Movies like Separate Ways (1981)
The best movies like Separate Ways (1981) are Addicted (2014), Faces (1968) and Deep Water (2022). If Separate Ways hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAmerican Beauty (1999)8.0/10 from 13,531 votes
- NewestDeep Water (2022)Released 2022
Addicted (2014)
A gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisFaces (1968)
Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeep Water (2022)
A well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her lovers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEffie Gray (2014)
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdulterers (2016)
On a steamy New Orleans afternoon, Sam Deuprey decides to surprise his beautiful wife, Ashley, for their anniversary and comes home early. But Ashley is not alone in the bedroom. She and her lover, Damien are about to learn how far a jealous husband will go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Only Living Boy in New York (2017)
When a young man learns that his overbearing father is having an affair, he tries to stop it, only to be seduced by the older woman as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisButterfly on a Wheel (2007)
A sociopathic kidnapper methodically pushes a desperate pair of parents to their absolute breaking point.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDream Lover (1994)
Not long after they cross paths at an art gallery, architect Ray Reardon and hypnotically sensual Lena are married with children. But as strange incidents occur, Ray begins to realize he may not really know the woman he married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ledge (2011)
A thriller in which a battle of philosophies between a fundamentalist Christian and an atheist who shares an apartment with a gay friend escalates into a lethal battle of wills.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMax (2002)
In 1918, a young, disillusioned Adolf Hitler strikes up a friendship with a Jewish art dealer while weighing a life of passion for art vs. talent at politics
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeatwave (2022)
A woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for her boss's wife. She must soon defend herself as she becomes entangled in a web of malice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrime of Passion (1956)
Kathy leaves the newspaper business to marry homicide detective Bill, but is frustrated by his lack of ambition and the banality of life in the suburbs. Her drive to advance Bill's career soon takes her down a dangerous path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Perfect Murder (1998)
Millionaire industrialist Steven Taylor is a man who has everything but what he craves most: the love and fidelity of his wife. A hugely successful player in the New York financial world, he considers her to be his most treasured acquisition. But she needs more than simply the role of dazzling accessory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGone Girl (2014)
With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSubmission (2018)
A well-respected professor who is a celebrated novelist and loving husband loses himself when he becomes obsessed with an ambitious and talented student.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCareful What You Wish For (2015)
A guy gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife of an investment banker. Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTemptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013)
Judith has known her husband Brice since they were children, but now their marriage is growing stale. Having just completed her graduate work in psychotherapy, she's eager to begin a career as a marriage counselor. She takes an internship at a matchmaking firm for millionaires and meets Harley, a charismatic billionaire investor who makes no effort to hide his attraction to Judith. Although quite resistant at first, eventually Judith succumbs to his charms, placing her marriage in jeopardy and forever altering the course of her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Door in the Floor (2004)
A writer's young assistant becomes both pawn and catalyst in his boss's disintegrating household.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wife (2017)
A wife questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he is slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLe Divorce (2003)
While visiting her sister in Paris, a young woman finds romance and learns her brother-in-law is a philanderer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCloud 9 (2008)
A romantic drama about a woman who enters into an affair after 30 years of marriage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bound (1996)
Corky, a tough female ex-convict working on an apartment renovation in a Chicago building, meets a couple living next door, Caesar, a paranoid mobster, and Violet, his seductive girlfriend, who is immediately attracted to her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeaceful Times (2008)
After fleeing to the West in 1961, peaceful times were supposed to begin for the Striesows. But Irene longs for the familiar GDR, fears her husband Dieter's supposed "second wives" and expects the Third World War every day. When the war finally breaks out in the living room, her children Ute, Wasa and Flori decide to help their mother's happiness along, with unexpected consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wonder Boys (2000)
Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFire (1997)
In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSharon: Portrait of a Mistress (1977)
A woman's inability to make a lasting commitment results in her having a string of affairs with married men.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Someone Behind the Door (1971)
A neurosurgeon with a cheating wife takes an amnesiac into his home and conditions him to believe that the cheating wife is his own and to take the "appropriate" action.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisFinal Analysis (1992)
A psychiatrist becomes romantically involved with the sister of one of his patients, but the influence of her controlling gangster husband threatens to destroy them both.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this
Like Separate Ways and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Separate Ways?
The closest matches to Separate Ways are Addicted (2014), Faces (1968) and Deep Water (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Separate Ways?
Start with Addicted (2014), the closest match to Separate Ways.
What is the highest-rated movie like Separate Ways?
American Beauty (1999), rated 8.0/10 by 13,531 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Separate Ways?
Deep Water (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Separate Ways?
Yes: Addicted (2014), Faces (1968) and Deep Water (2022).
How are movies similar to Separate Ways chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Separate Ways, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.