Movies like The Cradle (1922)
The best movies like The Cradle (1922) are Eleanor the Great (2025), Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) and The Christmas Shoes (2002). If The Cradle hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)8.0/10 from 251 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
Eleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby 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
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this5 Flights Up (2014)
A long-time married couple who've spent their lives together in the same New York apartment become overwhelmed by personal and real estate-related issues when they plan to move away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA 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 thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Bus (2021)
Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere (2024)
An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisC'mon C'mon (2021)
Johnny and his young nephew forge a tenuous but transformational relationship when they embark on a cross-country trip to see life away from Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow Sarah Got Her Wings (2015)
Good Samaritan Sarah Fitzpatrick has a fatal accident just before Christmas, and finds herself in the lobby before the gates of Heaven. Certain that she will be let in, she is shocked to find that her name is not on the reservation list. However, she is granted the chance to return to Earth as an "angel in training" with the requirement to help a soul in need. Sarah has the 12 days before Christmas to secure her place on the list leaving her in the race for her after-life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Girl (2012)
Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMildred Pierce (1945)
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way the Eleventh Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Locket (1946)
A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSunshine State (2002)
A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Pair Out (1956)
About the life of the student, Bo Dahlin. Bo's parents are divorced. Both have been unfaithful. Bo is engaged to Kerstin, but only has eyes for Anita. Anita is filled with self-disgust.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Tribunal (2016)
The stakes are much higher than life or death in The Tribunal, a courtroom drama set in a Catholic Marriage Tribunal. On the surface, it appears that the struggle between Tony and Joe, two best friends who both love Emily, hinges on Joe obtaining an annulment of his first marriage, so Emily, a devout Catholic, can marry him. As they each fight for whom they love, the Tribunal slowly answers the ever-present question hanging over the proceedings, "What does God want?" Why it matters to these three is the reason it matters to every person. Our souls will not rest until they rest in the arms of the Lord.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Journey to Italy (1954)
Married for eight years with no children, Brits Katherine and Alex Joyce are driving to Italy, their ultimate destination just outside of Naples to sell the villa they have just inherited from his uncle, the villa where they will be staying during their time there. On the drive, they come to the realization that this trip marks the first time that they have truly been alone together, and as such don't really know one another in the true sense.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTara Road (2005)
A grieving Connecticut mother temporarily switches houses with a woman in Dublin, Ireland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBringing Down the House (2003)
Uptight lawyer Peter Sanderson wants to dive back into dating after his divorce and has a hard time meeting the right women. He tries online dating and lucks out when he starts chatting with a fellow lawyer. The two agree to meet in the flesh, but the woman he meets — an escaped African-American convict named Charlene — is not what he expected. Peter is freaked out, but Charlene tries to convince him to take her case and prove her innocence. Along the way, she wreaks havoc on his middle-class life as he gets a lesson in learning to lighten up.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGlue (2006)
A teenage summer in a small town in the desert, a dysfunctional family, a rock band, a can full of glue, two boys, one girl, loads of tongue kisses, dry heat, wind in Patagonia, existential angst... A teenage story in the middle of nowhere.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Karo und der liebe Gott (2006)
On the day of Karo's first communion, her parents' marital problems come to light. The ensuing separation hits her hard. Karo complains to God about her desperate situation via walkie-talkie. A gruff voice answers, eventually identifying itself as God and unwittingly providing proof of this. When Karo sees the man behind the voice, she is overcome with doubt. With the goal of reconciling her parents in mind, she forces the man into his divine role and thus to help her. The attempts staged by Karo and God to save her parents' marriage trigger a rollercoaster of emotions. In the end, Karo has grown from her failed goal and has not only found new friends for her life, but also a new perspective.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Le 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 thisThe Cry of the Owl (2009)
Fleeing New York City, a failed marriage and a fragile mental history, artist Robert Forrester moves to small-town Pennsylvania. There he becomes fascinated with the simple domesticity of a beautiful neighbor, watching her through the windows of her home --- until she invites him in for coffee. He is drawn into a relationship with the young woman whose boyfriend goes missing; Robert becomes a murder suspect, gradually sensing he is the target of a larger plot.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCloaca (2003)
Four old college friends in their forties come together in a time of trouble and despair. Old joy relives, but the harsh reality of their problems can't satisfy them and eventually endangers their friendships.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Cradle?
The closest matches to The Cradle are Eleanor the Great (2025), Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) and The Christmas Shoes (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Cradle?
Start with Eleanor the Great (2025), the closest match to The Cradle.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Cradle?
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Cradle?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Cradle?
Yes: Eleanor the Great (2025), Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) and The Christmas Shoes (2002).
How are movies similar to The Cradle chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Cradle, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.