Best movies like An Unfinished Life

Similar in 84%

Square Dance (1987)

Plot Summary:

An awkward 13-year-old (Winona Ryder) leaves her cranky grandfather (Jason Robards) in rural Texas, to live with her mother (Jane Alexander) in Fort Worth.

Similar in 83%

The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Plot Summary:

Based on the novel by the same name from Nicholas Evans, the talented Robert Redford presents this meditative family drama set in the country side. Redford not only directs but also stars in the roll of a cowboy with a magical talent for healing.

Similar in 79%

Angel Eyes (2001)

Plot Summary:

A story about a seemingly unlikely couple who cross paths under life-threatening circumstances as though they are destined not only to meet but to save each other's lives. Not once, but twice.

Similar in 83%

Dear Frankie (2004)

Plot Summary:

Nine-year-old Frankie and his single mum Lizzie have been on the move ever since Frankie can remember, most recently arriving in a seaside Scottish town. Wanting to protect her deaf son from the truth that they've run away from his father, Lizzie has invented a story that he is away at sea on the HMS Accra. Every few weeks, Lizzie writes Frankie a make-believe letter from his father, telling of his adventures in exotic lands. As Frankie tracks the ship's progress around the globe, he discovers that it is due to dock in his hometown. With the real HMS Accra arriving in only a fortnight, Lizzie must choose between telling Frankie the truth or finding the perfect stranger to play Frankie's father for just one day.

Similar in 89%

Moonlight Mile (2002)

Plot Summary:

As he copes with the death of his fiancee along with her parents, a young man must figure out what he wants out of life.

Similar in 80%

Stanley & Iris (1990)

Plot Summary:

An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.

Similar in 85%

Safe Haven (2013)

Plot Summary:

A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.

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.

Similar in 83%

My Sister's Keeper (2009)

Plot Summary:

Sara and Brian live an idyllic life with their young son and daughter. But their family is rocked by sudden, heartbreaking news that forces them to make a difficult and unorthodox choice in order to save their baby girl's life. The parents' desperate decision raises both ethical and moral questions and rips away at the foundation of their relationship. Their actions ultimately set off a court case that threatens to tear the family apart, while revealing surprising truths that challenge everyone's perceptions of love and loyalty and give new meaning to the definition of healing.

Similar in 78%

Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991)

Plot Summary:

The story is set in Kansas in the year 1910. Jacob Witting, a widowed farmer who is still saddened by the death of his wife during childbirth several years earlier, finds that the task of taking care of his farm and two children, Anna and Caleb, is too difficult to handle alone. He advertises in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Sarah, from Maine, travels out to become his wife. But Sarah grow.

Similar in 85%

Hope Floats (1998)

Plot Summary:

Birdee Pruitt has been humiliated on live television by her best friend, Connie, who's been sleeping with Birdee's husband, Bill. Birdee tries starting over with her daughter, Bernice, by returning to her small Texas hometown, but she's faced with petty old acquaintances who are thrilled to see Birdee unhappy -- except for her friend Justin. As he helps Birdee get back on her feet, love begins to blossom.

Similar in 89%

Remember Me (2010)

Plot Summary:

Still reeling from a heartbreaking family event and his parents' subsequent divorce, Tyler Hawkins discovers a fresh lease on life when he meets Ally Craig, a gregarious beauty who witnessed her mother's death. But as the couple draws closer, the fallout from their separate tragedies jeopardizes their love.

Similar in 86%

Bounce (2000)

Plot Summary:

A man switches plane tickets with another man who dies in that plane in a crash. The man falls in love with the deceased one's wife.

Similar in 78%

My Life Without Me (2003)

Plot Summary:

A Pedro Almodovar production in which a fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies with out telling her family of her illness.

Similar in 88%

The Good Lie (2014)

Plot Summary:

A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.

Similar in 81%

The Fault in Our Stars (2014)

Plot Summary:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Similar in 76%

Still Alice (2014)

Plot Summary:

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.

Similar in 85%

Message in a Bottle (1999)

Plot Summary:

A woman finds a romantic letter in a bottle washed ashore and tracks down the author, a widowed shipbuilder whose wife died tragically early. As a deep and mutual attraction blossoms, the man struggles to make peace with his past so that he can move on and find happiness.

Similar in 77%

The Vow (2012)

Plot Summary:

Happy young married couple Paige and Leo are, well, happy. Then a car accident puts Paige into a life-threatening coma. Upon awakening she has lost the previous five years of memories, including those of her beloved Leo, her wedding, a confusing relationship with her parents, or the ending of her relationship with her ex-fiance. Despite these complications, Leo endeavors to win her heart again and rebuild their marriage.

Similar in 80%

Mask (1985)

Plot Summary:

A boy with a massive facial skull deformity and biker gang mother attempts to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.

Similar in 85%

My Girl (1991)

Plot Summary:

Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse.

Similar in 76%

Chocolat (2000)

Plot Summary:

A fable of emotional liberation and chocolate. A mother and daughter move to a small French town where they open a chocolate shop. The town, religious and morally strict, is against them as they represent free-thinking and indulgence. When a group of Boat Gypsies float down the river the prejudices of the Mayor leads to a crisis.

Similar in 78%

We Bought a Zoo (2011)

Plot Summary:

Benjamin has lost his wife and, in a bid to start his life over, purchases a large house that has a zoo – welcome news for his daughter, but his son is not happy about it. The zoo is in need of renovation and Benjamin sets about the work with the head keeper and the rest of the staff, but, the zoo soon runs into financial trouble.

Similar in 75%

The Blind Side (2009)

Plot Summary:

Oversized African-American, Michael Oher, the teen from across the tracks and a broken home, has nowhere to sleep at age 16. Taken in by an affluent Memphis couple, Michael embarks on a remarkable rise to play for the NFL.

Similar in 78%

The Man Without a Face (1993)

Plot Summary:

The story of a relationship between a teacher and his troubled pupil. Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town. His face is disfigured from an automobile accident and fire ten years before in which a boy was incinerated and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He is also suspected of being a pedophile. He is befriended by Chuck, causing the town's suspicion and hostility to be ignited. McLeod inculcates in his protege a love of justice and freedom from prejudice which sustains him beyond the end of the film.

Similar in 79%

The Notebook (2004)

Plot Summary:

An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.