Movies Like Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story

If you liked Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story (1986), a drama and tv movie movie directed by Georg Stanford Brown, 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
Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and tv movie
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
2
Boys Town (1938)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
Devout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making…
3
Girl in the Box (2016)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and tv movie
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
4
Short Term 12 (2013)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
5
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
6
Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and tv movie
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
7
The Boys of St. Vincent (1994)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
The true story of boys being sexually abused at their orphanage, run by a religious community in Newfoundland.
8
The Christmas Shoes (2002)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and tv movie
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second…
9
Brave the Dark (2025)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
When Mr. Deen discovers one of his students has been living out of his car and thrown into jail, he decides to bail him out. Determined to curb Nate’s self-destructive behavior, Deen quickly discovers a host of dark…
10
The Miniaturist (2017)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and tv movie
A woman moves to live with her new husband in 17th century Amsterdam, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems.
11
Anne of Green Gables (2016)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and tv movie
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and…
12
A Bramble House Christmas (2017)
★ 6.4/10Also tv movie and drama
While settling his father’s estate, Finn Conrad becomes suspicious as to why the man left a nurse $100,000. His dad knew her for less than two months before he died. Just before Christmas, Finn wants what to reclaim…
13
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and tv movie
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American…
14
Scum (1977)
★ 7.2/10Also tv movie and drama
Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of…
15
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
16
Seeds of Yesterday (2015)
★ 6.4/10Also tv movie and drama
The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
17
Second Best (1994)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
The difficult relationship between a british postal officer and his adoptive son.
18
Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and tv movie
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young…
19
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and tv movie
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
20
I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and tv movie
The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.