Movies like Ruby in Paradise (1993)
The best movies like Ruby in Paradise (1993) are Cross Creek (1983), The Prince of Tides (1991) and Heavy (1995). If Ruby in Paradise 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 Bridges of Madison County (1995)7.7/10 from 2,471 votes
- NewestSteel Magnolias (2012)Released 2012
Cross Creek (1983)
In the 1930s, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings moves to Florida's backwaters to write in peace. She feels bothered by affectionate men, editors and confused neighbors, but soon she connects and writes The Yearling, a classic of American literature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
The Prince of Tides (1991)
A troubled Southern man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her (and New York City) in the process.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeavy (1995)
Victor is a cook who works in a greasy roadside restaurant owned by his mother, Dolly. It's just the two of them, a waitress named Delores, and a heavy drinking regular, Leo. But things change when Callie, a beautiful college dropout, shows up as a new waitress and steals Victor's heart. But Victor is too shy to do anything about it, and too self-consciously overweight to dream of winning Callie away.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnhook the Stars (1996)
Widowed mother Mildred must suddenly redefine herself and find an outlet for her nurturing side when her adult daughter moves out of the family home. Though Mildred thinks she's found her purpose when her neighbor, overworked single mother Monica, asks her to look after her little boy, she has great difficulty learning to strike a healthy balance between giving selflessly to others and remembering to take care of herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisBodies, Rest & Motion (1993)
Rebelling against his dreary life in a small Arizona town, salesman Nick abandons his girlfriend, Beth, and strikes out onto the highway in search of... something else. Encouraged by her best friend, Carol, Beth reluctantly accepts the romantic attentions of Sid, a local housepainter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Texasville (1990)
Summer, 1984: 30 years after Duane captained the high school football team and Jacy was homecoming queen, this Texas town near Wichita Falls prepares for its centennial. Oil prices are down, banks are failing, and Duane's $12 million in debt. His wife Karla drinks too much, his children are always in trouble, and he tom-cats around with the wives of friends. Jacy's back in town, after a mildly successful acting career, life in Italy, and the death of her son. Folks assume Duane and Jacy will resume their high school romance. And Sonny is "tired in his mind," causing worries for his safety. Can these friends find equilibrium in middle age?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUlee's Gold (1997)
Third-generation Florida beekeeper Ulee Jackson may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for his two grandchildren and keeps his emotions at bay. But when a long-buried secret threatens Ulee's business and family, he is forced to break through his emotional walls and confront the terror of his wounded spirit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
After her husband dies, Alice and her son, Tommy, leave their small New Mexico town for California, where Alice hopes to make a new life for herself as a singer. Money problems force them to settle in Arizona instead, where Alice takes a job as waitress in a small diner.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRambling Rose (1991)
In the Deep South of the 1930s, Rose is taken in by the Hillyer family to serve as housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution. Her appearence and personality is such that all men fall for her, and she knows it. She can't help herself from getting into trouble with men.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of the Spirits (1993)
A rancher, his clairvoyant wife and their family face turbulent years in South America.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo Lovers (2008)
A depressed man moves back in with his parents following a recent heartbreak and finds himself with two women.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Make an American Quilt (1995)
Soon-to-be-wed graduate student Finn Dodd develops cold feet when she suspects her fiancé is cheating on her. In order to clear her head, Finn visits her grandmother, Hy, and great aunt, Glady Joe Cleary, in Grasse, Calif. There, Finn learns that Hy and Glady Joe are members of a group of passionate quilters, and over the course of her visit she is regaled with tales of love and life by women who have collected rich experiences and much wisdom.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll the Real Girls (2003)
In a sleepy little mill town in North Carolina, Paul is the town Romeo. But when his best friend's sister returns home from boarding school, he finds himself falling for her innocent charm. In spite of her lack of experience and the violent protests of her brother, the two find themselves in a sweet, dreamy and all-consuming love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisGas Food Lodging (1992)
Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Locusts (1997)
Delilah Potts has always had her choice of men to work her ranch and fill her bed. But from the moment Clay Hewitt, a handsome drifter with a mysterious past, arrives at her door, Delilah knows that her life will never be the same. And when he spurns her affections, she unleashes a torrent of forbidden passions and deadly secrets that will prove to Clay that the only thing darker and more dangerous than the past he's escaping... is the one he's about to discover.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Steel Magnolias (1989)
A young beautician, newly arrived in a small Louisiana town, finds work at the local salon, where a small group of women share a close bond of friendship and welcome her into the fold.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStill Breathing (1997)
Two lost souls: she a con-artist in L.A.; he a puppeteer in San Antonio have the same dream linking each with the other. He travels to L.A. to find this woman he has become obsessed with. She resists, afraid of his kooky ideas until she travels with him to San Antonio and meets his wise grandmother. Story of two disparate people linked by "fate" gets increasingly interesting as it rolls along.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSweet Land (2005)
Set in 1920, Inge travels from Germany to rural Minnesota in order to meet the man destined to be her husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter People (1989)
Wayland Jackson, a widower with a young daughter, moves to a small, impoverished mountain village in North Carolina, circa 1934. They are taken in by Collie Wright, a single mother with an illegitimate baby, and she and Wayland soon fall in love. Trouble starts when the identity of her baby's father is revealed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Stella (1990)
Barmaid Stella Claire and blueblood Stephen Dallas have very little in common -- except they've fallen in love. When their relationship fails, Stella decides to raise the child they had, Jenny, alone. But Jenny and Stella are far from the perfect mother-daughter pair.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Amidst her own personality crisis, a southern housewife meets an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in 1920s Whistle Stop, Alabama.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUntamed Heart (1993)
Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLoverboy (2005)
A neglected daughter becomes a possessive mother in an emotional journey into the heart and mind of a woman who loved too much.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisOne True Thing (1998)
A career woman reassesses her parents' lives after she is forced to care for her cancer-stricken mother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPostcards from the Edge (1990)
A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBreezy (1973)
A free-spirited young woman, Breezy, hitches a ride with an aging real estate salesman, Frank. Sensing that she just wants to use him he tries to have nothing to do with her. She's not that easy to shake, however, and over time a bond forms between them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSteel Magnolias (2012)
In an updated contemporary version of the beloved stage play and 1989 film, "Steel Magnolias" chronicles the lives and friendship of six women in Louisiana. Supporting each other through their triumphs and tragedies, they congregate at Truvy’s beauty shop to ponder the mysteries of life and death, husbands and children - and hair and nails - all the important topics that truly unite and celebrate women.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnow 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: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElvis & Anabelle (2007)
A small-town beauty queen and an unlicensed mortician set out across the Texas plains on a journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ruby in Paradise?
The closest matches to Ruby in Paradise are Cross Creek (1983), The Prince of Tides (1991) and Heavy (1995). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ruby in Paradise?
People who watched Ruby in Paradise most often go on to Cross Creek (1983), The Prince of Tides (1991) and Heavy (1995).
What is the highest-rated movie like Ruby in Paradise?
The Bridges of Madison County (1995), rated 7.7/10 by 2,471 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ruby in Paradise?
Steel Magnolias (2012) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Ruby in Paradise?
Yes: Cross Creek (1983), The Prince of Tides (1991) and Heavy (1995).
How are movies similar to Ruby in Paradise chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ruby in Paradise, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.