Movies like Arbutus (1911)
The best movies like Arbutus (1911) are Head Full of Honey (2018), Won't Back Down (2012) and The Christmas Shoes (2002). If Arbutus hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Arbutus
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)8.0/10 from 251 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
Head 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 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 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 thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
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 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 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 thisReturn (2011)
Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisEleanor 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 thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: Dark Water / Death in Heaven (2014)
In this epic two-part finale, the Doctor comes face to face with the mysterious Missy, and an impossible choice is looming. With Cybermen on the streets of London, old friends unite against old enemies, and the Doctor takes to the air in a startling new role.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEdie (2018)
To try and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment, 83-year-old Edie decides that it is never too late. After packing an old camping bag, she leaves her life behind and embarks on an adventure she never got to have... climbing the imposing Mount Suilven in Scotland.
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 thisLady Driver (2020)
When a rebellious teen embarks on a solo summer journey to connect with her roots, she finds herself in a new world, geared up for the ride of her life, and discovers she had the drive in her all along.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Matchgirl (2006)
An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bridge Part 2 (2016)
The second-half of the movie picks up in the present day, seven years later, with Ryan returning home from being on the road touring as a professional singer and Molly working at her father's corporation.
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 thisHeidi (2005)
Swiss girl Adelheid 'Heidi' is orphaned young. Aunt Detie brings her to grandpa Alp and his wife, who live isolated in the Alps since his murder charge. Heidi soon takes to the wild country, especially accompanying young goatherd Peter. Grandpa refuses to send her to school in the city, but aunt Detie returns and forces him to give in. She's sent to a posh lady in Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for crippled daughter Clara after school hours.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Road to London (1921)
An American millionaire visiting London falls in love with a young aristocrat and elopes with her, pursued by a rival suitor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Price for Folly (1915)
Noble born but dissolute M. Jean de Segni receives word from his lawyers that his profligate ways, including keeping mercenary actress Dorothea Jardeau, have led to his ruin which he accepts with a shrug of the shoulders. As word spreads Jean’s father-the Duke, who has managed to keep the boy’s mother in the dark about her son’s true nature, realizes she will soon know. Terminally ill and fearing Jean reducing them to penury, the father decides to take his beloved wife with him and kills her. Jean is at first suspected but the Duke saves him by confessing his guilt. Nevertheless, everyone, including his Dorothea, believes the Duke lied to save his son, and after his father's death Jean finds himself a social outcast. An argument leads to a duel where Jean realizes his folly has killed his parents, and he fires in the air, receiving a mortal wound from his adversary.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rags and the Girl (1915)
Wealthy young broker Tom Raine is set upon in a lonely wood by a tramp, knocked out, and stripped of his clothes. Dressed in the tramp's rags, he reaches a hut in time to save veritable wood-nymph June from a beating at the hands of her cruel foster parents. They drive him from the place, but June saves him from being torn to pieces by their huge watchdog, and Tom falls deeply in love with June. They're seen talking by her foster parents, and the father goes after Tom with a club. A fearful fight results, but the timely arrival of Tom's family, who saw the affair from their auto, stops a tragedy. Tom explains matters, his family taking a liking to June, she returns home with them, and Tom and June marry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Heavy Villains (1915)
Retired businessman F.G. Lawrence favors Philip Preston for a son-in-law; Mrs. Lawrence prefers Reggie, the Dainty Dude. There's trouble, right there. Mrs. L. becomes suspicious of a stout stranger prowling about the place and tells Mary, the husky cook, to point him out to Serena Slim, the slender sleuth. The mysterious fat man happens to be Mary's beau, so she sics Serena onto John Bouncer, Philip's fat uncle. Serena is some "shadow" and the police must be called in to stop the comedy of errors which follows. After explanations all around, Lucy nestles her pretty head on Philip's shoulder while her parents soothe Bouncer's ruffled feelings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Cave Girl (1921)
Margot Sperry, who keeps house for her guardian, a professor who wants to revert to primitive modes of living, finds it difficult to find food in the winter wilderness and resorts to pilfering from the Bates's winter camp. Divvy, engaged to a girl he does not love, meets Margot on one of her raids and falls in love with her. Baptiste, a half-breed employed by the Bates family, is discharged for stealing and burns the camp, driving the family to refuge with Margot. Elsie, hoping to regain Divvy's affections, dresses in boyish clothes similar to Margot's. Joining forces with Baptiste, they capture Margot, and Baptiste takes her in a canoe downstream. Realizing her mistake, Elsie warns Divvy, who bests the half-breed and then rescues Margot from the falls. A lost film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lullaby (1924)
Tony is sentenced to be hanged for the murder of his friend, Pietro, whom he found seducing his bride, Felipa, and she is sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment as an accessory. Born in prison, her child is taken from her at the age of three and is adopted by the judge, now governor, who sentenced the parents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Two Shall Be Born (1924)
As he lies dying, Count Florian Zuleski of Poland, the head of a committee working for perpetual peace among European nations, entrusts his daughter, Mayra, with the dangerous mission of delivering some important documents to New York. Arriving in the United States, Mayra is unable to establish contact with the Polish representative and goes to live with her aunt. She soon meets Brian Kelly, who is working as a traffic cop after being disinherited by his irate millionaire father for not entering into a marriage of convenience with patrician Janet Van Wyck.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
California or Bust (1927)
Jeff Daggett, owner of a garage in Rockett, Arizona, neglects his business for work on a new type of automobile motor, while Johnny Fox, his assistant, handles the business. President Holtwood of a motor company and his daughter Nadine are driving to California when their car breaks down near Rockett.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Mother Instinct (1917)
When her baby daughter Eleanor is traumatized after her father perishes in a storm at sea, Mother Coutierre sends the girl to live with her aunt in Paris. Years later, Eleanor, now a successful model in Paris, is surprised by a visit from her elder sister Marie, who has come to hide the birth of her illegitimate child. When Mother Coutierre arrives and believes Eleanor to be the infant's mother, Eleanor continues the deception so that her sister can marry Pierre Bondel, a fisherman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Colleen of the Pines (1922)
Joan Cameron is engaged against her will to Paul Bisson, the trading post factor. While her father and Bisson are away, Joan's sister, Esther, elopes with trapper Jules Perrault, and Joan meets Barry O'Neil, a dashing Northwest Mounted Police officer who falls in love with her and departs, promising to return.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Arbutus?
The closest matches to Arbutus are Head Full of Honey (2018), Won't Back Down (2012) and The Christmas Shoes (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Arbutus?
Start with Head Full of Honey (2018), the closest match to Arbutus.
What is the highest-rated movie like Arbutus?
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Arbutus?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Arbutus?
Yes: Head Full of Honey (2018), Won't Back Down (2012) and The Christmas Shoes (2002).
How are movies similar to Arbutus chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Arbutus, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.