Movies like The Return (2008)
The best movies like The Return (2008) are The Forgotten (2004), Rudderless (2014) and And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007). If The Return hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEverybody’s Everything (2019)8.4/10 from 311 votes
- NewestSilent Night (2023)Released 2023
The Forgotten (2004)
Telly Paretta is a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her 9-year-old son. She is stunned when her psychiatrist reveals that she has created nine years of memories about a son she never had. But when she remembers a man who had a similar experience, Telly embarks on a search to prove her son's existence, and her sanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisRudderless (2014)
A grieving father in a downward spiral stumbles across a box of his recently deceased son's demo tapes and lyrics. Shocked by the discovery of this unknown talent, he forms a band in the hope of finding some catharsis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnd When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)
The story of a son's conflicting memories of his dying father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMrs Lowry & Son (2019)
An intimate portrayal of the relationship between one of greatest artists of the 20th century, L.S. Lowry and his unhappy and controlling mother, Elizabeth, whom he lived with all his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Music Never Stopped (2011)
Henry struggles to bond with his estranged son, Gabriel, who suffers from a brain tumor that prevents him from forming new memories. With Gabriel unable to shed the beliefs and interests that caused their physical and emotional distance, Henry must learn to embrace his son's choices and try to connect with him through music.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemento (2000)
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSilent Night (2023)
A tormented father witnesses his young son die when caught in a gang's crossfire on Christmas Eve. While recovering from a wound that costs him his voice, he makes vengeance his life's mission and embarks on a punishing training regimen in order to avenge his son's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReminiscence (2021)
Nicolas Bannister, a rugged and solitary veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas, is an expert in a dangerous occupation: he offers clients the chance to relive any memory they desire. His life changes when he meets a mysterious young woman named Mae. What begins as a simple matter of lost and found becomes a passionate love affair. But when a different client's memories implicate Mae in a series of violent crimes, Bannister must delve through the dark world of the past to uncover the truth about the woman he fell for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sense of an Ending (2017)
A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Love My Dad (2022)
A hopelessly estranged father catfishes his son in an attempt to reconnect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisStill Alice (2014)
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFluke (1995)
Workaholic Thomas Johnson dies in an auto accident and reincarnates as a dog. Remembering some of his previous being, he returns to his wife and son to protect them from the man who caused his accident. But, as time goes by, his memories return, and Thomas realizes he wasn't such a good husband and father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPremonition (2007)
A depressed housewife who learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the day after to a world in which he is still dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eternal Daughter (2022)
An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Butterfly Effect (2004)
A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon finds that every change he makes has unexpected consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAvatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, learn the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Score to Settle (2019)
A former mob enforcer who is released from prison after serving 22 years for a crime he didn't commit sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011)
A suburban father gets trapped in a one-sided incestuous relationship with his abusive son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverybody’s Everything (2019)
The story of artist Lil Peep from his birth in Long Island and meteoric rise as a genre blending pop star & style icon, to his death due to an accidental opioid overdose in Arizona at just 21 years of age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThis Is Where I Leave You (2014)
When their father passes away, four grown, world-weary siblings return to their childhood home and are requested -- with an admonition -- to stay there together for a week, along with their free-speaking mother and a collection of spouses, exes and might-have-beens. As the brothers and sisters re-examine their shared history and the status of each tattered relationship among those who know and love them best, they reconnect in hysterically funny and emotionally significant ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Return?
The closest matches to The Return are The Forgotten (2004), Rudderless (2014) and And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Return?
Start with The Forgotten (2004), the closest match to The Return.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Return?
Everybody’s Everything (2019), rated 8.4/10 by 311 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Return?
Silent Night (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Return chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Return, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.