Best movies like About Schmidt

Similar in 85%

Nomadland (2020)

Plot Summary:

A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the American West after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

Similar in 81%

Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)

Plot Summary:

Dispatched from his basement room on an errand for his mother, slacker Jeff might discover his destiny (finally) when he spends the day with his brother as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.

Similar in 83%

World Traveler (2001)

Plot Summary:

After hitting the road a man encounters characters that make him realize the importance of family.

Similar in 81%

The Daytrippers (1996)

Plot Summary:

Eliza D'Amico thinks her marriage to Louis is going great, until she finds a mysterious love note to her husband. Concerned, she goes to her mother for advice. Eliza, her parents, her sister Jo and Jo's boyfriend all pile into a station wagon, to go to the city to confront Louis with the letter. On the way, the five explore their relations with each other, and meet many interesting people.

Similar in 78%

The Weather Man (2005)

Plot Summary:

A Chicago weather man, separated from his wife and children, debates whether professional and personal success are mutually exclusive.

Similar in 85%

Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Plot Summary:

A drop-out from upper-class America picks up work along the way on oil-rigs when his life isn't spent in a squalid succession of bars, motels, and other points of interest.

Similar in 85%

Around the Bend (2004)

Plot Summary:

A tale of four generations of men, all of whom have had their offspring at a young age: a great-grandfather, a grandfather, a father in his twenties and a son who is about 7 years old. When the oldest member passes away, the trio heads out on the road together in the Southwest to search out an old family secret that connects to their past.

Similar in 80%

Paris, Texas (1984)

Plot Summary:

A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.

Similar in 79%

Amour (2012)

Plot Summary:

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.

Similar in 78%

The Straight Story (1999)

Plot Summary:

A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

Similar in 81%

A Serious Man (2009)

Plot Summary:

A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances Sy Ableman.

Similar in 85%

Gran Torino (2008)

Plot Summary:

Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy old man who can't get along with either his kids or his neighbors. He is a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao's family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood.

Similar in 88%

Everybody's Fine (2009)

Plot Summary:

Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.

Similar in 82%

Wendy and Lucy (2008)

Plot Summary:

Wendy, a near-penniless drifter, is traveling to Alaska in search of work, and her only companion is her dog, Lucy. Already perilously close to losing everything, Wendy hits a bigger bump in the road when her old car breaks down and she is arrested for shoplifting dog food. When she posts bail and returns to retrieve Lucy, she finds that the dog is gone, prompting a frantic search for her pet.

Similar in 79%

Sideways (2004)

Plot Summary:

Two middle-aged men embark on a spiritual journey through Californian wine country. One is an unpublished novelist suffering from depression, and the other is only days away from walking down the aisle.

Similar in 80%

Boyhood (2014)

Plot Summary:

The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.

Similar in 86%

The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002)

Plot Summary:

An introspective dentist's suspicions about his wife's infidelity stresses his mental well being and family life to the breaking point.

Similar in 75%

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Plot Summary:

After his older brother passes away, Lee Chandler is forced to return home to care for his 16-year-old nephew. There he is compelled to deal with a tragic past that separated him from his family and the community where he was born and raised.

Similar in 88%

Reign Over Me (2007)

Plot Summary:

A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.

Similar in 76%

Easy Rider (1969)

Plot Summary:

A cross-country trip to sell drugs puts two hippie bikers on a collision course with small-town prejudices.

Similar in 81%

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Plot Summary:

Three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other -- to become brothers again like they used to be. Their "spiritual quest", however, veers rapidly off-course (due to events involving over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray).

Similar in 86%

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Plot Summary:

Aurora and Emma are mother and daughter who march to different drummers. Beginning with Emma's marriage, Aurora shows how difficult and loving she can be. The movie covers several years of their lives as each finds different reasons to go on living and find joy. Aurora's interludes with Garrett Breedlove, retired astronaut and next door neighbor are quite striking.

Similar in 84%

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Plot Summary:

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Similar in 88%

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Plot Summary:

Gilbert has to care for his brother Arnie and his obese mother, which gets in the way when love walks into his life.

Similar in 89%

Rain Man (1988)

Plot Summary:

Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.

Similar in 83%

I Am Sam (2001)

Plot Summary:

Sam has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations start to become a problem and the authorities take her away. Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita into taking his case pro bono and in turn teaches her the value of love and family.

Similar in 88%

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

Plot Summary:

Amidst her own personality crisis, southern housewife Evelyn Couch meets Ninny, an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in Whistle Stop, Alabama in the 1920s.

Similar in 89%

American Beauty (1999)

Plot Summary:

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Similar in 88%

Magnolia (1999)

Plot Summary:

An epic mosaic of many interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

Similar in 84%

The Bucket List (2007)

Plot Summary:

Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.