Best movies like The Pumpkin Eater
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The study of a marriage. Jo has five children and husband number two when she meets writer Jake Armitage. She leaves this husband to marry Jake, and his career takes off. A few years and at least one child later, Jo is deeply depressed, breaking down in the middle of Harrods. After psychiatric care and the prospect of a new house in the country, she gets better; then, she is pregnant again, and this time Jake objects. Jo consents to an abortion and sterilization in the belief it will make her marriage happy again, but afterwards she learns ugly truths about Jake.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, clever, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Best tv shows and movies like The Pumpkin Eater (1964):
Similar in 84%
Poor Cow (1967)
Plot Summary:
The first of several social realism films by Ken Loach, this had less impact than those made as TV plays. Poor Cow follows the tangled life of Joy, who turns to Dave after her lover is jailed for theft. When Dave in turn is jailed, she is left with a son to keep. When he goes missing, she sees what's important.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Desperate Characters (1971)
Plot Summary:
With wit and real wisdom, Desperate Characters brilliantly examines the life of two disillusioned New Yorkers as they struggle to come to grips with the "normal" life with which they can no longer cope. Featuring powerful performances by MacLaine, Kenneth Mars (The Producers) as her disenchanted husband, and a young Carol Kane (The Princess Bride).
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
A Doll's House (1973)
Plot Summary:
A childish wife reveals surprising strength when faced with blackmail. A modern version of Ibsen's play.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 778
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, clever, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 84%
Morlang (2001)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by true events, a chilling psychological drama. A couple's secret pact takes an unexpected, sinister turn.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 474
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, scary, non-linear
Similar in 78%
X, Y and Zee (1972)
Plot Summary:
The venomous and amoral wife of a wealthy architect tries, any way she can, to break up the blossoming romance between her husband and his new mistress; a good-natured young widow who holds a dark past.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, interesting, vintage
Similar in 77%
The Nanny (1999)
Plot Summary:
Rome, early 20th century: a wealthy psychiatrist, who runs an asylum for women and lacks imagination in his practice, must find a wet nurse for his infant when his wife panics after childbirth. He brings a peasant, Annette, to Rome, forcing her to leave her own baby behind. To the consternation and increasing anger of the wife, the nanny immediately bonds with the couple's infant son - Annette's a natural. Against a backdrop of leftist demonstrations, Annette, who's lover is a teacher jailed for subversion, asks the doctor to teach her to read and write. Her nature and curiosity, the doctor's bland ideas, he and his wife's problems, and the two infants bring the story to a head.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 572
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 79%
A Doll's House (1973)
Plot Summary:
Nora Helmer has years earlier committed a forgery in order to save the life of her authoritarian husband Torvald. Now she is being blackmailed lives in fear of her husband's finding out and of the shame such a revelation would bring to his career. But when the truth comes out, Nora is shocked to learn where she really stands in her husband's esteem.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, talky, sincere, clever, independent film, period drama
Similar in 80%
Look Back in Anger (1989)
Plot Summary:
Look Back in Anger is a love triangle involving the brilliant-but-disaffected young Jimmy Porter (Branagh), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife Alison Porter (Thompson), and her aristocratic best friend Helena Charles (Redmond). Cliff (Horan), an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 370
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Hedda (1975)
Plot Summary:
Henrik Ibsen's enduring drama about a Nordic femme fatale - a neurotic, controlling, strong-willed woman who is nonetheless alluring to the males in her town. She is a solitary woman in a society held together by kinship and class. If she had had more brains she would have thought her way out of it; if she had had more courage she would have bolted long ago with Lovborg, the only true creative force in the vicinity whose manuscript she burns in the stove as if she were aborting their unconceived child.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, clever, serious, realistic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 77%
Limbo (2010)
Plot Summary:
Sonia arrives in Trinidad with her two children to join her husband Jo who is working as an oil engineer. On the surface she lives a life of luxury in a large houses with servants. The days are uneventful and blend together into an everlasting holiday, where the women nurse their superficial relationships over cocktails poolside – the perfect climate for self-delusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
We Won't Grow Old Together (1972)
Plot Summary:
Jean has been married to Francoise for years, but his relationship with his wife has been all but over for a long time. She's hardly ever around, always traveling to Russia for work, and she drifts in and out of the film as well, reflecting the ephemeral nature of their marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, talky, adaptation directed by original author
Similar in 81%
Prague (2006)
Plot Summary:
Christoffer and Maja's trip to Prague to bring back Chistoffer's deceased father, evolves into the story of a brake-up. With the dead father lurking in the background, secrets gradually emerge threatening to destroy their marriage.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, serious, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 86%
Late Bloomers (2011)
Plot Summary:
Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hurt’s distinguished architect chases after his glory days, while Rossellini’s housewife installs handrails about the house.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, psychological, captivating, humorous, serious
Similar in 86%
Betrayal (1983)
Plot Summary:
Pinter's semi-autobiographical play examining the surprise attraction, shy first steps, gradual flowering, and treasonous deception of a woman's extramarital affair with her husband's best friend; the entire story is told from the husband's point of view, with the scenes in precise reverse chronological order. Written by Dan Hartung.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, tense, serious, captivating, talky, clever, stylized, non-linear, extraordinary
Similar in 82%
Plans for Tomorrow (2010)
Plot Summary:
Three stories intertwined which occur in a single day. The day Ines discovers she is pregnant, Antonia decides to abandon her family and Marian realizes she is going to die.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
The Happy Ending (1969)
Plot Summary:
The triumphs and failures of middle age as seen through the eyes of runaway American housewife Mary Wilson (Jean Simmons), a woman who believes that ultimate reality exists above and beyond the routine procedures of conscious, uninspired, everyday life. She feels cheated by an older generation that taught her to settle for nothing less than storybook finales, people who are disillusioned and restless and don't know why, people for whom life holds no easy answers. Great supporting cast includes John Forsythe, Teresa Wright, Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Jones, Bobby Darin, Tina Louise, Dick Shawn, and Nanette Fabray.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, serious, touching, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Sofie (1992)
Plot Summary:
From 1886 to 1907 in the life of Sofie, a Jew in Copenhagen who is nearly 29, with no marital prospects, living with her loving parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, masterpiece
Similar in 82%
Signs & Wonders (2000)
Plot Summary:
Under the influence of signs and premonitions, a man allows himself to veer in and out of a love affair with his colleague.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Greece
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, psychological, talky, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 75%
Kira's Reason: A Love Story (2001)
Plot Summary:
Kira and Mads try to work out their marriage, after Kira has been two years in a mental institution, but is she really ready for the real world?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 997
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, clever, talky, sexy, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Daybreak (2003)
Plot Summary:
Sweden, shortly before Christmas. Surgeon Rickard is told the job he expected goes to a Dane, because of his substance abuse. It's too late to cancel dinner with his in-laws. The guest couple announces their in-vitro is a success. Then Richard's wife learns he cheated her with Sofie. Meanwhile ugly hag Anita trades drugs to afford a taser to use on her ex Olof and his former physiotherapist. Workaholic builder Anders is disgusted by his grieve-deranged client Knut's plan and decides to spend time on his family, not just money.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, bleak, realistic, serious, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Dancing in the Dark (1986)
Plot Summary:
Via the New York Times: "To all outward appearances, Edna Cormick (Martha Henry) is the perfect housewife.... She's married to a man who'll stand up in public and say, "This is my wife," so that there'll be no confusion as to who she is. Edna has no identity without Harry, an ambitious, successful salesman who seems to love and care for Edna long after other men might become worried about her housewifely obsessions... Edna is reviewing her life - in neatly chronological flashbacks - from the room in the psychiatric hospital where she's been confined ever since Harry's sudden death.".
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 100
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, serious, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 78%
The Law of Enclosures (2000)
Plot Summary:
Story of the same couple, first in their teenage years and then in their twilight years, paradoxically set in the same time during the backdrop of the Gulf War in the Middle East.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, emotional, erotic, mind bending, offbeat, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Webdultery (2010)
Plot Summary:
A couple in a failing marriage begin to cheat on each other using the power of the internet.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, gloomy
Similar in 84%
A Streetcar Named Desire (1995)
Plot Summary:
Blanche Dubois goes to visit her pregnant sister and husband Stanley in New Orleans. Stanley doesn't like her, and starts pushing her for information on some property he know was left to the sisters. He discovers she has mortgaged the place and spent all the money, and wants to find out all he can about her. Even more friction develops between the two while they are in the apartment together.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, touching, serious, emotional, atmospheric, realistic
Similar in 87%
Existence (2000)
Plot Summary:
Astitva is a bold film with adultery. An ambitious male chauvinist and his loving wife are happily married but the guy is not able to give time to the family as he want to make it big in life. His work is of paramount importance to him. His work keeps him away from his home for days and this makes the wife very lonely. In one such instance, she succumbs to loneliness and has a physical relationship with her music teacher and becomes pregnant. She tries confessing to her husband, but he is so excited about her pregnancy, that he does not listen to her story. Twenty Five years later, circumstances force the suspicious husband's mind to work overtime and confronts his wife with facts and figures that when she was pregnant, he had not had any physical relationship with her for more than 9 months before the child's birth. Then whose child is it? The wife accepts it and ask for forgiveness.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 785
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, social, art film
Similar in 75%
Belonging (2004)
Plot Summary:
Jess (Brenda Blethyn) and town handyman Jacob (Kevin Whately) have been happily married 20 years, recently taking in a trio of Jacob's elderly relatives, including his mother (Rosemary Harris). Though the relations are demanding, kindhearted Jess -- who selflessly quit her job -- enjoys looking after them. But when Jacob disappears one day, Jess' life falls apart, and she must learn to cope with things on her own in this touching drama.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, touching
Similar in 78%
Two Is a Happy Number (1972)
Plot Summary:
A young woman has difficulty understanding why her husband walks out on her. Alone for the first time, she finds life difficult to cope with and for a time lives with the hope that her husband will come back to her. After uncovering disturbing new information about her husbands infidelity, she finally comes to realize her marriage is truly over. And it is only then that she discovers what is truly important in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Brick Lane (2007)
Plot Summary:
The grind of daily life as a Brick Lane Bangladessi as seen through the eyes of Nazneen (Chatterjee), who at 17 enters an arranged marriage with Chanu (Kaushik). Years later, living in east London with her family, she meets a young man Karim (Simpson).
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, contemplative, sentimental, captivating, intercultural, sincere, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 84%
Another Woman (1988)
Plot Summary:
Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, meditative, talky, depressing, serious, independent film, controversial, thinking, contemplative
Similar in 87%
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.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, talky, sincere, thought provoking, touching, semi serious, humorous, independent film, realistic