Movies like Heart of a Stranger
If you like "Heart of a Stranger" you are looking for sentimental, serious and realistic movies about / with heart transplant, haunted by the past, life turned upside down, family relations, parents and children, young at heart and organ transplant themes of Drama genre shot in USA.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps:
1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
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Heart of a Stranger (2002)
269
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
What happens when you receive someone else's heart and wind up with the transplant donor's personality traits and memories too? Jill Maddox, a middle-aged concert violinist, is about to find out! After her surgery, Maddox starts chugging beers, blasting modern music and donning barely-there miniskirts. She is acting like the 22-year-old guy whose ticker she inherited. Even weirder — this is a true story!
Style:
sentimental, serious, realistic, exciting, medical drama, psychological thriller, tension, suspenseful
Audience:
adult
Plot:
heart transplant, haunted by the past, life turned upside down, family relations, parents and children, young at heart, organ transplant, optimism, mother daughter relationship, personality change, family drama, violinist, identity crisis, rebellion, family conflict, ethical dilemma, investigation, grief, a vision, intimate, small town, strong female presence, disorder, jealousy, nightmare ...
Time:
2000s, 21st century, contemporary
Place:
usa
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Heart of a Stranger
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, realistic, sentimental and emotional films with plots about family relations, parents and children, small town, family drama, family problems, disorder and life is a bitch mostly in Drama, Romance and Biography genres. Some movies like Heart of a Stranger: A Memory in My Heart (1999), Archaeology of a Woman (2012), My Straight Son (2012), Thursday's Child (1983), Flying Lessons (2010). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Jane Seymour stars in this made-for-TV drama as Rebecca Blake, a bookstore employee who lives contently in San Pedro, California with her construction-worker husband Joe (A Martinez). A chance meeting with a woman named Lynn Wyman (Cathy Lee ...
Style:
serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful
Plot:
memory loss, small town, strong female presence, uncover truth, couple relations, disorder, family relations, parents and children, haunted by the past, life turned upside down, recurring nightmare, father son relationship ...
Time:
90s, 20th century
Place:
usa, california
Similarity:
95%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
A mother's dementia reignites a past of crime and lust, forcing her daughter to make difficult decisions.
Style:
realistic, tense, serious, emotional, independent film ...
Plot:
aging, uncover truth, haunted by the past, mentally unstable, parents and children, family relations, life is a bitch, love affair, love and romance, elderly, family drama, dementia ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
new york, usa
Similarity:
82%
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Venezuela, Spain
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
The story of Diego, a young and successful photographer that lives in the glamorous world of fashion, shallowness and excess. A tragic accident turns his world around; his partner is now in a coma. Unexpectedly, and right at this terrible time, ...
Style:
touching, serious, realistic, sentimental, emotional ...
Plot:
gender, gay parent, gay love, gay, gay couple, gay slur, estrangement, life turned upside down, photograph, gay father, family relations, family problems ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
venezuela, iberian peninsula
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Sam Alden is the 17-year-old high school star player in baseball who seems to have it all. However, his family notices that he is often bothered with fits of coughing. Worried, his parents decide to take him to the hospital, where they are shocked ...
Style:
medical drama, emotional, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Audience:
teen drama
Plot:
heart transplant, hospital, surgery, mortality, terminal illness, coming of age, family drama, teenager, organ donation, high school, resilience, doctor patient relationship ...
Time:
80s
Similarity:
66%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
With her life at a crossroads, 25 year old Sophie Conway returns home to the small town she always wanted to forget. Once home, she is faced with the friends and lovers she left behind, a tangled relationship with her Mother, and Harry Pleasant, an ...
Style:
sentimental, realistic, touching, serious, inspirational
Plot:
parents and children, memory loss, hopes, self discovery, small town life, homecoming, family relations, small town, sexual content, friends, haunted by the past, old people ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, los angeles
Similarity:
54%
298
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
Luke Rogers was the ideal "Christian". Now in his mid-twenties, Luke has found himself far from the good Christian life he used to lead.
Style:
serious, sentimental, realistic, touching, uplifting ...
Plot:
faith, redemption, christian, parents and children, family relations, haunted by the past, hopes, introspection, lifestyle, estrangement, twentysomething life, religions or cults ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
53%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
The story of a man's struggle to claim his future by confronting his past. The road is not an easy one as old demons resurface to threaten everything Eden has fought to overcome.
Style:
realistic, sentimental, touching, serious, emotional ...
Plot:
small town, redemption, starting over, haunted by the past, family relations, lifestyle, hopes, homecoming, parents and children, going straight, social relations, male protagonist ...
Time:
future, 21st century
Place:
idaho, america, usa
Similarity:
52%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
A woman fears for her son's health when her ex-husband kidnaps him.
Style:
tense, suspenseful, realistic, suspense, serious ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
kidnapping, missing child, family drama, abduction, anxiety, protective parent, parents, trauma, custody battle, search and rescue, broken family, paranoia ...
Time:
90s
Place:
mexico, oregon, latin america
Similarity:
49%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
A county sheriff is accused by his daughter of having abused her. Her accusation gets more and more elaborate, involving satanic rituals. As nearly everyone around him seems to believe he's guilty, he starts breaking up and questioning his own ...
Style:
serious, psychological thriller, suspenseful, tense
Plot:
religion, false memory, false accusation, confession, family drama, miscarriage of justice, interrogation, sheriff, small town, mass hysteria, psychological manipulation, legal investigation ...
Time:
90s
Similarity:
48%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Story:
A television drama that revolves around a family that runs a pharmaceutical company.
Style:
emotional, realistic, sentimental, touching, dramatic ...
Plot:
family business, pharmaceutical company, family relations, workplace, family problems, parents and children, love, rivalry, couples, ethical dilemma, family drama, morality ...
Time:
2000s, 21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Bob is a landscape gardener and handyman with a typical American family. But his ailing father, Buster, is hiding a secret past while his sister, Stephanie, holds onto a secret of her own. When Bob proposes to his girlfriend and gets involved in a ...
Style:
serious, realistic, sentimental, sincere, independent film
Plot:
life turned upside down, family life, hopes, parents and children, under the surface, family relations, nothing goes right, family problems, disorder, dysfunctional family, destiny, suburban life ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
44%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
When big-city TV journalist Kelly Faraday (Laura Leighton) gets fired, she moves back to her Nevada hometown, where a severe drought may force her aging mother, Ruth (Angie Dickinson), to sell the family farm to a casino developer. As Kelly and Ruth ...
Style:
realistic, sentimental, captivating, psychological, serious ...
Plot:
family relations, corporate crime, homecoming, farm, small town, dishonesty, legal, rivalry, love affair, small town life, love and romance, society ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, nevada
Similarity:
41%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Robert Townsend stars as the patriarch of a family devastated when his wife is killed in a senseless auto accident. Reeling with grief, each family member must find courage and vision to carry on, ultimately eager to do the mother proud.
Style:
realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, independent film ...
Plot:
family relations, family life, parents and children, family in crisis, youth, car accident, grief, accidental death, society, love, dealing with death, coming of age ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, chicago
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: ...
Style:
touching, suspenseful, sentimental, serious, realistic
Plot:
young heroes, missing child, discrimination, interracial relations, racism, family relations, parents and children, family problems, obsession, youth, society, life is a bitch ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
alabama, usa
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Drama
Country: Chile, France
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
A married woman — seeking to purify herself through a "disconnection vow" — leaves her husband and returns to her parents’ home, but finds a situation far from the peace and quiet she had imagined.
Style:
semi serious, witty, realistic, humorous, clever ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
family relations, disorder, dull life, breakup, introspection, couples, nothing goes right, strong female presence, parents and children, homecoming, unfulfillment, siblings relations ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
chile, latin america
Similarity:
39%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
On May 30, 2005, on a high school graduation trip to Aruba, she disappeared without a trace.
Style:
emotional, suspenseful, realistic, serious, tense ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
disappearance, investigation, missing person, family relations, parents and children, serial killer, teenage girl, uncertainty, true crime, teenager, cold case, vacation gone wrong ...
Time:
year 2005, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
caribbean, usa
Similarity:
36%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
The close friendship of two young women, each of a different race, and their struggle to find purpose in their lives during this time of social injustice and world war.
Style:
sincere, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Plot:
injustice, fall in love, life is a bitch, society, interracial relations, social differences, friendship, working class, parents and children, family life, pregnancy, human nature ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
mississippi, usa, virginia
Similarity:
35%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
The Ames' seem to have built the perfect life until their six year old daughter is kidnapped; over the course of seven days they begin to uncover secrets about their past that could rip their marriage and lives apart.
Style:
emotional, serious, realistic, captivating, tense ...
Plot:
kidnapping, uncover truth, family relations, danger, parents and children, under the surface, disorder, life turned upside down, secret, women of color, african american, black girl ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
louisiana, new orleans
Similarity:
34%
Movie in collections
603
Genre: Drama
Country: Pakistan, USA
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
Two families bond when their teenage sons are killed in an explosion at a suburban mall only to discover one of their children is the prime suspect.
Style:
emotional, realistic, serious, captivating, tension ...
Plot:
life turned upside down, dishonesty, parents and children, family relations, police investigation, family problems, family in crisis, death in the family, shopping mall, family drama, families, death ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
Based on a novel by Bernard Schlink (The Reader), The Weekend follows Jens as he leaves prison 18 years after being arrested as an RAF terrorist in Germany. Back with his family, friends, and ex-comrades, including his former lover Inga, Jens’ ...
Style:
serious, realistic, captivating, suspense, tense
Plot:
family relations, haunted by the past, friendship, parents and children, couple relations, life turned upside down, under the surface, dishonesty, betrayal, couples, terrorism, state terrorism ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
europe, germany
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Working-class father John Crowley is finally on the fast track to corporate success when his two young children, Megan and Patrick, are diagnosed with Pompe disease - a condition that prevents the body from breaking down sugar. With the support of ...
Style:
emotional, sentimental, inspirational, touching, serious ...
Audience:
family outing, chick flick, kids, teens
Plot:
medical, hopes, race against time, family drama, cure, against the odds, family problems, unlikely partners, doctors and patients, child illness, family in crisis, parents and children ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, portland oregon, boston, las vegas, california ...
Similarity:
33%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Drama - It's 1982, and Midwestern housewife Joyce Jackson (Roseanne) is obsessed with Elvis Presley; she's even used the King of Rock and Roll's inspiration to turn her house into a wacky shrine. Convinced Presley's still alive, ...
Style:
comedy drama, heartfelt, sentimental, road movie, period piece ...
Plot:
obsession, elvis presley, shrine, nostalgia, female protagonist, bittersweet, grief, suburban life, estranged couple, character study, midlife crisis, road trip ...
Time:
80s, year 1982
Place:
iowa
Similarity:
32%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
This film finds a mother and her teen daughter both being diagnosed with cancer. This discovery helps to overcome the longtime antagonistic relationship that the two have developed.
Style:
serious, realistic, touching, captivating, humorous
Plot:
cancer, family life, terminal illness, life is a bitch, parents and children, family relations, survival, rebelliousness, dysfunctional family, couple relations, single parent, mother daughter relationship ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
32%
Movie in collections
121
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Two brothers are forced to confront a terrible crime that was hidden in their past.
Style:
suspenseful, psychological, rough, serious, dark ...
Plot:
investigation, false accusation, haunted by the past, murder, dishonesty, law enforcement, legal, injustice, life is a bitch, family relations, dedicated lawyer, clergy ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
32%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
A freak accident jolts 15 year-old Shelby Carson (Jahnee Wallace) from her peaceful world of silence and seclusion to the center of a world of chaos, confusion and imminent danger. As she struggles to cope with her new found circumstances, Shelby ...
Style:
serious, sentimental, suspenseful, emotional, independent film
Plot:
teenage life, life turned upside down, family problems, youth, danger, mute or deaf, family in crisis, miraculous event, misfit, school, deaf, hearing ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
A woman's schizophrenia affects her relationships with her husband and son.
Style:
touching, serious, realistic, sentimental, sincere ...
Plot:
schizophrenia, coming of age, family relations, family in crisis, family problems, couple relations, teenage life, dysfunctional family, parents and children, hospital, working class, single parent ...
Place:
florida, usa
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
Nate's little brother and hippie dad depend on him for literally everything, but the well-meaning, small time pot dealer Nate wants nothing more than to run away with Nikki, the love of his life, and get out of Texas.
Style:
realistic, tense, suspense, captivating, rough ...
Audience:
boys' night
Plot:
drug dealing, haunted by the past, danger, family relations, family problems, teenage life, save the day, on the run, drug dealer, love, rivalry, mob boss ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, texas
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
Al Klein and his longtime friend, Ash Martini, own a used car lot and these two know every trick in the book when it comes to selling cars. Klein still pines for his ex-wife Barbara who left him years ago for a more successful man. After their son ...
Style:
realistic, serious, touching, sincere, comedy drama ...
Plot:
family business, workplace, parents and children, disorder, dealer, workplace situations, father son relationship, mentor, escapades, male protagonist, frustration, coming of age ...
Time:
2010s, 21st century
Place:
usa, los angeles
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
A man must cope with the loss of his wife and the obsolescence of his job before finding redemption by becoming a role model to an equally lost 13-year-old.
Style:
realistic, serious, touching, sincere, reflective ...
Audience:
family friendly
Plot:
friendship, family relations, self discovery, teenage life, interracial relations, hopes, society, idealism, spoiled brat, quibbling, aging, death in the family ...
Time:
2000s, 21st century
Similarity:
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min.
Story:
While writing an article about an abused boy, a woman fights for protect him after she uncovers shocking details.
Style:
psychological, disturbing, captivating, realistic, emotional ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
child abuse, female protagonist, domestic abuse, domestic violence, parents and children, violence, family problems, changing lives, beaten up, lifestyle change, child in peril, mentally unstable woman ...
Similarity:
31%
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