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Movies that feel like Australia (2008)

If you loved Australia, the closest films we have are Romeo + Juliet (1996), Never Look Away (2018) and Anna Karenina (2012). All three share Australia's romantic and tender feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.

🍅 53% Rotten Tomatoes6.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Baz Luhrmannepicromantictendercontemplative

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If Australia hit the spot, these will too

Romeo + Juliet poster
Romeo + Juliet
1996 · dir. Baz Luhrmann
🍅 75%6.7drama · romance

Baz Luhrmann working the same nerve twice

The difference: Not nearly as epic as Australia

In this contemporary take on William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, the Montagues and Capulets have moved their ongoing feud to the sweltering suburb of Verona Beach, where Romeo and Juliet fall in love and secretly wed. Though the film is visually modern, the bard's dialogue remains.

Never Look Away poster
Never Look Away
2018 · dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
🍅 77%7.7drama · romance · history

One thread runs through both: world war ii

The difference: Sits closer to history than Australia does

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR regime.

Anna Karenina poster
Anna Karenina
2012 · dir. Joe Wright
🍅 63%6.6drama · romance · history

Epic where it counts, romantic underneath

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

The Mountain Between Us poster
The Mountain Between Us
2017 · dir. Hany Abu-Assad
🍅 39%6.4drama · adventure · romance

Both land tenderness and stillness at once

Stranded on a mountain after a tragic plane crash, two strangers must work together to endure the extreme elements of the remote, snow-covered terrain. When they realize help is not coming, they embark on a perilous journey across hundreds of miles of wilderness, pushing each other to survive and discovering their inner strength.

Jodhaa Akbar poster
Jodhaa Akbar
2008 · dir. Ashutosh Gowariker
🍅 80%7.5romance · history · drama

Both lean on scale more than on romance

The difference: Reviewed even better

A sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a Mughal emperor and a Rajput princess.

The Wind Rises poster
The Wind Rises
2013 · dir. Hayao Miyazaki
🍅 88%7.8animation · drama · history

Both keep coming back to the same thing: world war ii

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

A Royal Affair poster
A Royal Affair
2012 · dir. Nikolaj Arcel
🍅 90%7.5drama · history · romance

Romantic drama in both cases

A young queen falls in love with her physician, and they start a revolution that changes their nation forever.

Bajirao Mastani poster
Bajirao Mastani
2015 · dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali
🍅 67%7.3history · romance · drama

Adventure built on tenderness, twice over

Peshwa Bajirao married to Kashibai, falls in love with Mastani, a warrior princess in distress. They struggle to make their love triumph amid opposition from his conservative family.

Cinderella Man poster
Cinderella Man
2005 · dir. Ron Howard
🍅 80%8romance · drama · history

Contemplative romance, and it commits to that

The true story of boxer Jim Braddock who, following his retirement in the 1930s, makes a surprise comeback in order to lift his family out of poverty.

Strictly Ballroom poster
Strictly Ballroom
1992 · dir. Baz Luhrmann
7.2comedy · drama · romance

Both are Baz Luhrmann's work, and they rhyme

The difference: None of the scale Australia is built on

Brave new steps put Scott's career in jeopardy. With a new partner and determination, can he still succeed?

Arn: The Knight Templar poster
Arn: The Knight Templar
2007 · dir. Peter Flinth
6.6action · adventure · drama

Adventure with a pulse of scale, in both cases

Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery and sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love.

Brooklyn poster
Brooklyn
2015 · dir. John Crowley
🍅 97%7.5drama · history · romance

Both lean on romance more than on drama

In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.

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The best-reviewed films that share Australia’s defining feeling.