Best movies like Then Barbara Met Alan
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The untold disability civil-rights love story of two cabaret performers, Barbara and Alan, who met at a gig, fell in love, and became the driving force behind an unprecedented campaign of direct action that ultimately led to the passing of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Then Barbara Met Alan (2022):
Similar in 83%
After Thomas (2006)
Plot Summary:
Television film adaptation of the true story ("A Friend Like Henry" by Nuala Gardner) of a young autistic boy and his extraordinary friendship with his dog, Thomas.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 647
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: captivating, motivational, entertaining
Similar in 81%
The Lighthouse of the Orcas (2016)
Plot Summary:
A mother travels to Patagonia with her autistic son with the hope that a ranger and a pod of wild orcas can help him find an emotional connection.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, thought provoking, captivating, cute
Similar in 83%
The Curse of Steptoe (2008)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1960s aspiring stage actor Harry H. Corbett jumps at the chance to play junk-dealer Harold Steptoe in a television comedy show 'Steptoe and Son'. However, the show's success proves to be a poisoned chalice for him, type-casting him and thwarting his stage ambitions. Wilfrid Brambell, the actor playing his father, is marginalized in a different way. He is a gay man in an England where homosexuality is still illegal.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 337
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: sitcom
Similar in 88%
Heart of a Child (1994)
Plot Summary:
A drama directed by Sandor Stern.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Adam (2020)
Plot Summary:
A hard-living salesman becomes a quadriplegic after an accident.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, disturbing, romantic, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 79%
The Arrangement (2013)
Plot Summary:
A Colombian woman moves to Miami to marry an ambitious politician, in an attempt to leave her troubled past behind.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 482
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Nobody's Perfect (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Daijobu 3 Kumi" depicts the interactions between new teacher Shinnosuke Akao, who was born without arms and legs, and the 28 students in his 5th grade class, told from the vantage point of school board member Yusaku Shiraishi.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 56
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing
Similar in 78%
When You Remember Me (1990)
Plot Summary:
Fact-based story of Mike Mills, a teen with muscular dystrophy, who is placed in a state nursing home by his destitute single mother. There he must contend with being the only young person in the clinic and with an abusive head nurse.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 382
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Switch (1993)
Plot Summary:
Larry McAfee is paralyzed from the neck down following a motorcycle accident. He gradually loses the will to live, in the meantime befriending a talk radio DJ over the phone. The two meet each other and become friends, though Larry still wishes to end his life. The DJ reluctantly has a switch installed on Larry's life support that Larry can activate at any time (via his mouth) to end his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)
Plot Summary:
A biography of Ian Dury, who was stricken with polio at a young age and defied expectations by becoming one of the founders of the punk-rock scene in Britain in the 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, cult classic, teen, offbeat, biting, uplifting, suspense
Similar in 76%
Restless Virgins (2013)
Plot Summary:
A sex scandal that shook Massachusetts prep school, Milton Academy in 2004-05 school year.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 955
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, psychological, sincere, suspenseful, funny, sexual, sexy
Similar in 78%
Enid (2009)
Plot Summary:
Edwardian child Enid Blyton begins to tell stories to her brothers as an escape from their parents' rows before the father deserts the family.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, costume drama, cult classic, period drama, weird
Similar in 79%
Risen (2010)
Plot Summary:
As one of the rising talents of amateur boxing, Howard Winstone, a young Welsh boy from Merthyr Tydfil, was fast making a name for himself with his knock out right hand. A long professional fighting career surely beckoned? Then disaster strikes. An industrial accident results in Winstone losing three fingers on his right hand. Through sheer determination, and despite only being able to make a fist with one hand, Winstone develops a dynamic new style and begins boxing his way back up the amateur ranks eventually turning pro. Supported by his family and guided by new trainer, Eddie Thomas, Winstone becomes the Champion of Britain and then Europe. Now, with the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders, he is stood poised to challenge for the crown of Featherweight Champion of the World.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 221
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 77%
Bill: On His Own (1983)
Plot Summary:
Bill Sackter struggles to cope after his best friend and guardian, Barry Morrow and his wife Beverly move away. Bill moves into a group home run by Mae Driscoll who teaches him how to read. Bill soon discovers his religious heritage, overcoming the fire that accidentally destroyed his small canteen business, and then travels to California to search for the Morrows.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 79%
P.T. Barnum (1999)
Plot Summary:
This series illustrates the life and career of P.T. Barnum, America's greatest showman and promoter. Starting as a young man who managed an old woman who was supposedly George Washington's nursemaid, we see his career as he finds success promoting curiosities and attractions with panache and a judicious mix of truth and creativity, whether it be promoting his museum or characters like the midget General Tom Thumb. Yet because the demands of his businesses, his family life is troubled and marred by tragedy. All the while, events lead to his greatest creation, the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: humorous, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 75%
Margot (2009)
Plot Summary:
At the age of forty Dame Margot Fonteyn is considered to be past her best as a prima ballerina and Ninette de Valois is reducing her roles at the Royal Ballet. Then the exciting young Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev, a recent defector to the West, comes into her life and her bed and revitalizes her career. Frederick Aashton creates a new ballet for them and they become the golden couple of the ballet world. However, Margot is married to Roberto 'Tito' Arias, a Panamanian politician of dubious repute who is not sympathetic to her calling and is probably faithless. When he is shot and paralyzed for life Margot must carry on dancing well into her sixties in order to pay for his costly treatment though she still collaborates with Rudolf in the occasional ballet.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 291
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, stylized
Similar in 87%
Cavalcade (2005)
Plot Summary:
An accomplished playboy Leo neglects his girlfriend and enjoys parties. His girlfriend parts from him and then, when he wants to see her once more, he has an accident. He survives, but his whole life is now to be changed. This film is about fetching through the problems of having reduced abilities. Fortunately, he's not alone and his friends are staunch. In the end, he becomes content wheelchair bound. He is grateful for what he has...and God has given to him.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
Door to Door (2002)
Plot Summary:
Sometimes the true heroes in our lives are those people who inspire us not with their superhuman accomplishments but simply by their refusal to give up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and the dignity in which they go about their lives. Bill Porter is one of those heroes. Born with cerebral palsy, he was told for many years that he was unemployable. But with the unwavering support of a dedicated mother and an indomitable spirit that has become his trademark, Porter did support himself as a door-to-door salesman in Portland, Ore.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: feel good, touching, serious, realistic, uplifting, tear jerker, tearjerker
Similar in 76%
Brain on Fire (2016)
Plot Summary:
Susannah Cahalan, an up-and-coming journalist at the New York Post becomes plagued by voices in her head and seizures, causing a rapid descent into insanity.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada, Ireland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: medical drama, thought provoking, realistic, suspenseful, neurotic, inspirational, touching, sad, cult classic
Similar in 80%
Breathe (2017)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of Robin, a handsome, brilliant and adventurous man whose life takes a dramatic turn when polio leaves him paralyzed.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sad, touching, compassionate, inspirational, factual, sentimental, rough, realistic, romantic, cult classic
Similar in 80%
My Left Foot (1989)
Plot Summary:
In this true story told through flashbacks, Christy Brown is born with crippling cerebral palsy into a poor, working-class Irish family. Able only to control movement in his left foot and to speak in guttural sounds, he is mistakenly believed to be retarded for the first ten years of his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sincere, unusual plot structure, dramatic, sentimental, motivational, sad, captivating, biting
Similar in 79%
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Plot Summary:
Sir Laurence Olivier is making a movie in London. Young Colin Clark, an eager film student, wants to be involved and he navigates himself a job on the set. When film star Marilyn Monroe arrives for the start of shooting, all of London is excited to see the blonde bombshell, while Olivier is struggling to meet her many demands and acting ineptness, and Colin is intrigued by her. Colin's intrigue is met when Marilyn invites him into her inner world where she struggles with her fame, her beauty and her desire to be a great actress.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 89000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, period piece, romantic, melancholic, factual, touching, historical drama, smart, cute, informative
Similar in 88%
Noble (2014)
Plot Summary:
Christina Noble overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon. A true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Vietnam
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, emotional, realistic, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
No Child of Mine (1993)
Plot Summary:
A woman attempts to stop her daughter signing away her down syndrome grandson for adoption. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 170
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Miracle Run (2004)
Plot Summary:
Single mom Corrine discovers that her twins are autistic. She refuses to give up on their potential, even though it seems that the rest of the world has turned its back on them. Thanks to this incredible mother's support, her boys accomplish the unimaginable.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, uplifting, touching
Similar in 82%
The Elephant Man (1980)
Plot Summary:
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 254000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, touching, surreal, poignant, black and white, sad, heartbreaking, cult classic, harsh
Similar in 88%
The Lost Prince (2003)
Plot Summary:
The Lost Prince is an acclaimed British television drama about the life of Prince John – youngest child of Britain's King George V and Queen Mary – who died at the age of 13 in 1919. John suffered from epileptic seizures and an autism-like developmental disorder, and the Royal Family tried to shelter him from public view as much as possible; rather than presenting the Royal Family as unsympathetic to the Prince, the film instead shows how much this cost them emotionally (particularly John's mother, Queen Mary). Poliakoff explores the story of John, his relationship with his family, John's brother, Prince George, the political events going on at the time (like the fall of the House of Romanov in 1917) and the love and devotion shown to him by his nanny, Charlotte Bill (known as Lalla), played by Gina McKee.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, captivating, depressing, emotional, realistic, period drama
Similar in 86%
Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues (1984)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1898, Cambridge, Massachusetts, depicts Annie Sullivan Macy supporting her student Helen Keller at Radcliffe College.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
Hawking (2004)
Plot Summary:
The story of Professor Stephen Hawking's early years is told for the first time in a major drama for BBC Two.It is 1963, and our young cosmologist celebrates his 21st birthday. At the party is a new friend, Jane Wilde - there is a strong attraction between the two. Jane is intrigued by Stephen's talk of stars and the Universe. But she realises that there is something very wrong when Stephen suddenly finds that he is unable to stand up.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: inspirational, sentimental, emotional, motivational, sexy, touching, intellectual, unusual plot structure, bad ending, entertaining
Similar in 77%
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Plot Summary:
The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 474000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, emotional, inspirational, compassionate, thought provoking, heartbreaking, dramatic, factual, sentimental