Best movies like The Ordinary People
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The Muller company organizes a reception to mark the launch of a new product. During the evening, we discover that this is actually a coaching exercise for company executives. Gradually, rumours about the upcoming acquisition of the company start to emerge and everyone finds themselves trying to save their place.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 377
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, cynical, psychological, captivating, humorous, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like The Ordinary People (2009):
Similar in 80%
She's One of Us (2003)
Plot Summary:
At the start, Christine Blanc is a temp, her boyfriend has gone. Near the story's end, she's been offered a steady job, she has a fiancé, other men seem interested in her, she's passed her driving test, and, after she wins 1000 Euros in a scratch-off, her colleagues sing that she's a jolly good fellow ("one of us"). But something's askew: her gaze is too direct, her eyes open too widely; conversational gambits hit odd notes; she parrots others' words; she cooks too much food when she invites a supervisor to dinner. When the supervisor takes Christine on a spontaneous outing that disorients her, her oddities become something else. Can things ever be normal?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, captivating, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Chercher le garçon (2012)
Plot Summary:
One New Year's Eve with a bottle of champagne, Emilie, 35, signs up for Meet Me, a popular internet dating site, with a great New Year's resolution: to find love. There are a lot of men on Meet Me: cynics, comedians, a few goofs and even great romantics. Emilie is far from imagining what awaits her In Real Life - real life.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 114
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Marius (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Marius" takes place in Marseilles' Old Port, at the La Marine Bar, owned by César and his son Marius. Marius' biggest dream is to embark on one of the boats passing by his dad's bar and to set off to a faraway land. Fanny, a young and pretty seafood peddler, has secretly been in love with Marius since her childhood; Marius, never admitting it, has always loved Fanny. One day, a sailor drops by La Marine and offers him a job on an exploratory ship. Trying to hold him off and to make him jealous, Fanny confesses his love to him and provokes a fight between Marius and one of César's old friends, Panisse, a boat merchant, who despite his old age, has been courting Fanny for a while. Torn between the call of the sea and his love for her, Marius abandons his dream to be with Fanny who gives herself to him. As César and Honorine, Fanny's mother, are getting ready for the wedding, Marius changes his mind, drawn back to the call of the sea.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, touching, realistic, captivating, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 85%
At War (2018)
Plot Summary:
After promising 1100 employees that they would protect their jobs, the managers of a factory decide to suddenly close up shop. Laurent takes the lead in a fight against this decision.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, thought provoking, political
Similar in 82%
Pater (2011)
Plot Summary:
Vincent Lindon and Alain Cavalier drink together in bars while coming up with tall tales.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, experimental, contemplative, fake documentary
Similar in 90%
To Mathieu (2000)
Plot Summary:
Matthieu and Eric are two brothers who work at the same factory as their father in Normandy. When his father is dismissed for smoking on the factory floor, Matthieu is incensed and tries to have him reinstated, in vain. His brother has just got married and, with a child and mortgage on the way, is reluctant to stir up trouble.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 346
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, captivating, rough
Similar in 83%
Smoking Room (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Spanish branch of an American company is obliged to enforce the ban on smoking in their offices. From now on, those who want to smoke during working hours must do so in the street. Ramirez, one of the employees of this small office composed mainly of men, decides to begin collecting signatures against what he considers unfair. What Ramirez intends is to be use an unoccupied office as smoking room.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 938
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: humorous, witty, semi serious, clever, realistic, cynical, offbeat, biting, suspense
Similar in 87%
Burnt Out (2005)
Plot Summary:
François Durrieux, a man in his forties, married to Clémence and father of Benjamin, has been employed for years by the firm DSBO. In order not to lose his job, he always submits to his boss's demands whether it means working after office hours, canceling planned holidays or harming his family life. However, when one night, Simon Lacaze, his best friend and colleague, commits suicide just after being fired ignominiously, François rebels.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 403
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 82%
Tomorrow at Dawn (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mathieu, a piano virtuoso, goes home to help his brother Paul to take care of their sick mother. Paul is into reenacting old battles, dressing up and getting into character, even dueling if necessary. Mathieu gets involved in this world and play becomes real.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 548
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating
Similar in 78%
Blood from a Stone (2011)
Plot Summary:
The day his bank refuses to finance him, Georges will do everything he can to save his shipyard and his employees.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, serious, cynical, captivating, bleak, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
G.H.B. (2014)
Plot Summary:
A reflection on love and pleasure experienced by three women, set in France, New York, and Shanghai.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 25
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, captivating, psychological, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Living on Love Alone (2010)
Plot Summary:
Julie Bataille is fed up with student jobs. At 23, with a 5-years university degree, she wants to work for real. She meets Ben by chance at a job interview. He's a guy who chose to live by the day, getting by with whatever crosses his path and small-time trafficking. Ben asks her to come and spend the summer with him in the South. Julie declines. Then one day, on an impulse, she leaves everything behind and joins him.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 394
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, semi serious, sincere, realistic, cynical, offbeat, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
Little Lion (2012)
Plot Summary:
Mitri is 15 years old and lives in a village in Senegal. Like all the youngsters of his age, he plays football, dreaming of the Barcelona and Chelsea Football Clubs. When an agent sees him, Mitri believes in his luck. But, in order to go chasing Europe´s big clubs, he has to pay. The family puts money together and runs into debts to help him. Once in Paris, everything falls apart: Mitri finds himself abandonned without a cent in his pocket, and cannot imagine facing shame when he comes back to the village. An odyssey of tanglements begins then. But, his football dream will catch up with him when he meets someone.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, captivating, psychological, serious
Similar in 87%
Early One Morning (2011)
Plot Summary:
Monday morning. Paul Wertret, 50, heads off to his job as a manager at the International Credit and Trade Bank. He arrives at 8 o'clock on the dot, as usual. He enters a meeting room, takes out a gun and kills two of his bosses. Then he locks himself in his office. As he waits for the inevitable police assault, this ordinary man looks back over his life and the events that led him to commit such an act.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, sincere, tense, bleak, realistic, non-linear, gloomy
Similar in 78%
The Town Is Quiet (2000)
Plot Summary:
A dark tale of working-class life in Marseilles, a city in crisis. Interesting characters include a hard-bitten but compassionate fish market worker with a drug addicted daughter and a moody bartender with a shocking secret life.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, touching, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, neo noir, anthology, psychological
Similar in 86%
Those Who Remain (2007)
Plot Summary:
Bertrand (Vincent Lindon) dutifully visits his terminally ill wife every day, braving the long train and bus ride to and from the hospital. Lorraine (Emmanuelle Devos) not so willingly visits her boyfriend who was diagnosed with colon cancer. They bump into each other during one of their visits and begin to meet for coffee. Coffee turns into Lorraine offering to drive Bertrand to the train station and the two turn to each other in their time of grief and confusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 623
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Last Winter (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young farmer in Central France tries to sustain his spiritual connection to the land amid the crushing pressures of modern agriculture in this brooding drama.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 187
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Skirt Day (2008)
Plot Summary:
A troubled and emotionally fragile woman finds herself at the center of a firestorm, in this gut-wrenching psychological drama.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, disturbing, rough, sincere, tense, serious, emotional, realistic, controversial
Similar in 80%
The Invisible Eye (2010)
Plot Summary:
Spying on her students, a teacher finds an exciting hobby.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 841
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Spain
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, psychological, captivating, sincere, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Poison Friends (2006)
Plot Summary:
A group of college students are duped by a charming pathological liar.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 533
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: talky, psychological, thought provoking, clever, serious, realistic, cynical, tense, witty, biting
Similar in 79%
Insecure (2014)
Plot Summary:
Chérif, struggling to pass the entrance exam for nursing school, takes on a side job as a security guard. On duty there, he faces off with a group of hostile teenagers who constantly harass him, and gradually ends up an accomplice to a robbery gone wrong. Caught in between two worlds, Chérif will have to find his own way out….
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 482
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, captivating, sentimental, tense, touching, serious
Similar in 83%
Belleville-Tokyo (2010)
Plot Summary:
Un couple se dirige vers un train en partance pour Venise. Sur le quai, Julien annonce à Marie qu’il part en rejoindre une autre et s’en va, la laissant seule à Paris, enceinte. Bouleversée, Marie se refuse à être victime de cette situation. Elle trouve du réconfort dans son travail auprès de ses deux « cow-boys » de patrons, Jean-Jacques et Jean-Loup, qui dirigent un cinéma du quartier latin spécialisé dans les films classiques américains….
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 75%
The Three-Way Wedding (2010)
Plot Summary:
A play writer entertains the actors of his next play, including his ex-wife and her new lover. Everyone is finding his new place.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 242
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, offbeat, humorous, witty, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Small World (2010)
Plot Summary:
Conrad Lang, a handyman in a rich family - he has been raised like a brother with Thomas, who has the same age -, accidentally puts fire to the big holiday house he keeps. He returns to the town he grew up in, to the family home, where Philippe, Thomas's son, and Simone are getting married. Conrad's frequent memory loss and behavioural problems rapidly reveal a neurological disease (Alzheimer's is suggested by doctor Cohen when he examens Elvira) which leads Elvira, Thomas's stepmother, to install Conrad in a guesthouse on the property, with the help of a nurse. When Conrad looses more and more his landmarks in present and past, memories of his youth come back to surface. They intrigue Simone, since these memories do not entirely fit together with the official family history.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 636
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, serious, captivating, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Triumph in the Skies (2015)
Plot Summary:
Young pilot Branson (Louis Koo) recently takes over Skylette, his father's aviation empire, only to realise his old flames Cassie (Charmaine Sheh) is a flight attendant there. Several years ago, he was forced to break up with her and move to New York to take care of his father's business. To this day, the two continue to harbour feelings for each other but decide to keep them bottled up. In an effort to rebrand the airline, Branson invites rock idol TM to star in an upcoming commercial and appoints Sam (Fransic Ng) as her flying consultant. Incongruent in both tastes and experience, this odd couple gets off on the wrong foot. As the shoot progresses, however, they slowly discover each other's merits, developing a strong mutual attraction. Jayden (Julien Cheung) has left Skylette Airline to become a pilot for private jets. He meets the young and vivacious Kika (Kuo Tsai Chieh) during a flight and assumes her to be wayward and shallow.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 406
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating, feel good
Similar in 80%
Capital (2012)
Plot Summary:
The head of a giant European investment bank desperately clings to power when an American hedge fund company tries to buy them out.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, social, political, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
The Minister (2011)
Plot Summary:
Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean is awoken in the middle of the night by his head of staff. A bus has gone off the road into a gully. He has no choice but to go to the scene of the accident. Thus begins the odyssey of a politician in a world that is increasingly more complex and hostile.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, realistic, serious, captivating, contemplative, stylized, political, clever
Similar in 78%
The Deep End (2010)
Plot Summary:
The Deep End is an American television series created by David Hemingson and produced by 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC television network. Starring Mehcad Brooks, Matt Long, Tina Majorino, Clancy Brown, and Billy Zane, the show follows five first-year associate attorneys from diverse backgrounds as they learn how to cope with the challenges of working at one of the most prestigious law firms in Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 788
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: realistic, semi serious, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, humorous, stylized
Similar in 84%
The Role of Her Life (2004)
Plot Summary:
Freelance writer in a fashion journal, Claire meets Elisabeth Becker, a movie star. Everything separates them, their characters, their relationships with men, and of course money. Claire is hired as Elisabeth's personal assistant.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 563
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, semi serious, captivating, humorous
Similar in 76%
Corporate (2006)
Plot Summary:
Two corporate giants compete in order to recklessly maximize their respective profits.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, thought provoking