Best movies like A Call to Remember
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Paula Tobias, a Holocaust survivor who has suffered the ultimate personal tragedy of losing her spouse and children during the Nazi occupation of World War II. Now re-married and living in America during the late 1960's with husband David, they build a new life together with sons Ben and Jake. One evening, Paula receives a phone call which assures her that her son, Alec, is actually alive and in New York. This brings up painful memories from the past for everyone involved, including Ben and Jake, who force their father to talk about the Holocaust. Paula rushes to New York only to find that it was a mistake - Alec was never found. She falls into a dramatic depression, as the family confronts their fears and tries to stay together.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like A Call to Remember (1997):
Similar in 82%
Promises (2010)
Plot Summary:
Self made millionaire Rolando Dominguez (Carlos Guerrero) could not resist the tempting pleasures that came with his success and now finds himself homeless, demented, and tormented by flashbacks of his regretful mistakes and broken promises to his missing son Rollie (Carlos Guerrero Jr.). Rolando struggles with his guilt as he faces the harsh reality that the fortune he worked for in his pursuit of happiness is the very thing that has destroyed his life... Meanwhile Detective Stevens (Steven Bauer - Scarface, Ray Donovan) has vowed to bring Rollie back home to his desperate mother Vanessa (Carmen Lopez) who’s six month agony has led her to question her faith while clinging on to the last bit of hope to see her son again.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 17
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, captivating, independent film, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Model Minority (2012)
Plot Summary:
Kayla, an underprivileged Japanese American 16 year old, endangers her promising future as an aspiring artist when she becomes involved with a drug dealer.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, sexy, independent film
Similar in 84%
Too Far to Go (1979)
Plot Summary:
Love and passion, anger and heartbreak, laughter and happiness, all complex textures woven into the fabric so many have come to know as marriage. For behind the seemingly comfortable well-trimmed hedges of suburban Americana, live and often love, Richard and Joan Maple. Adapted from a series of stories appearing in the New Yorker Magazine over a period of twenty three years by Pulitzer Prize winning author John Updike ("The Witches of Eastwick", "Rabbit Run"), "Too Far To Go" garnered overwhelming critical praise in its theatrical debut. With its exceptional cast, this film envelops us in a poignant, sometimes funny, sometimes exasperating journey through this most important relationship.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Northern Kingdom (2009)
Plot Summary:
The lives of three disparate families are illuminated by a meteor shower on a winter night.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 87
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Love is Never Silent (1985)
Plot Summary:
A young woman struggles with her own need for independence and the obligation she feels for her deaf parents in this depression-era drama. A friend sees her turmoil and tells her she must find happiness on her own. However, the initial joy she finds in marriage starts to strain under the guilt she feels for deserting her parents and the bitterness they express towards her.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 338
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Glass Menagerie (1966)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play about restless young warehouse worker and would-be poet, Tom Wingfield, his fragile, reclusive sister, Laura, and his colorful but overbearing mother, Amanda, all living together in a shabby apartment in St. Louis during the Depression and struggling to dilute the grim realities of daily living by way of memories, fantasies, and grandiose dreams about the future.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 148
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Family Prayers (1993)
Plot Summary:
This coming of age story set in the 1960s takes a look at the effects of a couple's break-up on a sensitive, thirteen year old Jewish boy in the 1960s.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 184
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film
Similar in 90%
Miss Rose White (1992)
Plot Summary:
Rose White (Sedgwick) is a modern young career woman in post-World War II New York City who has largely relegated her Jewish heritage to scrapbooks and memories. Born in Poland but fortunate enough to escape the country before the Nazi occupation and the Holocaust wiped out her family, she is stunned to learn her older sister somehow survived the horror and is coming to America. The sisters' reunion is complicated by Lusia's (Amanda Plummer) memories of her struggles to survive and the revelation of past family secrets.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 269
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying
Similar in 87%
Man, Woman and Child (1983)
Plot Summary:
A California professor (Martin Sheen), his wife (Blythe Danner) and his daughters make room for his orphaned illegitimate French son (Sebastian Dungan).
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 446
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, uplifting, touching, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
Hard Feelings (1981)
Plot Summary:
It's 1963 and teenage Barnie has problems. School bullies are after him, his family is dysfunctional and his girl Leslie screws around. On the run from bullies, he hides in the African-American part of town and meets cute Winona.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 69
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Ulee's Gold (1997)
Plot Summary:
An elderly beekeeper and Vietnam vet must rescue his daughter-in-law and protect his grandchildren from killers.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, independent film, atmospheric, touching, serious, gloomy, tense, sentimental, light, thought provoking
Similar in 89%
The Memory Thief (2007)
Plot Summary:
A Los Angeles tollbooth clerk becomes obsessed with the Holocaust after meeting a survivor.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, disturbing, independent film, sincere, mind bending, offbeat, bleak
Similar in 78%
Pretty/Handsome (2008)
Plot Summary:
A married father of two tells his wife and teenage sons that he is transsexual.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 444
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: cult classic, queer cinema, tv series pilot
Similar in 81%
Father's Acre (2009)
Plot Summary:
Love makes a bad relationship between father and son all the more rancorous in this drama from Hungarian director Viktor Oszkar Nagy. A convict (Janos Derzsi) returns home after a long stretch in prison to a less than enthusiastic welcome; his son (Tamas Ravasz), now in his late teens, was left to fend for himself and tend the family farm on his own after his dad went away, and the youngster blames his father for his mother's untimely death. The father wants to mend his relationship with his son, but the young man makes no secret of his contempt for his dad, and only grudgingly allows him back on the farm.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Pearl (2020)
Plot Summary:
After her mother is murdered by her stepfather, gifted 15 year old student Pearl goes to live with an ex-lover of her mother, a grumpy unemployed film director who, pending the results of a paternity test, may be her biological father.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, thrilling
Similar in 80%
Bad Hurt (2015)
Plot Summary:
Elaine and Ed Kendall have more than their share of grief and suffering. Once a young couple in love they now struggle for a sense of stability in their Staten Island home. Their eldest son is suffering from the physical and psychological effects of war; his younger brother takes it upon himself to bring him peace and relief. Meanwhile, their special needs daughter brings another kind of chaos to the family. Even though Ed and Elaine explore options for her care, they’re really just hanging on to hope that things improve somehow.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 440
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Eternal Salvation (2016)
Plot Summary:
Jonathan Wright has it all, a prestigious job, incredibly beautiful wife Amy, gorgeous 7-year-old daughter Megan and countless friends. In the prime of his life, Jonathan suffers a life threatening brain aneurysm that leaves him comatose. After regaining consciousness, he begins the grueling task of rebuilding his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 108
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: christian film, touching, serious, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 84%
Hands of a Mother (2016)
Plot Summary:
A family reunion aboard a ship becomes a turning point in the life of 39-year-old engineer Markus. When his son Adam (4) gets a little cut after going to the bathroom with his grandmother Renate, Markus recalls for the first time what his mother did to him when he was a little boy. Markus and his wife Monika find themselves confronted with an ugly truth of the kind you wouldn’t think a mother capable of.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspense
Similar in 85%
Milwaukee, Minnesota (2003)
Plot Summary:
Having lived his entire life under the watchful eye of his overbearing mother, Albert must fend for himself when an unidentified automobile suddenly kills her. Free for the first time, Albert quickly responds to the bait dangling in front of him, putting his aggressors against one another in a race for his trust. Using his skills that make him a gifted fisherman, Albert turns the tables on his seemingly doomed fate, capturing the heart of the woman most eager to deceive him, and fooling the man most intent on destroying him.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 714
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, offbeat, suspense, dark comedy
Similar in 75%
Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1989)
Plot Summary:
Rocklin Colorado, 1925. A hard cold winter. Young Arturo Bandini loves his father Svevo, his mother Maria and his brothers. Even though his bricklayer father wastes the little money he has in the Imperial Poolhall and his time with the rich American widow, Hildegarde. Even though his beautiful and pious mother lets his father get away with that, even if his little brother wets the bed. Arturo loves them all. He also loves to play baseball, even though he has to wait until spring. And he also loves the movies ... and Rosa. But she doesn't love him.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 710
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Italy, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
We Were the Mulvaneys (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel by the same name, We Were the Mulvaneys is a sensitive portrayal of one family's journey as they face conflict, fear, tragedy and ultimately, themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 599
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 76%
All Hell Let Loose (2002)
Plot Summary:
Minoo returns to her family in Sweden to attend her sister Gita's wedding. Her mother and father believe that she has disgraced the family having worked as a stripper.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 423
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, bilingual
Similar in 85%
Hidden Diary (2009)
Plot Summary:
In the 1950s, Louise left her husband when their children were still little. She was never heard from again. Her daughter Martine stayed in the small seaside town, where she became a doctor. Martine's daughter, Audrey, a thirty-year-old independent woman, returns to visit her parents. By chance, she finds a notebook that belonged to her grandmother, a diary that may at last explain her departure. Will it reveal the things left unsaid, that have altered the relationships within the heart of the family ever since? In it, will Audrey find answers to the questions that she is asking herself about her own future?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 549
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Union Square (2011)
Plot Summary:
A reluctant reunion of two estranged sisters. One is on the verge of marriage; the other is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Both struggle with truths they're hiding from each other - and from themselves. Jenny has rejected her tumultuous family and cut off communication, seeking a more ordered life far from her roots in the Bronx. And she's almost ready to commit to her longtime fiancé when her sister Lucy - the personification of all that Jenny has been trying to flee - surprises her at a critical time. Lucy and Jenny's combustible reunion brings both of them to unforeseen places, shattering and reconstructing the worlds they have both carefully constructed.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 591
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, independent film
Similar in 87%
As They Made Us (2022)
Plot Summary:
Abigail, a divorced mother of two, is struggling to balance the dynamics within her dysfunctional family as she attempts to cultivate new love.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, entertaining, disturbing, touching
Similar in 77%
Hidden Love (2007)
Plot Summary:
A psychiatrist tries to help a suicidal woman who despises her grown daughter.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Never Forget (1991)
Plot Summary:
Mr. Mermelstein (Leonard Nimoy) and Mrs. Mermelstein (Blythe Danner) a true-life California couple, thrown into the spotlight of judicial history in the 1980s. He is a Hungarian-born Jew, sole-survivor of his family's extermination at Auschwitz, and she is a Southern Baptist from Tennessee. Their four children are good kids, typical Americans, with just enough orneriness to irritate each other, but enough love and class to pull together when it counts. When challenged by a hate group to prove that Jews were actually gassed at Auschwitz, Mel Mermelstein rises to the occasion with the support of his wife and children, in spite of the dangers to himself, his business, and his family. William John Cox (Dabney Coleman) provides legal help (pro bono) as a lawyer, originally a Roman Catholic from Texas.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 76%
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Plot Summary:
A Jewish pawnbroker, a victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: depressing, emotional, realistic, bleak, heartbreaking, atmospheric, compassionate, psychological, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
The Autumn Heart (1999)
Plot Summary:
When a school bus driving woman (Tyne Daly) has a heart attack, she makes one request of her three daughters (Ally Sheedy, Marla Sucharetza, Marceline Hugo) - she wants them to find their long lost brother, who was taken away by their father (Jack Davidson) 16 years ago. What they discover is that while they have struggled, their father has become a wealthy man and their brother is in school at Harvard.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Left Luggage (1998)
Plot Summary:
While escaping from Nazis during the WWII, a Jewish man dug suitcases full of things dear to his heart in the ground two. The war deprived him of his family, and afterwards he endlessly turns over the soil of Antwerp to find the suitcases, which makes him look obsessed. He keeps checking old maps and keeps digging, trying to find, in fact, those he lost. His daughter Chaya is a beautiful modern girl looking for a part-time job. She finds a place as a nanny in the strictly observant Chassidic family with many children, although her secular manners clearly fly in the face of many commandments. One of the reasons she is accepted is that mother of the family is absolutely overburdened by the household, so she stays despite the resistance of the father, normally - an indisputable authority in the family. She develops a special bond with the youngest of the boys, four-year old Simcha, so far incapable of speaking.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, UK, Belgium, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, inspirational, heartbreaking, compassionate, sincere, serious, disturbing, depressing