Movies Like On the Reef

If you liked On the Reef (1910), a drama movie directed by D.W. Griffith, 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
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal…
2
Train Dreams (2025)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.
3
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…
4
Hands of Stone (2016)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
5
TalhotBlond (2012)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
6
Goal II: Living the Dream (2007)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin…
7
Adopt a Highway (2019)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn…
8
Black or White (2015)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.
9
Deep Water (2022)
★ 5.8/10Also drama
A well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her lovers.
10
Strange Weather (2016)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
11
Being Flynn (2012)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.
12
Goodbye June (2025)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
13
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.
14
Mansfield Park (2007)
★ 6.1/10Also drama
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
15
Woman of Straw (1964)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Anthony Richmond schemes to get the fortune of his tyrannical, wheelchair-using tycoon uncle Charles Richmond by persuading Maria, a nurse he employs, to marry him.
16
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
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…
17
The Kindness of Strangers (2019)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter…
18
Cardboard Boxer (2016)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
19
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as…
20
Queen Margot (1994)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Paris, Kingdom of France, August 18, 1572. To avoid the outbreak of a religious war, the Catholic princess Marguerite de Valois, sister of the feeble King Charles IX, marries the Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre.