Movies like Without a Trace 1983
If you like "Without a Trace" you are looking for serious, suspenseful and psychological movies about / with missing person, missing child, kidnapping, single parent, parents and children, family life and family problems themes of Drama and Mystery genre shot in USA.
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1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
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Without a Trace (1983)
3K
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Based on the case of young New Yorker Etan Patz, who disappeared in the early 1980s, this film casts Kate Nelligan as the distraught mother who lashes out at the police (in the person of a relentless detective played by Judd Hirsch), who make her and her husband suspects, even as she hounds them to find her child and drives away her husband (David Dukes) and friends (including Stockard Channing) with her intensity and single-mindedness. Squandered on a Hollywood ending that doesn't square with the real case: Etan Patz was never found.
Style:
serious, suspenseful, psychological, sincere, realistic, bleak, detective, crime drama
Plot:
missing person, missing child, kidnapping, single parent, parents and children, family life, family problems, life is a bitch, law enforcement, death in the family, father son relationship, little boy, child abuse, woman in danger, sex crime, nypd, working mom, missing son, mother child separation, sexual abuse, family relations, gays and lesbians, estrangement, dealing with death, gay ...
Time:
80s, year 1983
Place:
usa, brooklyn new york city, new york, connecticut
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Without a Trace
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, suspenseful and emotional films with plots about family relations, parents and children, family problems, life is a bitch, kidnapping, missing person and youth mostly in Drama, Mystery and Thriller genres. Some movies like Without a Trace: Where Are the Children? (1985), Taken Back: Finding Haley (2012), Natalee Holloway (2009), Have You Seen My Son (1996), Keane (2004). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Thriller about the kidnapping of two children and the investigation that follows, based on the book by Mary Higgins Clark.
Style:
mind bending, serious, realistic, suspenseful, psychological thriller
Plot:
child abduction, kidnapping, family relations, false accusation, missing person, injustice, couples, remarry, family problems, parents and children, computers and web, wrongfully committed ...
Time:
year 1986, 80s
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Unable to get over the abduction of her daughter, a mother is convinced she has finally found her, but is she simply a mother obsessed?
Style:
serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful, suspense ...
Plot:
missing child, overprotective mother, abduction, uncover truth, parents and children, twists and turns, family problems, child abduction, obsessive quest, life is a bitch, danger, kidnapping ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
100%
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:
100%
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:
100%
Movie in collections
6K
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
A mentally ill man searches New York for his missing eight year old daughter. He recreates her steps each day hoping for some clue to her disappearance, until he meets and befriend a woman with a daughter the same age. Could she help him with the ...
Style:
sincere, touching, serious, psychological, independent film ...
Plot:
kidnapping, mental illness, missing child, little girl, missing person, schizophrenia, self destructing, delusion, parents and children, life is a bitch, danger, poverty ...
Time:
year 2004, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, manhattan new york city
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
Fourteen years after her son and estranged husband were presumed lost at sea, Kristen believes she glimpses them in the background of a friend's recent vacation video.
Style:
realistic, serious, captivating, suspenseful, exciting ...
Plot:
youth, dishonesty, family relations, parents and children, twists and turns, family problems, kidnapping, heartache, faked death, mother son reunion, mother child separation, mother son relationship ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
florida, caribbean, california, usa, los angeles
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Two parents deal with the effects when their son is accused of murdering his girlfriend.
Style:
suspense, melancholic, serious, suspenseful, psychological thriller ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
small town, murder, accidental death, adaptation, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, murder investigation, courtroom drama, investigation, parents and children, teenage life, lawyer, family problems ...
Time:
year 1996, 90s
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
In 2008, New York mother Tiffany Rubin faced every parent's worst nightmare when her six year old son Kobe vanished into thin air. Upon learning that Kobe had been kidnapped by his biological father and taken to South Korea, Tiffany seeks the ...
Style:
emotional, suspenseful, touching, realistic, serious ...
Plot:
family problems, rescue, confined, parents and children, family relations, single parent, ex husband ex wife relationship, husband wife relationship, mother son relationship, boy, mother daughter relationship, black ...
Place:
usa, south korea, korea, new york, asia
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Michelle Pfeiffer is ferocious in the role of a desperate mother whose 3-year-old son disappears during her high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated. Based on Jacquelyn ...
Style:
touching, sentimental, melancholic, serious, realistic ...
Audience:
family outing, girls' night, teens, chick flick
Plot:
kidnapping, missing child, missing person, family drama, children, family relations, kidnapped, family life, parents and children, family problems, police detective, hostage ...
Time:
90s, year 1999
Place:
usa, chicago
Similarity:
50%
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
A woman (Margaret Colin) discovers that her husband faked his death and assumed a new identity, while she struggled for 10 years as a single mother.
Style:
emotional, serious, suspenseful, sincere, mind bending ...
Plot:
family in crisis, faked death, uncover truth, starting over, family problems, parents and children, couple relations, family relations, life is a bitch, leadership, society, dishonesty ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
52%
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
A detective becomes obsessed with solving a child's 50-year-old murder, uncovering striking similarities between the case and his son's disappearance.
Style:
suspenseful, tense, psychological, serious, realistic ...
Plot:
loss of child, haunted by the past, dead child, missing child, law enforcement, police investigation, dealing with death, uncover truth, corpse, life is a bitch, interrogation, police detective ...
Time:
1950s, year 2009, 2000s, 50s, 21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
49%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Director Rocky Costanzo's searing legal drama centers on a highly credentialed child psychologist named Glen Erskine (Richard Meese) whose life is shattered when he's accused of sexually assaulting a young boy he's been treating. ...
Style:
realistic, psychological, suspenseful, disturbing, serious ...
Plot:
child abuse, man boy relationship, coming of age, courtroom, sexual abuse, pedophilia, life is a bitch, redemption, parents and children, dysfunctional family, teenage life, custody ...
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Drama - When Zak and his girlfriend Delphina visit his estranged father in the Catskills, they find him suffering from dementia and inadvertently uncover a dark family secret from WWII: an impossible sacrifice Zak's grandfather (Eli Wallach) ...
Style:
emotional, psychological, realistic, captivating, serious ...
Plot:
haunted by the past, holocaust, life is a bitch, memory loss, estrangement, parents and children, deportation, uncover truth, jew persecution, past, world war two, elderly ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, new york
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Sarah tells Paul that she wants out of their marriage; the next day she disappears. A year later and Paul along with their children return to his childhood town to start anew after the loss of his wife and their mother.
Style:
psychological, serious, tense, touching, realistic ...
Plot:
starting over, family relations, homecoming, missing person, hopes, haunted by the past, brother brother relationship, father son relationship, youth, life is a bitch, parents and children, creative block ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
europe, france, brittany
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Drama
Country: Russia, USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
In Los Angeles, Dr. Sarah Hathaway hired private eyes trying to find her missing son, the painter Thomas, who ran away from their home ten years ago after a quarrel with her. She finds a clue in a catalog of a panting exhibition in San Petersburg ...
Style:
tense, psychological, serious, suspenseful, realistic ...
Plot:
missing person, amateur detective, investigation, mind game, uncover truth, haunted by the past, estrangement, family relations, private detective, obsessive quest, missing child, riddles and clues ...
Place:
usa, russia, los angeles, st. petersburg russia
Similarity:
47%
205
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min.
Story:
A mother in Queens, New York, is so angered when she discovers that her son is a drug addict that she becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.
Style:
realistic, serious, uplifting, emotional
Plot:
undercover, family relations, drug abuse, life is a bitch, human spirit, drug dealing, law enforcement, hopes, society, family problems, family in crisis, parents and children ...
Time:
80s, 20th century
Place:
new york, usa
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
One summer morning, 12-year-old Arnold Hillerman and his 17-year-old brother Eugene wake at dawn to pick peas and perhaps shoot a wild duck on their family's Montana farm. In a nearby pasture, Arnold's gun fires accidentally. His brother ...
Style:
contemplative, serious, realistic, psychological, touching ...
Plot:
farm, coming of age, boy, youth, little boy, grief, hunting, depression, death of brother, guilt, family relations, death in the family ...
Time:
80s
Place:
montana, usa
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Ellen Burstyn stars as Joan Walker, a mother whose college student son vanishes while traveling from Canada to Colorado. When police fail to investigate, Walker takes matters into her own hands. She and her ex-husband begin a search, but when their ...
Style:
mind bending, serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful ...
Plot:
missing person, missing son, survival, grief, family relations, kidnapping, college, teenage life, siblings relations, school, private detective, investigation ...
Time:
80s
Place:
maine, colorado, usa
Similarity:
47%
Movie in collections
420
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
A young Vermont widow is haunted by the memory of her dead husband, while trying to date again.
Style:
touching, serious, psychological, emotional, independent film ...
Plot:
haunted by the past, friendship, parents and children, solace, love and romance, life is a bitch, couples, family life, family problems, estrangement, impossible love, death in the family ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
vermont
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
When her daughter Sara unexpectedly passes away, Natalie retreats to the summer home where she and Sara used to visit. Time with her best friends and some of Sara's friends help her deal with her loss.
Style:
serious, sincere, touching, realistic, emotional ...
Plot:
family problems, homecoming, dysfunctional family, tragic love, best friend, couples, single parent, orphan, hopes, life is a bitch, starting over, parents and children ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
Jesse Stone and Captain Healy are shot during an unauthorized stake-out in Boston. Meanwhile, a cryptic letter sent from Paradise leads the mother of a kidnapped child to Stone. Though her son was declared dead, she hopes he will reopen the case.
Style:
tense, serious, rough, suspenseful, realistic ...
Plot:
memory loss, small town, jesse stone, investigation, kidnapping, murder, law enforcement, police detective, missing child, missing person, inadvertently, secret service ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, boston, nova scotia
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Stay-home mom Annie is reluctant to return to work, until she finds Amber, the perfect nanny for her 3-year-old daughter Jenny. But as Annie's young daughter grows closer and closer to Amber, Annie begins to feel like she's being pushed ...
Style:
serious, enigmatic, captivating, tense, suspense ...
Audience:
toddlers
Plot:
missing child, nanny, family relations, parents and children, woman in danger, danger, couples, single parent, suspicion, twists and turns, woman seduces a man, kidnapping ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
Two teenage girls must come to terms with their stepfather when their mother is struck by illness.
Style:
touching, sentimental, sincere, emotional, contemplative ...
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
teenage girl, single mother, family relations, teenage love, teenage life, love and romance, human nature, youth, family problems, couples, estrangement, terminal illness ...
Time:
80s
Place:
georgia, new york, usa
Similarity:
46%
Movie in collections
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
When his girlfriend is kidnapped, a drug-addicted ex-cop must overcome his demons and face the sobering task of tracking her down before it's too late. His story dismissed by the police, he's left with no choice but to rely on his own ...
Style:
serious, rough, realistic, suspenseful, independent film
Plot:
kidnapping, law enforcement, obsessive quest, missing person, murder, drug, life is a bitch, drug abuse, addiction, diner, drug addict, lesbian ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, los angeles
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
When a body is found floating in an upstate New York river, hard-drinking cop Joe Weldon is left with few clues. After uncovering the man's identity - an enigmatic simpleton named Hap - Weldon is led to the crooked hustler who took advantage of ...
Style:
captivating, serious, tense, suspenseful, touching ...
Plot:
police investigation, uncover truth, life is a bitch, introspection, murder, law enforcement, misfit, small town life, redemption, mysterious character, small town, addiction ...
Time:
20th century, 90s
Place:
usa, new york
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A mother searches for five years to find her kidnapped son in this fact-based drama. Unexpectedly the boy is found, but the reunion is not as she hoped. She now has to deal with five years of abuse that the boy suffered at the hands of his ...
Style:
touching, serious, realistic, emotional, sad
Plot:
kids in trouble, kidnapping, coming of age, dysfunctional family, parents and children, captivity, family in crisis, estrangement, family problems, danger, single parent, confined ...
Time:
90s
Similarity:
46%
208
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: South Korea
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
A young girl goes missing just as a convicted sex offender moves into town. The girl's father, the inhabitants of the towns and even law enforcement believe he is responsible for the disappearance.
Style:
psychological, tense, realistic, serious, bleak ...
Plot:
missing child, haunted by the past, family relations, social relations, village, investigation, rivalry, danger, pedophile, village life, siblings relations, obsessive quest ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
south korea, korea, asia
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min.
Story:
Standard romantic melodrama from novelist Danielle Steele finds a couple embroiled in marital conflict with a nasty child-custody battle at its center.
Style:
serious, realistic
Plot:
love, youth, wedding, family problems, family relations, couples, kidnapping, family life, parents and children, missing person, terminal illness, death in the family ...
Time:
20th century, 80s
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story:
A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
Style:
suspenseful, psychological, disturbing, atmospheric, black and white ...
Plot:
missing child, missing person, investigation, kidnapping, danger, imaginary friend, missing daughter, missing girl, kindergarten, journalism, family relations, single parent ...
Time:
year 1965, 60s, 70s
Place:
london, england, britain, america, europe ...
Similarity:
46%
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy, UK, France, Spain
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent within a severe ...
Style:
psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, sincere ...
Plot:
nightmare, incest, pregnancy, dysfunctional family, mother daughter relationship, abuse, family secret, family relations, introspection, self discovery, father daughter incest, haunted by the past ...
Time:
year 2005
Place:
usa, los angeles, italy
Similarity:
45%
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