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The Illusionist poster

Movies that feel likeThe Illusionist (2010)

A French illusionist travels to Scotland to work. He meets a young woman in a small village. Their ensuing adventure in Edinburgh changes both their lives forever.

If you loved The Illusionist, the closest films we have are In a Better World (2010), Wendy and Lucy (2008) and Faces Places (2017). All three share The Illusionist's contemplative and warm feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is With a Friend Like Harry... (2000).

🍅 90% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Sylvain Chometcontemplativewarm
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Disney Plus · Apple TV

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Illusionist hit the spot, these will too

In a Better World poster
In a Better World
2010 · dir. Susanne Bier
🍅 77%★ 7.6drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then warmth

The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.

Wendy and Lucy poster
Wendy and Lucy
2008 · dir. Kelly Reichardt
🍅 85%★ 7.1drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

Faces Places poster
Faces Places
2017 · dir. Agnès Varda
🍅 99%★ 7.8documentary

Animation with a pulse of warmth, in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into documentary than The Illusionist does

Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.

Remember the Titans poster
Remember the Titans
2000 · dir. Boaz Yakin
🍅 72%★ 7.8dramaDisney+

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men learn to overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions.

Another Round poster
Another Round
2020 · dir. Thomas Vinterberg
🍅 93%★ 7.7dramaNetflix

Both lean on warmth more than on animation

Four stagnant high school teachers decide to test out a theory that maintaining a constant level of intoxication will improve their overall lives.

La Haine poster
La Haine
1995 · dir. Mathieu Kassovitz
🍅 96%★ 8.1drama

Both know what they want from drama

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.

Bad Education poster
Bad Education
2004 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 88%★ 7.4drama · crime

Cut from the same drama cloth

When an old friend brings filmmaker Enrique Goded a semi-autobiographical script chronicling their adolescence, Enrique is forced to relive his youth spent at a Catholic boarding school. Weaving through past and present, the script follows a transvestite performer who reconnects with a grade school sweetheart. Spurred on by this chance encounter, the character reflects on her childhood sexual victimization and the trauma of closeting her sexual orientation.

Pleasure poster
Pleasure
2021 · dir. Ninja Thyberg
🍅 88%★ 6.3dramaRent or buy

Both are drama through and through

Bella Cherry arrives in Los Angeles with dreams of becoming an adult film star, but she soon learns that fame won't come easy as she harnesses her ambition and cunning to rise to the top of this mesmerizing and singular world.

Where Is The Friend's House? poster
Where Is The Friend's House?
1987 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 100%★ 8.1drama · adventure

Drama approached the same way

The difference: Made in the 1980s, in a different era of the craft

An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

With a Friend Like Harry... poster
With a Friend Like Harry...
2000 · dir. Dominik Moll
🍅 96%★ 7.1drama · mystery

Both working the same drama territory

While fixing up their summer cottage, Michel and his family run into a man who claims to have gone to high school with Michel.

Good Will Hunting poster
Good Will Hunting
1997 · dir. Gus Van Sant
🍅 97%★ 8.4dramaApple TV+Paramount+

Drama in the same key

Will Hunting is a headstrong, working-class genius who is failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a psychology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him.

Dersu Uzala poster
Dersu Uzala
1975 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 73%★ 8.2adventure · drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.

In the mood for more contemplative?

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