Movies like Essay Love (2021)

The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Miracle: Letters to the President (2021)

Dreaming of making a way station for his sister and the villagers who have no choice but to commute along the dangerous train tracks every day, Joon-kyung sends many letters to the President, but with no reply. Ra-hee, who has a crush on Joon-kyung, does everything she can to help him meet the President.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Come Sunday (2018)

Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

My Dinner with Hervé (2018)

An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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

Thread of Lies (2014)

Cheon-ji's unexpected suicide causes her mother Hyeon-sook and older sister Man-ji to be moved into another apartment. Tracking down clues from school, Man-ji discovers that Cheon-ji's best friend Hwa-yeon is behind everything.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Tigertail (2020)

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Goal II: Living the Dream (2007)

Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin Harris, though they must compete to be on the team, and estranged from fiancee Roz, whose nursing career keeps her back home.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Blue 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

Fast Girls (2012)

A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Sunflower (2006)

Tae-sik gets out of a prison after spending 10 years for killing a man and wishes nothing but an ordinary life. A local lady welcomes him into her household like a son and he gets a second chance in life. His former gang tries to destroy his new home in order to build a night club but he won’t let them destroy his new family.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Gigi & Nate (2022)

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Inside I'm Dancing (2004)

Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Bobby 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

Resurrecting the Champ (2007)

Up-and-coming sports reporter rescues a homeless man ("Champ") only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend believed to have passed away. What begins as an opportunity to resurrect Champ's story and escape the shadow of his father's success becomes a personal journey as the ambitious reporter reexamines his own life and his relationship with his family.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Won'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

Ice Castles (2010)

Young, beautiful, talented Alexis Winston comes from nowhere to become a figure skating superstar. But her rise to stardom isn’t easy. She has to push herself, reinvent herself, and most painfully of all, leave her hometown boyfriend behind. When a tragic fall leaves her blind, she needs someone to believe in her, to love her; someone to convince her she has the strength to skate and dream again.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

In Front of Your Face (2021)

She has never lived in a high-rise apartment, and she wonders how her sister can live at this height every day. A few days ago she kind of burst in to stay with her sister, and she is now becoming re-accustomed to life in Korea. While seeming to keep a grave secret to herself, she manages life one day at a time with a sense of mindfulness. Meanwhile a certain director, some years younger than her, has asked her to join his project, and after a polite refusal, they have agreed to meet for the first time today. Downtown Seoul is filled with narrow alleys that harbor tiny old bars, and that's where they meet. As they are getting drunk, there is sudden rainfall and thunder.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Flicka (2006)

Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Here (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

National Theatre Live: The Effect (2024)

Hearts and minds racing, Connie and Tristan are falling for each other fast. But is their sudden and intoxicating chemistry real, or a side effect of a new antidepressant? As two young volunteers in a clinical drug trial, their illicit romance poses startling dilemmas for the supervising doctors.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Dial M for Murder (1954)

When her American lover visits London, a wealthy woman’s jealous husband hatches a plan to murder her and inherit her fortune.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Don Juan DeMarco (1994)

John Arnold DeMarco is a man who believes he is Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world. Clad in a cape and mask, DeMarco undergoes psychiatric treatment with Dr. Jack Mickler to cure him of his apparent delusion. But the psychiatric sessions have an unexpected effect on the psychiatric staff and, most profoundly, Dr Mickler, who rekindles the romance in his complacent marriage.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Face under The Face (2025)

A SILENT STORY - An aging refugee clown in Paris masks trauma with silent street performances. Beneath his painted smile lie resilience and displacement’s sorrow, a wordless elegy to those surviving unseen.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Jules and Jim (1962)

In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Entanglement (2018)

While recovering from a suicide attempt, Ben Layten accidentally falls in love with a girl who was very nearly, almost his sister - and then things start to get weird.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Querido Theo (2024)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Ask the Dust (2006)

Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Illusionist (2006)

With his eye on a lovely aristocrat, a gifted illusionist named Eisenheim uses his powers to win her away from her betrothed, a crown prince. But Eisenheim's scheme creates tumult within the monarchy and ignites the suspicion of a dogged inspector.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama