Movies like The American (1998)
The best movies like The American (1998) are The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005), Home by Spring (2018) and Love Finds You in Valentine (2016). If The American 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 ratedPersuasion (2007)7.2/10 from 289 votes
- NewestToo Close for Christmas (2020)Released 2020
The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHome by Spring (2018)
When an ambitious event planner gets an opportunity she can’t refuse, she goes undercover as her boss and returns to her rural hometown. With the help of her family and the man she left behind, she pulls off the perfect spring retreat, but will she discover home is where her heart is?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Finds You in Valentine (2016)
Kennedy Blaine, a Californian girl, inherits a ranch in the small town of Valentine in Nebraska. Before she sells the property, she decides to spend the summer in her house and learn more about her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrescription for Love (2019)
Claire’s life as a nurse in a busy hospital is complicated by a supervisor who is intent on making her miserable with tedious and extra tasks. Claire’s only relief is the patients she treats, and even that is not always a picnic. On a rare night off, she attends a dance performance and gets trapped in an elevator with a charming man. There is an instant connection between them, but as they are “rescued” from the elevator, they are pulled away from each other before they can exchange names and numbers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagical Christmas Ornaments (2017)
When Marie begins receiving ornaments from her mother, a new coincidental blessing comes with each one, causing Marie to feel more excited for the holidays than she has in years. Marie’s once-lost Christmas spirit gets another boost when she meets her handsome neighbor Nate and feels a spark with him while celebrating the season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPersuasion (2007)
Anne Elliot was once in love with Frederick Wentworth, a commander in the Royal Navy who was rejected by her snobby parents eight years ago. When the family hits hard times and are forced to rent out their mansion to his brother-in-law, Frederick returns as a captain - but will he remember Anne?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJane Eyre (1997)
After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Very Country Christmas (2017)
Jeanette Williams is a busy single parent, trying to make the best life for her and her daughter. With no time to follow current celebrity gossip, Jeanette is unaware of when a Country superstar returns to their small town to escape the intrusive paparazzi and the chaos of fame. A chance meeting between the two have them both letting their guards down and opening their hearts to the possibility of romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToo Close for Christmas (2020)
When Hayley accepts an invitation to spend Christmas with her sister’s new in-laws, her seemingly perfect holiday takes a turn when Paul, Hayley's brother-in-law's brother, unexpectedly shows up. Still harboring a grudge against Paul for ending her last relationship, Hayley reluctantly spends time with Paul and slowly realizes she may have been too quick a judge on Paul
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHome for Christmas Day (2017)
Jane is a single mother dead set on protecting her teenage daughter Betsy from the harsh realities of life. When Betsy falls in love with an enlisted man, Jane tries her best to steer Betsy away from heartache. Little does Jane realize she and her daughter are about to learn important lessons of the heart and that taking chances can sometimes lead to the most extraordinary happy endings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Valentine's Match (2020)
Fired from her job as a reality TV host, Natalie returns home for Valentine's Day, only to find herself running the town festival's auction with her ex-fiancé thanks to two scheming mothers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorthanger Abbey (2007)
A young woman's penchant for sensational Gothic novels leads to misunderstandings in the matters of the heart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeter Ibbetson (1935)
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoodbye Again (1961)
Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlesh and the Devil (1926)
When lifelong best friends Leo and Ulrich return home after completing their military training, Leo meets the stunning Felicitas at a railway station and is mesmerized by her beauty. A scandal follows, for which Leo is sent away. Returning home three years later, he discovers that much has changed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSupercross (2005)
Faced with the suspicious death of their father, two brothers must motivate one another to get back on their bikes and take the Las Vegas Motocross Championships by storm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWings (1927)
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces during World War I. Devoted best friends, their mutual love of the girl eventually threatens their bond. Meanwhile, a hometown girl who's the lovestruck lifelong next door neighbor of one of them pines away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParis, Wine & Romance (2019)
Isabella is the ambitious new owner of her family’s Oregon winery whose dream of becoming world-renowned takes a big step forward when she enters a prestigious wine competition in Paris. Upon arrival, Isabella meets her biggest competitor, Jacques, from one of the world’s foremost winemaking families. Impressed by Isabella and her expertise in wine, a budding romance develops between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalome (1953)
In the reign of emperor Tiberius, Gallilean prophet John the Baptist preaches against King Herod and Queen Herodias. The latter wants John dead, but Herod fears to harm him due to a prophecy. Enter beautiful Princess Salome, Herod's long-absent stepdaughter. Herodias sees the king's dawning lust for Salome as her means of bending him to her will. But Salome and her lover Claudius are–contrary to Scripture–nearing conversion to the new religion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisTaras Bulba (1962)
Ukraine, 16th century. While the Poles dominate the Cossack steppes, Andrei, son of Taras Bulba, a Cossack leader, must choose between his love for his family and his folk and his passion for a Polish woman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrphans of the Storm (1921)
France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Last Five Girlfriends (2010)
Depressed and suicidal, thirtysomething bachelor Duncan – determined to find the secret to a healthy, strong relationship, – flashes back to his last five relationships (in the last four years) and considers what caused each one to fail. Based on the novel 'Essays in Love' by Alain de Botton.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisForbidden Love (2008)
When an apparel designer returns home after studying in New York, he begins living with the company president and his two sons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
France, 1640. Cyrano, the charismatic swordsman-poet with the absurd nose, hopelessly loves the beauteous Roxane; she, in turn, confesses to Cyrano her love for the handsome but tongue-tied Christian. The chivalrous Cyrano sets up with Christian an innocent deception, with tragic results.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParis Blues (1961)
During the 1960s, two American jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls and must decide between music and love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVenus Beauty Institute (1999)
Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train station. Witnessing how she turns around a humiliating situation, younger sculptor Antoine becomes so smitten that he breaks up with his fiancée and sets out to win Angèle's heart. Meanwhile, Angèle attempts to quash the budding romance of her young co-worker, Marie, and a much older widowed client, despite their obvious rapport.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisPlayboy of Paris (1930)
Yvonne, daughter of Philibert, a Paris cafe owner, is in love with dreamy, blundering Albert, a waiter, though he pays little attention to her. Philibert plans to marry his daughter to a wealthy Parisian, but upon learning that Albert is to come into a large inheritance, he conspires to place him under a longterm contract, confident that he willingly will pay a forfeit to break it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Small Faces (1996)
Three teenage brothers—gang-member Bobby, troubled mama's boy Alan and self-assured prankster Lex—reside in a downtrodden section of 1968 Glasgow. But as Bobby and Alan begin to experience the power of raging hormones, Lex begins a downward spiral after he accidentally shoots the leader of Bobby's gang, and his youthful cockiness and immaturity unfortunately prevent him from understanding the effect his subsequent crimes will have on not only himself, but also those around him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Newton Boys (1998)
The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, owing to their good planning and minimal violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The American?
The closest matches to The American are The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005), Home by Spring (2018) and Love Finds You in Valentine (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The American?
Start with The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005), the closest match to The American.
What is the highest-rated movie like The American?
Persuasion (2007), rated 7.2/10 by 289 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The American?
Too Close for Christmas (2020) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The American?
Yes: The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005), Home by Spring (2018) and Love Finds You in Valentine (2016).
How are movies similar to The American chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The American, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.