Best movies like The Messenger
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Will Montgomery (Ben Foster), a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who has returned home from Iraq, is assigned to the Army’s Casualty Notification service. Montgomery is partnered with Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), to give notice to the families of fallen soldiers. The Sergeant is drawn to Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton), to whom he has delivered news of her husband’s death.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, depressing, sincere, bleak, sad, psychological, realistic, epic, cult classic, powerful
Best tv shows and movies like The Messenger (2009):
Similar in 79%
Missing Brendan (2003)
Plot Summary:
George takes a trip to Vietnam to find his missing son. George's son Bob and Bob's son Patrick accompany George on the trip. George's son, Brendan, has been Missing in Action since the Vietnam War. Julie, an archeologist, joined the search.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, contemplative
Similar in 82%
A Journal for Jordan (2021)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, a soldier deployed to Iraq begins to keep a journal of love and advice for his infant son. Back at home, senior New York Times editor Dana Canedy revisits the story of her unlikely, life-altering relationship with King and his enduring devotion to her and their child.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: romantic
Similar in 84%
Swing Shift (1984)
Plot Summary:
In 1941 America Kay and her husband are happy enough until he enlists after Pearl Harbor. Against his wishes, his wife takes a job at the local aircraft plant where she meets Hazel, the singer from across the way the two soon become firm friends and with the other girls become increasingly expert workers. As the war drags on Kay finally dates her trumpet playing foreman and life gets complicated.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, touching, humorous, semi serious, period piece, realistic, sincere, crying, weeping
Similar in 81%
Grace Is Gone (2007)
Plot Summary:
Upon hearing his wife was killed in the Iraq war, a father takes his two daughters on a road trip.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, emotional, realistic, tense, intense, sincere, serious, road movie, sad
Similar in 90%
Four Sheets to the Wind (2007)
Plot Summary:
After his father's untimely suicide, Cufe leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 633
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, romantic comedy, gloomy, crying
Similar in 90%
Vernie (2004)
Plot Summary:
Drama - Sean, a young thirty-something coffee shop owner, is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He desperately wants to have a baby before he dies, and asks his best friend Kristy to bear his child. - John Riedlinger, Amy Colon, Patrick Coyle.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 46
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, uplifting, emotional, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 84%
American Son (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story of a young Marine, fresh from Camp Pendleton, who is forced to confront the complexities of adulthood and a volatile home life during a four-day Thanksgiving leave.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 913
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, hispanic, independent film, crying
Similar in 76%
Come See the Paradise (1990)
Plot Summary:
Come See The Paradise is a deeply touching love story set against the backdrop of a dramatic and controversial period in American history, It follows the romance and eventual marriage of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad), a hot blooded Irish American, and a beautiful Japanese American Lily Dawanura (Tamlyn Tomita), at the outset of World War II. The clash of cultures, at once painful for the two lovers, becomes insurmountable after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Lily and the Kawamuras are relocated To a bleak, outdoor internment camp in California, Jack is drafted into the Army, powerless to help the woman he loves abandoning all hope of ever winning her family's approval.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying, sentimental, romantic, clever
Similar in 88%
The Lucky Ones (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around three soldiers — Colee, T.K. and Cheaver — who return from the Iraq War after suffering injuries and learn that life has moved on without them. They end up on an unexpected road trip across the U.S.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: road movie, sentimental, sincere, semi serious, touching, humorous, realistic, profound, contemplative, feel good
Similar in 77%
Camp X-Ray (2014)
Plot Summary:
A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: sincere, intense, serious, captivating, realistic, dramatic, depressing, novela, cult classic, teen
Similar in 77%
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Plot Summary:
In 1919, Mathilde was 19 years old. Two years earlier, her fiancé Manech left for the front at the Somme. Like millions of others he was "killed on the field of battle." It's written in black and white on the official notice. But Mathilde refuses to believe it. If Manech had died, she would know. She hangs on to her intuition as tightly as she would onto the last thread of hope linking her to her lover. A former sergeant tells her in vain that Manech died in the no man's land of a trench named Bingo Crepescule, in the company of four other men condemned to die for self-inflicted wounds. Her path ahead is full of obstacles but Mathilde is not frightened. Anything is possible to someone who is willing to challenge fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, War
Country: France, USA
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, atmospheric, epic, colorful, period piece, visually stunning, sentimental, dramatic, visually appealing
Similar in 78%
Brothers (2009)
Plot Summary:
When his helicopter goes down during his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan, Marine Sam Cahill is presumed dead. Back home, brother Tommy steps in to look over Sam’s wife, Grace, and two children. Sam’s surprise homecoming triggers domestic mayhem.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 142000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, emotional, tense, melancholic, suspense, heartbreaking, poignant, intense, rough
Similar in 85%
The Year That Trembled (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Year That Trembled is a 1970 coming-of-age story set in the shadow of Kent State that focuses on a group of young characters facing the Vietnam Draft Lottery.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 82%
An Unforgettable Summer (1994)
Plot Summary:
In 1925 Romania, young Marie-Therese Von Debretsy refuses the flirtatious advances of her husband's commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a brutally bleak and dangerous outpost on the Bulgarian/Romanian frontier where both their relationship and humanity are severely tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Romania, France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: meditative, light, atmospheric, melancholic, talky, serious, realistic, costume drama, bleak, romantic
Similar in 80%
Gardens of Stone (1987)
Plot Summary:
A sergeant must deal with his desires to save the lives of young soldiers being sent to Vietnam. Continuously denied the chance to teach the soldiers about his experiences, he settles for trying to help the son of an old army buddy.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: realistic, intense, harsh, bleak, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Taking Chance (2009)
Plot Summary:
Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, a volunteer military escort accompanies the body of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps to his hometown in Wyoming.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, emotional, sincere, sentimental, sad, serious, harsh, christian film, motivational
Similar in 84%
Coming Home (1978)
Plot Summary:
The wife of a Marine serving in Vietnam, Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) decides to volunteer at a local veterans hospital to occupy her time. There she meets Luke Martin (Jon Voight), a frustrated wheelchair-bound vet who has become disillusioned with the war. Sally and Luke develop a friendship that soon turns into a romance, but when her husband, Bob (Bruce Dern), returns unexpectedly, she must decide between staying with him and pursuing her new love.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: political, emotional, realistic, erotic, romantic, patriotic, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious
Similar in 79%
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
Plot Summary:
During the Bosnian War, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, erotic, exciting, romantic, sexy, romantic drama, bleak
Similar in 79%
Tigerland (2000)
Plot Summary:
A group of recruits go through Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana's infamous Tigerland, last stop before Vietnam for tens of thousands of young men in 1971.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, psychological, harsh, talky, stylized, intense, rough, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 87%
Stop-Loss (2008)
Plot Summary:
A veteran soldier returns from his completed tour of duty in Iraq, only to find his life turned upside down when he is arbitrarily ordered to return to field duty by the Army.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, sad, harsh, serious, thought provoking, realistic, suspense, cult classic, edutainment, psychological
Similar in 78%
The English Patient (1996)
Plot Summary:
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 198000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA, UK, Italy
Duration: 162 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, touching, heartbreaking, sexy, erotic, scenic, epic, captivating
Similar in 87%
Starting Out in the Evening (2007)
Plot Summary:
Leonard Schiller once counted among New York's Literary lions, but illness and ten years of writers block have lowered his profile, almost to the point of obscurity. When Heather Wolfe, an ambitious literature major, asks to interview him for her theses on his work, her interest forces hims to address the issues that have been he has avoided all these years, and stirs in him feelings he has long forgotten, much to his daughter's consternation.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, intellectual, talky, melancholic, emotional, sincere, serious, depressing, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Cold Mountain (2003)
Plot Summary:
In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 154000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA, Italy, Romania, UK
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: romantic, sincere, serious, period piece, touching, emotional, sentimental, heartbreaking, captivating, sad
Similar in 78%
The Greatest (2009)
Plot Summary:
Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she's pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer's door. She needs their help, and although they can't quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, captivating, realistic, serious, emotional, breathtaking, cult classic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
Plot Summary:
A New York couple's relationship is tested after the loss of their child. This film is the wide-released combination of the original two :him and :her volumes that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, meditative, surreal, sincere, touching, crying, sad, eros, cute
Similar in 75%
The Aftermath (2019)
Plot Summary:
In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Germany, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: melancholic, realistic, philosophical, serious, psychological, sentimental, sincere, romantic, disturbing, feel good
Similar in 75%
Jarhead (2005)
Plot Summary:
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swafford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 203000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: USA, UK, Germany
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, factual, tense, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, psychological, visually stunning, dark comedy
Similar in 75%
Atonement (2007)
Plot Summary:
As a 13-year-old, fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 295000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, War
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, heartbreaking, sad, period piece, dramatic, visually appealing, romantic, costume drama, sexy
Similar in 80%
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Plot Summary:
Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 468000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, emotional, tense, serious, rough, psychological, political, sad, factual
Similar in 81%
Monster's Ball (2001)
Plot Summary:
Set in the southern USA, a racist white man, Hank, falls in love with a black woman named Leticia. Ironically, Hank is a prison guard working on Death Row who executed Leticia's husband. Hank and Leticia's inter-racial affair leads to confusion and new ideas for the two unlikely lovers.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 93000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, depressing, emotional, realistic, sexy, touching, melancholic, compassionate, sensual, tense