50 Movies Like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) You Need to Watch Next
Updated August 2026
View Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind details →Gondry and Kaufman's 2004 romance follows a heartbroken man who undergoes a procedure to erase his ex-girlfriend from his memory — only to fight to keep her as the memories dissolve. Inventive, melancholy and achingly true about love and loss, it bends sci-fi into deep feeling. If its dreamlike structure and emotional honesty moved you, seek out cerebral romances and mind-bending dramas that ask whether love is worth the pain it leaves behind.
If you loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) by Michel Gondry, here are 50 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are Her, Bicentennial Man, The Fountain. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
The Best Movies Similar to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Selected for their real similarity in content, these are the movies that share the most with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in terms of theme, narrative tone, and cinematic style. Every recommendation goes beyond genre — we evaluate the type of conflict, pacing, dramatic context, and the experience they create for viewers.
Her
2013 · Spike Jonze
In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops b
In common: Drama · Romance · Science Fiction
Bicentennial Man
1999 · Chris Columbus
Richard Martin buys a gift, a new NDR-114 robot. The product is named Andrew by the youngest of the family's children. "Bicentennial Man" follows the life and times of Andrew, a robot purchased as a h
In common: Drama · Romance · Science Fiction
The Fountain
2006 · Darren Aronofsky
Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Space Between Us
2017 · Peter Chelsom
A young man raised by scientists on Mars returns to Earth to find his father.
In common: Drama · Romance
Mr. Nobody
2009 · Jaco Van Dormael
Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.
In common: Drama · Romance · Science Fiction
Blue Valentine
2010 · Derek Cianfrance
Dean and Cindy live a quiet life in a modest neighborhood. They appear to have the world at their feet at the outset of the relationship. However, his lack of ambition and her retreat into self-absorp
In common: Drama · Romance
Me Before You
2016 · Thea Sharrock
Lou Clark, a directionless 26-year-old from the English countryside, takes a job at the local castle as a caregiver and companion to a wealthy young banker, Will Traynor. Wheelchair-bound from an acci
In common: Drama · Romance
After We Collided
2020 · Roger Kumble
Tessa finds herself struggling with her complicated relationship with Hardin; she faces a dilemma that could change their lives forever.
In common: Drama · Romance
Hamnet
2025 · Chloé Zhao
The powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.
In common: Drama · Romance
Three Steps Above Heaven
2010 · Fernando González Molina
Babi, a sheltered upper-class girl, and Hache, a reckless rebel obsessed with illegal motorcycle races, fall into a forbidden love that pulls them deeper into passion and risk.
In common: Drama · Romance
Below Her Mouth
2017 · April Mullen
An unexpected affair quickly escalates into a heart-stopping reality for two women whose passionate connection changes their lives forever.
In common: Drama · Romance
Dangerous Liaisons
1988 · Stephen Frears
In 18th century France, Marquise de Merteuil asks her ex-lover Vicomte de Valmont to seduce the future wife of another ex-lover of hers in return for one last night with her. Yet things don’t go as pl
In common: Drama · Romance
Cinema Paradiso
1988 · Giuseppe Tornatore
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
In common: Drama · Romance
Fifty Shades Darker
2017 · James Foley
When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find
In common: Drama · Romance
Call Me by Your Name
2017 · Luca Guadagnino
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon,
In common: Drama · Romance
Atonement
2007 · Joe Wright
A young girl irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Lover
1992 · Jean-Jacques Annaud
A poor French teenage girl engages in an illicit affair with a wealthy Chinese heir in 1920s Saigon. For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lo
In common: Drama · Romance
A Beautiful Mind
2001 · Ron Howard
From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his ca
In common: Drama · Romance
Desire
2011 · Laurent Bouhnik
In a social context deteriorated by a countrywide economic crisis, the life of several people will be turned upside down after they meet Cécile, a character who symbolizes desire.
In common: Drama · Romance
Before Sunrise
1995 · Richard Linklater
An unexpected meeting on a train leads two travelers to spend an evening wandering through Vienna. As the night unfolds, they share stories and conversations about life and love, exploring new ideas w
In common: Drama · Romance
I Want You
2012 · Fernando González Molina
After two years away, Hache returns to Barcelona seeking a fresh start. Falling for Gin while facing unresolved feelings for Babi, he must confront love, loss, and who he's becoming.
In common: Drama · Romance
Past Lives
2023 · Celine Song
After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Piano Teacher
2001 · Michael Haneke
Erika Kohut, a sexually repressed piano teacher living with her domineering mother, meets a young man who starts romantically pursuing her.
In common: Drama · Romance
Materialists
2025 · Celine Song
A young, ambitious New York City matchmaker finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
In common: Drama · Romance
Disobedience
2018 · Sebastián Lelio
New York photographer Ronit flies to London after learning about the death of her estranged father. Ronit is returning to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for her ch
In common: Drama · Romance
After Everything
2023 · Castille Landon
Besieged by writer’s block and the crushing breakup with Tessa, Hardin travels to Portugal in search of a woman he wronged in the past – and to find himself. Hoping to win back Tessa, he realizes he n
In common: Drama · Romance
Nine 1/2 Weeks
1986 · Adrian Lyne
An erotic story about a woman, the assistant of an art gallery, who gets involved in an impersonal affair with a man. She barely knows about his life, only about the sex games they play, so the relati
In common: Drama · Romance
Emmanuelle
1974 · Just Jaeckin
An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.
In common: Drama · Romance
Newness
2017 · Drake Doremus
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Ultimate Gift
2007 · Michael O. Sajbel
When his wealthy grandfather finally dies, Jason Stevens fully expects to benefit when it comes to the reading of the will. But instead of a sizable inheritance, Jason receives a test, a series of tas
In common: Drama · Romance
Blue Is the Warmest Color
2013 · Abdellatif Kechiche
Adèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks h
In common: Drama · Romance
Romeo + Juliet
1996 · Baz Luhrmann
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 lo
In common: Drama · Romance
Benedetta
2021 · Paul Verhoeven
A 17th-century nun becomes entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair with a novice. But it is Benedetta's shocking religious visions that threaten to shake the Church to its core.
In common: Drama · Romance
Purple Hearts
2022 · Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
In common: Drama · Romance
Five Feet Apart
2019 · Justin Baldoni
Seventeen-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control — all of which get put to the test when she me
In common: Drama · Romance
Indecent Proposal
1993 · Adrian Lyne
John Gage offers a down-on-his-luck yuppie husband $1 million for the opportunity to spend the night with the man's wife.
In common: Drama · Romance
Sex and Lucía
2001 · Julio Medem
Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.
In common: Drama · Romance
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
2022 · Sophie Hyde
Nancy Stokes, a retired schoolteacher, is pretty sure she has never had good sex. Now that her husband has died, she is determined to take a tour of sexual vistas that until now she has only imagined.
In common: Drama · Romance
The Reader
2008 · Stephen Daldry
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants i
In common: Drama · Romance
The Fault in Our Stars
2014 · Josh Boone
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a patient named Augustus W
In common: Drama · Romance
The Bridges of Madison County
1995 · Clint Eastwood
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
In common: Drama · Romance
Slumdog Millionaire
2008 · Danny Boyle
A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
In common: Drama · Romance
Before Sunset
2004 · Richard Linklater
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of
In common: Drama · Romance
Leaving Las Vegas
1995 · Mike Figgis
Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-i
In common: Drama · Romance
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
1993 · Lasse Hallström
Gilbert Grape is a small-town young man with a lot of responsibility. Chief among his concerns are his mother, who is so overweight that she can't leave the house, and his mentally impaired younger br
In common: Drama · Romance
One Wild Moment
2015 · Jean-François Richet
Antoine and Laurent, old friends, spend their vacation in Corsica with their respective daughters: seventeen-year-old Louna and eighteen-year-old Marie. One evening at the beach, Louna seduces Laurent
In common: Drama · Romance
Waves
2019 · Trey Edward Shults
A controlling father’s attempts to ensure that his two children succeed in high school backfire after his son experiences a career-ending sports injury. Their familial bonds are eventually placed unde
In common: Drama · Romance
The Man from Earth
2007 · Richard Schenkman
A departing professor gathers his closest colleagues for an intimate farewell, but the night takes an unexpected turn when he shares a stunning secret about his past. As the conversation unfolds, skep
In common: Drama · Science Fiction
Little Women
1994 · Gillian Armstrong
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
In common: Drama · Romance
Anna Karenina
2012 · Joe Wright
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. Pete
In common: Drama · Romance
Popular Drama series
Breaking Bad
2008 · Michelle MacLaren
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
2023 · Kazutaka Yamanaka
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s m
The Chosen
2019 · Tyler Thompson
The life of Christ through the eyes of those who encountered him.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
2025 · Park Sang-hyun
In Jeju, a spirited girl and a steadfast boy's island story blossoms into a lifelong tale of setbacks and triumphs — proving love endures across time.
