under the watchful eyes of prophet Samuel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Diary of a Murderess (1975)
A beautiful young woman sets her sights on an aging millionaire. She seduces him, and moves into his mansion with him. She soon tires of him, though, and after she gets rid of him, she goes after his son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worst Case, We Get Married (2017)
Aïcha is a troubled teenage girl who cannot forgive her mother for kicking out the stepfather she adored. Aïcha longs for him to come back and take her away. When she meets Baz, a man twice her age, it’s love at first sight for her; the real kind, the one that hurts. Baz wants to help this lost little girl, but she wants much more from him, and is ready to do anything to get it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jinn (2018)
Summer is a carefree teenage girl whose world is turned upside down when her mother abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a different person. At first resistant to the faith, she begins to reevaluate her identity after becoming attracted to a Muslim classmate, crossing the thin line between physical desire and piety.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Mother's Future Husband (2014)
Headly, a 15-year-old teenager, thinks her mother, Rene, has mourned her father's death long enough, so she decides to find her a new husband by the end of the summer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like An Impossible Love?
The closest matches to An Impossible Love are Original Sin (2001), Come See the Paradise (1990) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after An Impossible Love?
Start with Original Sin (2001), the closest match to An Impossible Love.
What is the highest-rated movie like An Impossible Love?
The Dreamers (2003), rated 7.2/10 by 3,210 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like An Impossible Love?
Doing Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like An Impossible Love?
Yes: Curiosa (2019), The Rays and Shadows (2026) and Cesar and Rosalie (1972).
How are movies similar to An Impossible Love chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside An Impossible Love, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.