Movies Like Happiness Costs Nothing

If you liked Happiness Costs Nothing (2003), a drama movie directed by Mimmo Calopresti, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
★ 8.2/10Also drama
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief…
2
Perfect Strangers (2016)
★ 7.8/10Also drama
During a dinner, a group of friends decide to share whatever message or phone call they will receive during the evening, with unforeseen consequences.
3
On My Skin (2018)
★ 8/10Also drama
The incredible true story behind the most controversial Italian court cases in recent years. Stefano Cucchi was arrested for a minor crime and mysteriously found dead during his detention. In one week's time, a family…
4
Gigi & Nate (2022)
★ 7.6/10Also drama
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
5
Eleanor the Great (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
6
Hungry Hearts (2015)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
7
Everybody's Fine (1990)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat, a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined.
8
A Daughter (2025)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
A middle-aged man, Pietro, becomes a widower and must take care of his daughter. He will never have the time to delve into his own pain, committing himself to raising his daughter with love and dedication, in an…
9
Richard Jewell (2019)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime…
10
Red Desert (1964)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
In an industrializing Italian town, a married woman, rendered mentally unstable after a traffic accident, drifts into an affair with a friend of her husband.
11
Paternal Leave (2025)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Torn between longing and anger, 15-year-old Leo travels to the coast of northern Italy to meet her biological father. The two are complete strangers to each other. They struggle to find truth, affinity, love and the…
12
90 Minutes in Heaven (2015)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A man involved in a horrific car crash is pronounced dead, only to come back to life an hour and a half later, claiming to have seen Heaven.
13
Obsession (1976)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
A wealthy New Orleans businessman becomes obsessed with a young woman who resembles his late wife.
14
The Sense of an Ending (2017)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life.
15
The Sound of Silence (2019)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
16
Premonition (2007)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
A depressed housewife who learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the day after to a world in which he is still…
17
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
★ 7/10Also drama
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
18
Human Capital (2013)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
19
Rocky (1976)
★ 7.8/10Also drama
Rocky Balboa is a Philadelphia club fighter who seems to be going nowhere. But when a stroke of fate puts him in the ring with a world heavyweight champion, Rocky knows that it's his one shot at the big time — a…
20
Vermiglio (2024)
★ 7/10Also drama
In the last days of the Second World War, a deserting soldier disrupts a tranquil and isolated mountain community. For one family, his arrival brings excitement and romance, but tragedy lies in wait.