Movies like The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
The best movies like The Bridges of Madison County (1995) are Doing Life (2026), The Notebook (2004) and Before Sunset (2004). If The Bridges of Madison County 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 ratedIn the Mood for Love (2000)8.1/10 from 3,468 votes
- NewestDoing Life (2026)Released 2026
Doing 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: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Notebook (2004)
An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBefore Sunset (2004)
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRevolutionary Road (2008)
A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children. Based on a novel by Richard Yates.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrief Encounter (1945)
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Way We Were (1973)
Opposites attract when, during their college days, Katie Morosky, a politically active Jew, meets Hubbell Gardiner, a feckless WASP. Years later, in the wake of World War II, they meet once again and, despite their obvious differences, attempt to make their love for each other work.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAutumn in New York (2000)
Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlong Came Love (2023)
1947. On a beach, Madeleine, a waitress in a hotel restaurant, mother of a little boy, meets François, a rich and cultivated student. The force of attraction that pushes them towards each other is commensurate with the secrecy that each carries. If we know what Madeleine wants to leave behind by following this young man, we discover over time, what François is desperately trying to flee by mixing Madeleine's fate with his.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Mood for Love (2000)
In 1960s Hong Kong, two neighbors form an intimate bond after making a discovery about their spouses in this visually stunning tale of unrequited love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Walk in the Clouds (1995)
World War II vet Paul Sutton falls for a pregnant and unwed woman who persuades him -- during their first encounter -- to pose as her husband so she can face her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Painted Veil (2006)
A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Story of Us (1999)
After 15 years of marriage, Katie and her husband, Ben, have grown apart. While they keep up the facade of having a contented marriage, mostly to not worry their children, they aren't happy together and argue frequently. While the kids are away at camp, Katie and Ben decide to separate and try to reassess their relationship to see if they should stay together or split up for good.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFar from Heaven (2002)
In 1950s Connecticut, a housewife's life is upended by a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in society.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAtonement (2007)
A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Man and a Woman (2016)
Two strangers have dropped their kids off at a pickup area for a children's camp in Helsinki, Finland. A spark of mutual interest is ignited between the man and woman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Goldsmith's Secret (2025)
In 1999, a goldsmith revisits his hometown, triggering memories of his summer love affair with a seamstress 25 years prior. Despite their age gap, he vows to rewrite their story but struggles to find her upon his return.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Walk on the Moon (1999)
The world of a young housewife is turned upside down when she has an affair with a free-spirited blouse salesman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Valentine (2010)
Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorption cause potentially irreversible cracks in their marriage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shipping News (2001)
An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNights in Rodanthe (2008)
Adrienne is trying to decide whether to stay in her unhappy marriage or not, and her life changes when Paul, a doctor who is travelling to reconcile with his estranged son, checks into an inn where she is staying.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEvening (2007)
As Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette) gather at the deathbed of their mother, Ann (Vanessa Redgrave), they learn for the first time that their mother lived an entire other lifetime during one evening 50 years ago. In vivid flashbacks, the young Ann (Claire Daines) spends one night with a man named Harris (Patrick Wilson), who was the love of her life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisIris (2001)
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Room with a View (1986)
When Lucy Honeychurch and chaperon Charlotte Bartlett find themselves in Florence with rooms without views, fellow guests Mr Emerson and son George step in to remedy the situation. Meeting the Emersons could change Lucy's life forever but, once back in England, how will her experiences in Tuscany affect her marriage plans?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Piano (1993)
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited pre-teen daughter Flora to the wilderness of 19th-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Remains of the Day (1993)
In interwar Britain, a rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a new housekeeper. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove Story (1970)
Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996)
David loves his wife, Gillian. Unfortunately, she died two years ago. David deals with his grief by continuing his romance with Gillian during walks with her "ghost" on the beach at night. While David lives in the past, other family problems crop up in the present in the real world....
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisSommersby (1993)
Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMessage in a Bottle (1999)
A woman finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore and tracks down the author, a widowed shipbuilder whose wife died tragically early. As a deep and mutual attraction blossoms, the man struggles to make peace with his past so that he can move on and find happiness.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Bridges of Madison County?
The closest matches to The Bridges of Madison County are Doing Life (2026), The Notebook (2004) and Before Sunset (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Bridges of Madison County?
People who watched The Bridges of Madison County most often go on to Doing Life (2026), The Notebook (2004) and Before Sunset (2004).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Bridges of Madison County?
In the Mood for Love (2000), rated 8.1/10 by 3,468 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Bridges of Madison County?
Doing Life (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Bridges of Madison County?
Yes: Doing Life (2026), The Notebook (2004) and Before Sunset (2004).
How are movies similar to The Bridges of Madison County chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Bridges of Madison County, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.