Movies like Awakenings

If you like "Awakenings" you are looking for inspirational, motivational and sentimental movies about / with mental illness, mental institution, hospital, illness, doctors and patients, medical and psychiatry 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). 2. Look for them in the presented list.
Awakenings (1990)
 7.8
 157K
Awakenings (1990)
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, motivational, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, psychological, touching, serious, cerebral, emotional ...
Audience: girls' night, teen drama
Plot: mental illness, mental institution, hospital, illness, doctors and patients, medical, psychiatry, fighting illness, hopes, medicine, disability, patient, cure, catatonia, experimental drug, human spirit, scientist, friendship, mental disorder, moving, dying, psychologist, inspiration, biopic, doctor ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, 1930s, 60s, year 1969, 1960s
Place: new york, america, usa, bronx new york city
Keyword: doctors, oldies, educational film, eye candy

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to Awakenings

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, sincere, inspirational and emotional films with plots about hopes, biopic, human spirit, motivation, mental health, hospital and life changing mostly in Drama, Biography and Romance genres. Some movies like Awakenings: Patch Adams (1998), Something the Lord Made (2004), The Intouchables (2011), The Miracle Worker (1962), Good Will Hunting (1997). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Watch Trailers From This List to Choose a Movie
 6.8
 122K
Patch Adams (1998)
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, emotional, uplifting, compassionate ...
Audience: girls' night, family friendly, kids, teen drama
Plot: medical school, human spirit, hospital, compassion, medical profession, doctor, doctors and patients, friendship, dealing with death, mad scientist, stereotypes, medical ...
Time: 20th century, 70s, 90s, year 1998, year 1969 ...
Place: usa, virginia
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Something the Lord Made (2004)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
Style: emotional, sincere, uplifting, inspirational, serious ...
Audience: family outing
Plot: surgery, medical, racism, prejudice, african american, human spirit, biopic, interracial relations, friendship between men, blacks and whites, patient, surgeon ...
Time: 1930s, 1940s, 20th century, 1950s, 60s ...
Place: maryland, america, baltimore, usa, nashville tennessee
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Intouchables (2011)
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: inspirational, feel good, touching, emotional, motivational ...
Audience: date night, teens, family friendly, adult
Plot: friendship, disability, friendship between men, unlikely friendships, life philosophy, disabled person, lifestyle change, human relationship, handicapped, culture clash, friends, interracial friendship ...
Time: 2010s, year 2011, 21st century
Place: france, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Miracle Worker (1962)
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, emotional, black and white, period piece, touching ...
Audience: kids
Plot: teacher, blind character, blindness, disability, mute or deaf, education, human spirit, deaf, mentor, children, deafness, childhood ...
Time: 19th century, 1880s, year 1962, 1800s
Place: alabama, persia, usa, massachusetts, new england ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
sincere movies
7620
uplifting movies
1715
touching movies
11218
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
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, thought provoking, dramatic, serious, surprise ending ...
Audience: date night, family friendly, teen drama, adult
Plot: mental illness, mental institution, fighting the system, human spirit, insanity, freedom, psychiatrist, unlikely friendships, psychopath, society, nurse, escaped mental patient ...
Time: 60s, 20th century, year 1975
Place: oregon, eastern europe, america, persia
⇓ similarity ⇓
73%
Good Will Hunting (1997)
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, emotional, philosophical, sentimental, intellectual ...
Audience: teens, family friendly, chick flick, girls' night, date night ...
Plot: mathematics, professor, genius, prodigy, philosophy, psychology, life philosophy, life, university, psychotherapy, mentor, existentialism ...
Time: 20th century, year 1997, 90s, 2010s
Place: boston, harvard university, massachusetts, america, persia ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
86%
 7.5
 382K
The Aviator (2004)
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: realistic, epic, stylized, period piece, captivating ...
Audience: teens
Plot: success, mental illness, aviation, biopic, filmmaking, entrepreneur, corruption, test pilot, entrepreneurship, businessman, character study, obsessive compulsive disorder ...
Time: 1930s, year 2004, 1920s, 20th century, 1940s ...
Place: los angeles, california, new york, connecticut, usa ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Flash of Genius (2008)
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: underdog, inventor, business, entrepreneur, lawsuit, legal, entrepreneurship, courtroom, lawyer, inventions and discoveries, betrayal, corruption ...
Time: 20th century, year 2008, 80s, 70s, 60s
Place: michigan, usa, detroit
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 7.6
 155K
I Am Sam (2001)
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: inspirational, touching, emotional, tear jerker, sad ...
Audience: adult
Plot: lawyer, father daughter relationship, mentally challenged, disability, single father, social services, custody, custody battle, child custody, parents and children, parenthood, mental illness ...
Time: year 2001, 21st century
Place: california, los angeles, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
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, inspirational, touching, sentimental, twist ending ...
Audience: date night, kids, chick flick, teens, family friendly ...
Plot: prison, prison escape, freedom, human spirit, hopes, stephen king, life, friendship between men, friendship, plot twist, life philosophy, adaptation ...
Time: 1940s, 90s, 1950s, 2010s, year 1994 ...
Place: usa, america, iran, persia, pacific ocean ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
80%
 8.2
 32K
Temple Grandin (2010)
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, emotional ...
Audience: kids
Plot: autism, human spirit, teacher, disability, genius, female protagonist, scientist, against the odds, biopic, inventor, asperger's syndrome, ambition ...
Time: 20th century, y2k, 60s, 70s, year 1951 ...
Place: arizona, new hampshire, boston, texas, usa ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.6
 358K
The Blind Side (2009)
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: inspirational, touching, emotional, sentimental, motivational ...
Audience: family outing, chick flick, teens, kids, family friendly ...
Plot: american football, adoption, life, african american, human spirit, family drama, christian, interracial relations, football, rising to stardom, racism, interracial adoption ...
Time: year 2009, 20th century, 2000s, 21st century
Place: usa, tennessee, america, boston, mississippi ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.6
 144K
Joy (2015)
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, stylized, emotional, motivational, intense ...
Plot: entrepreneur, business, businesswoman, career woman, inventor, entrepreneurship, strong female lead, ambition, divorce, career, women, female protagonist ...
Time: 80s, year 2015, 2010s, 20th century, 70s ...
Place: boston, usa, california, new jersey, new york state ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.2
 9K
Frances (1982)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 140 min.
Story: The true story of Frances Farmer's meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood and the tragic turn her life took when she was blacklisted.
Style: depressing, disturbing, compassionate, factual, psychological ...
Plot: mental illness, hollywood, rich and poor, mother daughter relationship, insanity, biopic, actor's life, women, family relations, showbiz, rise to the top, life is a bitch ...
Time: 20th century, 1940s, 1930s, 1950s
Place: california, usa, manhattan new york city, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Elephant Man (1980)
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, surreal, poignant ...
Audience: family outing, teens
Plot: disability, hospital, freak, dignity, melancholy, disfigurement, social misfits, biopic, cruelty, isolation, life is a bitch, exploitation ...
Time: victorian era, 19th century, 20th century, near future, ancient times ...
Place: london, england, britain, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
 8.0
 543K
Rain Man (1988)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 133 min.
Story: Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.
Style: road movie, sincere, uplifting, touching, inspirational ...
Audience: family friendly
Plot: autism, road trip, redemption, disability, runaway, brother brother relationship, mentally challenged, siblings relations, family relations, casino, mental illness, mathematics ...
Time: 20th century, year 1988, 80s
Place: las vegas, california, ohio, cincinnati ohio, missouri ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.3
 38K
Antwone Fisher (2002)
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: inspirational, touching, sincere, emotional, thought provoking ...
Plot: psychiatrist, redemption, african american, child abuse, family reunited, u.s. navy, human spirit, honest, black, justice, survival, transformation ...
Time: year 2002, 2000s, 20th century, 21st century
Place: usa, mexico, san diego california, cleveland ohio
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
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, life philosophy, family drama, rags to riches, success, rise to the top, single father, against the odds, life is a bitch, down on your luck ...
Time: 80s, year 2006, 2010s, 20th century
Place: usa, san francisco, bay area, california, america
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
Movie in collections
depressing movies
1828
medical movies
908
sad movies
sad
2538
 7.3
 24K
Lorenzo's Oil (1992)
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, emotional, sincere, inspirational, melancholic ...
Audience: family outing
Plot: terminal illness, human spirit, against the odds, family relations, medical, life is a bitch, disability, courage, cure, family drama, boy, hopes ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1984, year 1983, year 1986 ...
Place: washington d.c., pittsburgh, italy, rome italy, boston ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
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: psychological, heartbreaking, compassionate, depressing, dramatic ...
Audience: chick flick, teens, adult
Plot: aids, transsexual, fighting the system, hiv, transgender, human spirit, life is a bitch, drug, casual sex, treatment, gay slur, hiv positive ...
Time: year 2013, 80s, 2010s, 2000s, 20th century ...
Place: texas, usa, america, midwest, nebraska ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Schindler's List (1993)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 195 min.
Story: The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Style: touching, emotional, heartbreaking, realistic, thought provoking ...
Audience: date night, chick flick, adult
Plot: holocaust, world war two, genocide, nazi, war, wartime, storytelling, concentration camp, brutality, nazism, against humanity, survival ...
Time: 1940s, 20th century, year 1993, 90s, ancient times ...
Place: poland, germany, persia, iran, europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.8
 79K
My Left Foot (1989)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 103 min.
Story: In this true story told through flashbacks, Christy Brown is born with crippling cerebral palsy into a poor, working-class Irish family. Able only to control movement in his left foot and to speak in guttural sounds, he is mistakenly believed to be ...
Style: touching, inspirational, sincere, unusual plot structure, dramatic ...
Plot: disability, cerebral palsy, biopic, artist, working class, writers, handicapped, paralysis, medical, painter, art, poet ...
Time: 20th century, year 1989, 80s
Place: ireland, england, dublin ireland, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009)
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, realistic, factual ...
Audience: family outing
Plot: medical, african american, against the odds, human spirit, neurosurgeon, medicine, surgeon, biopic, ambition, medical school, doctor, rise to the top ...
Time: 70s, 60s, 2010s, 20th century, 80s
Place: cuba, usa, detroit, west germany
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 7.7
 257K
Philadelphia (1993)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min.
Story: No one would take his case until one man was willing to take on the system. Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops their courage overcomes the prejudice and ...
Style: touching, sad, tear jerker, sincere, emotional ...
Plot: aids, courtroom drama, lawyer, hiv, gay, lgbt, discrimination, lawsuit, medical, courtroom, trial, judiciary ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1993, 80s
Place: pennsylvania, usa, philadelphia
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
An Angel at My Table (1990)
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: psychological, touching, spiritual, neurotic, erotic ...
Plot: mental illness, writers, depression, biopic, schizophrenia, art, women, children, female writer, making love, feminist, woman ...
Time: year 1990, 20th century, 80s
Place: new zealand, paris france, london
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
St. Giuseppe Moscati: Doctor to the Poor (2007)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 200 min.
Story: Giuseppe Moscati, Doctor saint of Naples, was a doctor of the early twentieth century, from an aristocratic family devoted his career to serving the poor. The film focuses on the human side, partially leaving aside the spiritual part.
Style: touching, inspirational, sincere, uplifting, sentimental ...
Plot: belief in god, compassion, life & death, redemption, life philosophy, hospital, faith, doctors and patients, doctor, unconventional method, hopes, catholic ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, China
Duration: 109 min.
Story: An award-winning cynical journalist, Lloyd Vogel, begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write an Esquire profile piece on the beloved television icon Fred Rogers. After his encounter with Rogers, Vogel's perspective on life is transformed.
Style: inspirational, sad, motivational, thought provoking, disturbing ...
Audience: chick flick, kids
Plot: journalist, biopic, friendship, friendship between men, writers, journalism, celebrity, magazine editor, puppet, life philosophy, tv star, cynicism ...
Time: 90s, year 2019, 2010s, year 1998
Place: new york, pittsburgh
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.3
 23K
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Ireland
Duration: 145 min.
Story: Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film ...
Style: touching, depressing, sad, compassionate, serious ...
Audience: toddlers, teen drama
Plot: poverty, life is a bitch, ira, injustice, family relations, youth, parents and children, depression, children, society, human nature, childhood ...
Time: 1940s, 1930s, 90s, year 1999, 20th century ...
Place: ireland, new york, brooklyn new york city, usa, europe ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 6K
The Doctor (1991)
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, sentimental, touching, emotional, uplifting ...
Plot: hospital, medical, cancer, medicine, doctor, redemption, health, doctors and patients, coldhearted, nurse, tumor, brain tumor ...
Time: 90s, 20th century
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
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: touching, inspirational, emotional, depressing, psychological ...
Plot: disability, hospital, human spirit, nurse, paralysis, courage, coma, patient, life turned upside down, writers, bittersweet, mute or deaf ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, 2000s, year 2007, y2k
Place: france, paris france, europe, hong kong, nepal ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
Watch Trailers From This List to Choose a Movie