Best movies like The Exception
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A German soldier tries to determine if the Dutch resistance has planted a spy to infiltrate the home of Kaiser Wilhelm in Holland during the onset of World War II, but falls for a young Jewish Dutch woman during his investigation.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, USA, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, exciting, tense, suspenseful, historical drama, sexy, romantic drama, action drama, ambiguous ending
Best tv shows and movies like The Exception (2016):
Similar in 80%
Silence of the Sea (2004)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in the West of France, during the German Occupation, a room is requisitioned by a Wehrmacht captain, Werner von Ebrennac. The house where he now stays is inhabited by young Jeanne, who makes a living by giving piano lessons, and by her grandfather. Quite upset, the two "hosts" decide to resist the occupier by never speaking a word to him. Now Werner is a lover of France and its culture, and he tries to persuade them that a rapprochement between Germany and France would be beneficial for the two nations. Quite unexpectedly Jeanne, little by little, falls in love with Werner. At the same time, the Francophile officer loses his illusions, realizing at last that what Nazi Germany actually wants is to thrall France and to stifle its culture.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, romantic drama
Similar in 77%
Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
Plot Summary:
In 1944 Lucien Lacombe, a young peasant in the Lot region is refused permission to join the French Resistance. Instead, the opposing "French Gestapo" obtain from him information about an underground leader and recruit him into their organization.Lucien enjoys his power and inclusion as a member of the German Police (Milice française) but soon falls in love with a Jewish girl. Forcing himself upon her family, Lucien becomes personally involved with the very people some of his collaborators and superiors are, in part, employed to oppress.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: anthology, art house, postmodern, visual, psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 82%
Rebel in the Rye (2017)
Plot Summary:
The life of celebrated but reclusive author, J.D. Salinger, who gained worldwide fame with the publication of his novel, The Catcher in the Rye.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: exciting, thought provoking, touching, captivating, sincere, disturbing, depressing, anthology, freeze frame
Similar in 83%
Mother Night (1996)
Plot Summary:
An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: political, political thriller, dieselpunk, independent film, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Strayed (2003)
Plot Summary:
Fleeing the June 1940 arrival of Hitler's army in Paris, a young war widow and her two children are rescued from dive-bombing German fighters by a cocky, reckless teenager. He finds them refuge in an abandoned house, but despite the fact that the family quickly comes to be depending much on his cunning and survival abilities, their cohabitation proves uneasy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, suspenseful, erotic, road movie, thought provoking, intelligent, romantic drama, tense
Similar in 77%
Lili Marleen (1981)
Plot Summary:
Lili Marleen is the story of a German singer named Wilkie who while working in Switzerland falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert who’s family is helping people to flee from the Nazis. Roberts family is skeptical of Walkie thinking she could be a Nazi as she becomes famous for singing Lili Marleen.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: clever, witty, stylized, art house, romantic drama, sincere, serious, realistic, cynical, light
Similar in 80%
Head in the Clouds (2004)
Plot Summary:
A romantic drama set in 1930's England, Paris, and Spain. Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sexy, romantic, sentimental, captivating, stylized, cult classic, romantic drama, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
A Hidden Life (2019)
Plot Summary:
The Austrian Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector, refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II and is executed by them in 1943. Opening at Jägerstätter’s home in Austria’s countryside, the film follows Franz and his wife, Fani, along their path of resistance. Told through real wartime letters, this love story finds the couple in conflict with the members of their close-knit town, their church, their government, and even their friends — all of which brings them to a dramatic choice.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA, UK, Germany
Duration: 174 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, political, romantic, captivating, disturbing, retro, philosophical, sexy, depressing
Similar in 81%
Zelary (2003)
Plot Summary:
A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, contemplative, epic, mysterious, serious, sentimental, romantic
Similar in 90%
Shining Through (1992)
Plot Summary:
Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, sentimental, suspense, melancholic, exciting, serious, realistic, romantic, retro, anamorphic
Similar in 84%
Charlotte Gray (2001)
Plot Summary:
This is a drama set in Nazi-occupied France at the height of World War II. Charlotte Gray tells the compelling story of a young Scottish woman working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover, a missing RAF pilot. Based on the best-selling novel by Sebastian Faulks.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, Australia, Germany
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: sexy, sentimental, romantic, captivating, realistic, intense, political thriller, serious, gloomy, fairy tale
Similar in 81%
Soldier of Orange (1977)
Plot Summary:
This film depicts World War II through the eyes of several Dutch students. It follows them through the beginning of the war, the Nazi occupation and the liberation.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, stylized, political thriller, edutainment, colorful, serious, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Operation Mincemeat (2021)
Plot Summary:
In 1943, two British intelligence officers concoct Operation Mincemeat, wherein their plan to drop a corpse with false papers off the coast of Spain would fool Nazi spies into believing the Allied forces were planning to attack by way of Greece rather than Sicily.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 33000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
Plot Summary:
When a Greek fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during WWII, his fiancee falls in love with the local Italian commander. The film is based on a novel about an Italian soldier's experiences during the Italian occupation of the Greek island of Cephalonia (Kefalonia), but Hollywood made it into a pure love story by removing much of the "unpleasant" stuff.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance, War
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, intense, melancholic, serious, realistic, epic, educational, cult classic, romantic drama
Similar in 80%
The Midwife (2015)
Plot Summary:
'The Midwife' (fin.'Kätilö') is a romance-drama set during WWII in Finland’s Lapland province, a major European battle ground of the war. Based on Katja Kettu’s bestselling novel, 'The Midwife' turns on the love affair between a Lapp midwife and a Nazi SS officer set against the backdrop of the Lapland War, which opposed Finnish and Germany armies in 1944-45. The themes in the story are international. It’s about conquering love and war, and class boundaries that are broken down.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Suite Française (2014)
Plot Summary:
France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, France, Canada, Belgium, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, romantic, period piece, serious, captivating, suspense, costume drama, factual, sentimental
Similar in 77%
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 85%
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
Plot Summary:
Free-spirited writer Juliet Ashton forms a life-changing bond with the delightful and eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, when she decides to write about the book club they formed during the occupation of Guernsey in WWII.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: touching, romantic, uplifting, sincere, period piece, costume drama, feel good, sweet, historical drama, motivational
Similar in 87%
Alone in Berlin (2016)
Plot Summary:
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK, France, Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: period piece, enigmatic, heartbreaking, suspense, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, factual, retro, independent film
Similar in 75%
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
Plot Summary:
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His diplomatic status in a Catholic country prevents Colonel Kappler from openly arresting him, but O'Flaherty's activities become so large that the Nazi's decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican. O'Flaherty continues his work in a variety of disguises. Based on a true story. Written by John Vogel.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK, Italy
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: realistic, factual, tense, serious, suspenseful, christian film, psychological, captivating, period piece, spiritual
Similar in 90%
Female Agents (2008)
Plot Summary:
May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre. Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, suspense, retro, historical drama, bleak, captivating, beautiful
Similar in 87%
Black Book (2006)
Plot Summary:
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 80000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Germany, UK, Belgium
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: tense, erotic, psychological, realistic, dramatic, political, suspense, breathtaking, emotional, intense
Similar in 83%
Resistance (2020)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of Jewish Boy Scouts who worked with the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, France, Germany, USA, China
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: costume drama, powerful
Similar in 81%
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 87%
Enigma (2001)
Plot Summary:
A romantic thriller based around the World War 2 project to crack the codes behind the Enigma machine, used by the Germans to encrypt messages sent to their submarines.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, USA, Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: factual, tricky, clever, captivating, suspenseful, serious, realistic, suspense, epic, political thriller
Similar in 80%
Valkyrie (2008)
Plot Summary:
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 256000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, UK
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: factual, bad ending, tense, suspense, suspenseful, captivating, realistic, political, contemplative, dramatic
Similar in 85%
A Call to Spy (2019)
Plot Summary:
The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA, Hungary
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, suspense, suspenseful, islamic
Similar in 78%
Never Look Away (2018)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by real events and spanning three eras of German history, film tells the story of Kurt, a young art student who falls in love with fellow student, Ellie. Ellie’s father, Professor Seeband, a famous doctor, is dismayed at his daughter’s choice of boyfriend, and vows to destroy the relationship. What neither of them knows is that their lives are already connected through a terrible crime Seeband committed decades ago.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Germany, Italy
Duration: 189 min
Plot tags: suspense, exciting, captivating, sincere, offbeat, intellectual, epic, art house, sensual, freeze frame
Similar in 76%
Allied (2016)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 166000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: suspense, sexy, emotional, exciting, tense, romantic, suspenseful, scenic, intense, factual
Similar in 83%
Flame & Citron (2008)
Plot Summary:
During Nazi occupation, red-headed Bent Faurschou-Hviid ("Flame") and Jørgen Haagen Schmith ("Citron"), assassins in the Danish resistance, take orders from Winther, who's in direct contact with Allied leaders. One shoots, the other drives. Until 1944, they kill only Danes; then Winther gives orders to kill Germans. When a target tells Bent that Winther's using them to settle private scores, doubt sets in, complicated by Bent's relationship with the mysterious Kitty Selmer, who may be a double agent. Also, someone in their circle is a traitor. Can Bent and Jørgen kill an über-target, evade capture, and survive the war? And is this heroism, naiveté, or mere hatred?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Denmark, Germany, Norway, France, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, period piece, tense, atmospheric, factual, brutal, intense, suspenseful, psychological