Movies like Awakenings
If you like "Awakenings" you are looking for inspirational, sentimental and cerebral movies about / with hospital, mental illness, mental institution, illness, doctors and patients, medical and fighting illness themes of Biography and 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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Awakenings (1990)
175K
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min.
Story:
Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.
Style:
inspirational, sentimental, cerebral, psychological, touching, motivational, atmospheric, uplifting, sincere, tear jerker ...
Audience:
teens, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
hospital, mental illness, mental institution, illness, doctors and patients, medical, fighting illness, doctor, medicine, catatonia, disability, patient, cure, psychiatry, trauma, human spirit, scientist, friendship, moving, dying, hopes, psychologist, inspiration, biopic, bittersweet ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, 1930s, 60s, year 1969, 1960s
Place:
bronx new york city, new york, america, usa
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Awakenings
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, inspirational, dramatic and thought provoking films with plots about storytelling, mentor, redemption, destiny, hopes, transformation and courage mostly in Drama, Biography and Comedy genres. Some movies like Awakenings: Patch Adams (1998), Something the Lord Made (2004), The Miracle Worker (1962), The Intouchables (2011), Temple Grandin (2010). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
129K
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
Meet Patch Adams, a doctor who doesn't look, act or think like any doctor you've met before. For Patch, humor is the best medicine, and he's willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh - even if it means risking his own ...
Style:
inspirational, touching, uplifting, feel good, emotional ...
Audience:
kids, family friendly, girls' night, teen drama
Plot:
medical school, hospital, human spirit, doctors and patients, life philosophy, compassion, medical profession, friendship, dealing with death, doctor, happy ending, stereotypes ...
Time:
20th century, 70s, 90s, year 1998, 60s ...
Place:
usa, virginia
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
Style:
sincere, inspirational, serious, realistic, uplifting ...
Audience:
family outing
Plot:
surgery, medical, prejudice, racism, african american, biopic, interracial relations, blacks and whites, surgeon, following a dream, medical research, friendship between men ...
Time:
1930s, 1940s, 20th century, 60s, 70s ...
Place:
maryland, america, baltimore, usa, nashville tennessee ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
The true story of the frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness of 7-year-old Helen Keller who, since infancy, has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old ...
Style:
inspirational, period piece, emotional, black and white, touching ...
Audience:
kids, girls' night
Plot:
blindness, blind character, teacher, deafness, disability, mute or deaf, tutor, human spirit, deaf, mentor, children, childhood ...
Time:
1880s, 19th century, year 1962, 1800s
Place:
alabama, southern usa, persia, usa, boston ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.
Style:
feel good, inspirational, touching, uplifting, sincere ...
Audience:
date night, teens, family friendly, adult
Plot:
friendship, disability, unlikely friendships, life philosophy, friendship between men, disabled person, human relationship, handicapped, interracial friendship, culture clash, caregiver, friends ...
Time:
2010s, year 2011, 21st century
Place:
france, paris france
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min.
Story:
While serving time for insanity at a state mental hospital, implacable rabble-rouser, Randle Patrick McMurphy inspires his fellow patients to rebel against the authoritarian rule of head nurse, Mildred Ratched.
Style:
psychological, serious, thought provoking, dramatic, emotional ...
Audience:
family friendly, date night, teen drama, adult
Plot:
mental institution, mental illness, fighting the system, freedom, human spirit, insanity, society, mental patient, mental disorder, nurse, psychiatrist, schizophrenia ...
Time:
60s, 20th century, year 1975, year 1963
Place:
oregon, eastern europe, america, persia
Similarity:
67%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987.
Style:
uplifting, sincere, inspirational, christian film, realistic ...
Audience:
family outing
Plot:
medical, african american, against the odds, neurosurgeon, human spirit, medicine, surgeon, ambition, biopic, medical school, physician, doctor ...
Time:
70s, 60s, 2010s, 20th century, 80s
Place:
cuba, usa, detroit, west germany
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story:
A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of top scientists in humane livestock handling.
Style:
touching, inspirational, sincere, compassionate, feel good ...
Audience:
kids
Plot:
autism, teacher, female protagonist, human spirit, disability, genius, against the odds, inventor, biopic, asperger's syndrome, slaughterhouse, ambition ...
Time:
20th century, y2k, 60s, year 1951, 70s ...
Place:
arizona, boston, new hampshire, texas, usa ...
Similarity:
100%
152K
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story:
A story based on the life of a struggling Long Island single mom who became one of the country's most successful entrepreneurs.
Style:
inspirational, intense, sentimental, serious, realistic ...
Plot:
entrepreneur, business, strong female lead, businesswoman, career woman, entrepreneurship, inventor, marketing, divorce, career, women, destiny ...
Time:
80s, 2010s, year 2015, 20th century, 70s ...
Place:
boston, usa, new jersey, california, new york state ...
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
161K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min.
Story:
Sam has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations start to become a problem and the ...
Style:
touching, inspirational, sad, emotional, sentimental ...
Audience:
chick flick, girls' night, adult
Plot:
lawyer, mentally challenged, father daughter relationship, single father, child custody, social services, custody, custody battle, disability, parents and children, foster child, love ...
Time:
year 2001, 21st century
Place:
california, los angeles, usa
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min.
Story:
Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he solves a difficult graduate-level math problem, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau, who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. ...
Style:
psychological, philosophical, emotional, sentimental, intellectual ...
Audience:
girls' night, teens, chick flick, family friendly, date night ...
Plot:
mathematics, genius, professor, prodigy, life, life philosophy, psychology, philosophy, mentor, psychotherapy, university, life lesson ...
Time:
year 1997, 20th century, 90s, 2010s
Place:
boston, harvard university, america, persia, massachusetts ...
Similarity:
75%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley ...
Style:
inspirational, clever, intellectual, serious, captivating ...
Audience:
chick flick, teens, family friendly, adult
Plot:
world war two, mathematics, genius, inventor, inventions and discoveries, code, prodigy, code breaking, invention, mathematician, gay interest, computer ...
Time:
1940s, year 2014, 20th century, 1950s, year 1939 ...
Place:
england, london, britain, idaho, los angeles ...
Similarity:
100%
405K
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 170 min.
Story:
A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate, while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe ...
Style:
epic, inspirational, realistic, period piece, visually stunning ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
mental illness, success, aviation, entrepreneurship, businessman, test pilot, entrepreneur, biopic, business, filmmaking, obsessive compulsive disorder, corruption ...
Time:
1930s, year 2004, 1920s, 1900s, 20th century ...
Place:
los angeles, california, connecticut, new york, usa ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 119 min.
Story:
In this David vs. Goliath drama based on a true story, college professor Robert Kearns (Greg Kinnear) goes up against the giants of the auto industry when they fail to give him credit for inventing intermittent windshield wipers. Kearns doggedly ...
Style:
inspirational, thought provoking, sentimental, sincere, serious ...
Plot:
business, underdog, inventor, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, legal, lawsuit, marketing, courtroom, lawyer, car, justice ...
Time:
20th century, year 2008, 60s, 70s, 80s
Place:
michigan, usa, detroit, california
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min.
Story:
Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, ...
Style:
clever, uplifting, inspirational, touching, twist ending ...
Audience:
date night, chick flick, teens, kids, family friendly ...
Plot:
prison, prison escape, freedom, friendship between men, hopes, friendship, corruption, human spirit, justice, prison life, life, stephen king ...
Time:
1940s, 1950s, 90s, year 1994, 2010s ...
Place:
usa, maine, columbus ohio, persia, iran ...
Similarity:
56%
325K
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story:
An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.
Style:
touching, sad, emotional, philosophical, sentimental ...
Audience:
teens, chick flick
Plot:
redemption, depression, life philosophy, self sacrifice, life changing experience, motivation, true love, sacrifice, existentialism, life & death, melancholy, love ...
Time:
year 2008, 21st century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Family
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Finding Neverland is an amusing drama about how the story of Peter Pan and Neverland came to be. During a writing slump play writer J.M. Barrie meets the widowed Sylvia and her three children who soon become an important part of Barrie’s life and ...
Style:
touching, sentimental, period piece, heartbreaking, sweet ...
Audience:
kids, family outing, teens, family friendly, date night ...
Plot:
single parent, writers, friendship, writer's life, parents and children, death, biopic, peter pan, stage play, country house, passion, artists and showbiz ...
Time:
edwardian era, 1900s, year 2004, turn of the century, future ...
Place:
london, england, britain, europe, canada
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 127 min.
Story:
Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line ...
Style:
psychological, crying, gothic, serious, heartbreaking ...
Audience:
girls' night, chick flick, teens, teen drama, adult
Plot:
mental illness, suicide, coming of age, psychiatric ward, suicide attempt, mental institution, teenage girl, psychiatrist, borderline personality disorder, insanity, female protagonist, mentally unstable ...
Time:
20th century, year 1999, 90s, year 1967, 60s
Place:
usa
Similarity:
50%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and ...
Style:
thought provoking, inspirational, sincere, touching, emotional ...
Plot:
redemption, african american, psychiatrist, child abuse, destiny, family reunited, hopes, u.s. navy, human spirit, loneliness, changing lives, therapist ...
Time:
2000s, 20th century, year 2002, 21st century
Place:
usa, mexico, san diego california, cleveland ohio, africa ...
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Australia
Duration: 129 min.
Story:
Lorenzo Odone was a normal child until the age of 7. After then, strange things began to happen to him: he would have blackouts, memory lapses, and other strange mental phemonenons. He is eventually diagnosed as suffering from ALD: an extremely rare ...
Style:
touching, sincere, inspirational, sad, melancholic ...
Audience:
family outing, kids
Plot:
terminal illness, against the odds, family relations, human spirit, hopes, child illness, death, medical, life is a bitch, cure, disability, family drama ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, year 1984, year 1983, year 1986 ...
Place:
washington d.c., pittsburgh, edinburgh scotland, london, england ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
Style:
cerebral, inspirational, psychological, heartbreaking, clever ...
Audience:
teens, chick flick, adult
Plot:
aids, transsexual, fighting the system, hiv, transgender, human spirit, casual sex, treatment, hiv positive, life is a bitch, gay slur, drug ...
Time:
80s, year 2013, 2000s, 20th century, 90s ...
Place:
texas, usa, idaho, midwest, nebraska ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 124 min.
Story:
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph ...
Style:
emotional, touching, psychological, sad, poignant ...
Audience:
family outing, teens
Plot:
disability, hospital, dignity, freak, melancholy, disfigurement, social misfits, cruelty, isolation, hopes, biopic, humanism ...
Time:
19th century, victorian era, ancient times, 20th century, turn of the century ...
Place:
england, london, britain, europe
Similarity:
67%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he's poised to begin a life-changing professional career.
Style:
inspirational, emotional, sentimental, uplifting, motivational ...
Audience:
family outing, chick flick, teens, family friendly
Plot:
homeless, life, human spirit, rags to riches, life philosophy, success, single father, poverty, rise to the top, family drama, life is a bitch, biopic ...
Time:
80s, year 2006, 2010s, 20th century
Place:
usa, california, bay area, san francisco, america
Similarity:
50%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min.
Story:
Jack McKee is a doctor with it all: he's successful, he's rich, and he has no problems.... until he is diagnosed with throat cancer. Now that he has seen medicine, hospitals, and doctors from a patient's perspective, he realises that ...
Style:
psychological, emotional, sentimental, touching, depressing ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
hospital, medical, cancer, doctor, medicine, redemption, health, doctors and patients, coldhearted, surgery, business, mental health ...
Time:
90s, 20th century
Place:
san francisco
Similarity:
75%
Movie in collections
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
The true story of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his ...
Style:
inspirational, psychological, breathtaking, sincere, depressing ...
Plot:
disability, hospital, paralysis, death, coma, stroke, memory, writers, courage, patient, mute or deaf, communication problem ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, 2000s, year 2007, y2k
Place:
france, paris france, europe, hong kong, nepal ...
Similarity:
67%
150K
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
Style:
touching, heartbreaking, sad, depressing, tear jerker ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
alzheimer's disease, memory loss, illness, supportive spouse, mother daughter relationship, columbia university, family bonds, terminal illness, family drama, relationships, psychology, memory lapse ...
Time:
year 2014, 2010s, year 2015, future, 21st century
Place:
new york, usa, manhattan new york city
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min.
Story:
Oversized African-American, Michael Oher, the teen from across the tracks and a broken home, has nowhere to sleep at age 16. Taken in by an affluent Memphis couple, Michael embarks on a remarkable rise to play for the NFL.
Style:
touching, inspirational, sentimental, emotional, motivational ...
Audience:
chick flick, family outing, teens, kids, family friendly ...
Plot:
american football, adoption, life, african american, football, christian, interracial relations, human spirit, family drama, rising to stardom, interracial adoption, strong female character ...
Time:
year 2009, 20th century, 2000s, 21st century
Place:
usa, boston, tennessee, america, mississippi ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min.
Story:
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
Style:
philosophical, inspirational, sentimental, uplifting, touching ...
Audience:
teens, family friendly, kids, family outing, girls' night ...
Plot:
teacher, suicide, poetry, coming of age, poet, mentor, teenager, literature, teachers and students, friendship, philosophy, dedicated educator ...
Time:
50s, 1950s, 20th century, year 1989, year 1959
Place:
vermont, new england, usa, harvard university
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min.
Story:
At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he ...
Style:
psychological, touching, cerebral, dramatic, intellectual ...
Audience:
teens, date night, chick flick, family friendly
Plot:
mathematics, mental illness, schizophrenia, genius, paranoia, insanity, imagination, scientist, prodigy, nobel prize, imaginary friend, mathematician ...
Time:
year 2001, 60s, 1940s, 20th century, 2000s ...
Place:
harvard university, boston, new jersey, detroit, persia ...
Similarity:
20%
407K
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 129 min.
Story:
When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he's a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he's a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Though LaMotta wants his ...
Style:
bloody, breathtaking, depressing, harsh, cerebral ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
boxing, character study, redemption, rise and fall, boxer, violent, bad temper, brutality, mafia, jealousy, dysfunctional family, rage ...
Time:
1950s, 20th century, 1940s, year 1980, 60s ...
Place:
new york, bronx new york city, chicago, italy, florida ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA
Duration: 158 min.
Story:
Janet Frame grows up in a poor family. She is different than the other kids. She is considered abnormal and locked away in a mental institution for eight years. Everything changes when she starts writing books.
Style:
erotic, psychological, touching, neurotic, spiritual ...
Plot:
writers, mental illness, making love, depression, biopic, schizophrenia, children, art, women, mental disorder, female writer, woman ...
Time:
year 1990, 20th century, 80s
Place:
new zealand, london, paris france
Similarity:
100%
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