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Movies like Housekeeping

Key Features:
Family drama, Sisterhood, Small town, Pacific Northwest, 1950s, Abandonment, Coming-of-age, Eccentricity
Tone:
restrained, poetic
Target Audience:
Indie film enthusiasts, Drama lovers, Literary adaptations
Emotional Arc:
Loss → Acceptance

Housekeeping

1987-11-25
Housekeeping Poster - Find Similar Movies

In the Pacific Northwest during the 1950s, two young sisters whose mother has abandoned them wind up living with their Aunt Sylvie, whose views of the world and its conventions don't quite live up to most people's expectations.

Genres
Comedy, Drama
Cast
Christine Lahti, Sara Walker, Andrea Burchill, Anne Pitoniak, Barbara Reese, Margot Pinvidic, Bill Smillie, Wayne Robson, Betty Phillips, Karen Elizabeth Austin
Crew
Bill Forsyth, Bill Forsyth
Rating
6.5(50 votes)
HousekeepingHousekeeping
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Little Sister
6.043

After returning to her childhood home, young nun Colleen finds her old room exactly how she left it: painted black and covered in goth and metal posters. Her parents are happy enough to see her, but her brother is living as a recluse in the guesthouse since returning home from the Iraq war.



Little Women
7.3

With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.



Sisters
Sisters(2015)
6

Two disconnected sisters are summoned to clean out their childhood bedrooms before their parents sell their family home.



Lily Sometimes
5.602

After the death of her mother, a woman returns home to care for her sister.



Sister My Sister
5.803

A true story of shocking violence catapults a picturesque little town into history. The close sibling relationship between the two maids takes on a new dimension as their overbearing employer discovers a sexual fever between the two sisters.



Back Roads
5.804

A young man cares for his younger sisters after their mother is imprisoned for murdering their abusive father. When he strikes up an affair with a married woman, long-dormant family secrets bubble to the surface.



Crimes of the Heart

Three sisters try to come to grips with the meaning of their mother's suicide.



Little Women
7.9

Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.



The Girl Next Door
6.638

In a quiet suburban town in the summer of 1958, two recently orphaned sisters are placed in the care of their mentally unstable Aunt Ruth. But Ruth's depraved sense of discipline will soon lead to unspeakable acts of abuse and torture that involve her young sons, the neighborhood children, and one 12-year-old boy whose life will be changed forever.



Sunshine Cleaning
6.587

A single mother and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this off-beat dramatic comedy. In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school the mom starts an unusual business – a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service.



Our Little Sister
7.6

After the death of their estranged father, 3 adult sisters invite their teenaged half-sister to live with them.



Nutcrackers
5.789

Just as Mike is on the heels of closing the biggest deal of his career, he's pulled away from his bachelor life in the big city to a farm in rural Ohio in order to help his recently orphaned nephews find a new home.



Motherly
Motherly(2022)
6.132

Kate and her daughter Beth live alone in an isolated farmhouse in the woods, but when Kate slowly begins to suspect that something sinister is happening, her motherly instincts are put to the test.



Old People
5.663

A woman who's returned home with her two kids to attend her sister's wedding must suddenly defend their lives against older people on a killing spree.



Sweetie
Sweetie(1989)
6.005

The buttoned-down, superstitious Kay is attempting to lead a normal existence with her new boyfriend Louis. That’s until Sweetie, her rampaging, devil-may-care sister, returns home after an absence, exposing the rotten roots of their family and placing a strain on Kay and Louis’ relationship.



Little Woods
5.5

For years, Ollie has illicitly helped the struggling residents of her North Dakota oil boomtown access Canadian health care and medication. When the authorities catch on, she plans to abandon her crusade, only to be dragged in even deeper after a desperate plea for help from her sister.



Happy, Happy
5.779

A perfect housewife, who just happens to be sex-starved, struggles to keep her emotions in check when an attractive family moves in next door.



Little Accidents
5.4

In a small American coal town living in the shadow of a recent mining accident, the disappearance of a teenage boy draws three people together—a surviving miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive, and a local boy—in a web of secrets.



Roma
Roma(2018)
7.625

In 1970s Mexico City, two domestic workers help a mother of four while her husband is away for an extended period of time.



House
House(1977)
7.315

Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.



Hanging Up
5.2

Three sisters - Georgia, Eve, and Maddy - do what they do best with life, love, and lunacy on the telephone lines that bind - when their curmudgeonly father, Lou, is admitted to a Los Angeles Hospital. After years of wild living, intermittent affection, and constant phoning, he is finally threatening to die.



Gas Food Lodging
6.276

Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.



Safe Haven
7.234

A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.



Addicted to Fresno
5.222

Two co-dependent sisters, a recovering sex addict and a lonely lesbian who work as hotel maids in Fresno, go to ludicrous lengths to cover up an accidental crime.



Beneath
Beneath(2007)
5.381

Christy returns to her hometown years after a car accident that disfigured her older sister. Haunted by the accident in which she was the driver, she learns that her worst nightmares have either come true ... or are about to.



Bakery in Brooklyn
5.2

Brooklyn, New York. After the sudden death of their aunt Isabelle, Vivien and Chloe inherit her historic bakery. Vivien wants to keep up the tradition; Chloe feels that the business needs to be modernized. But when notified that they are about to be evicted, the two do not hesitate to work together to preserve the family legacy.



Scents and Sensibility

In this modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Elinor and Marianne find themselves penniless after their father’s fortune is taken away. As they look for ways to pay the bills, they encounter people who judge them and try to keep them down in the dumps. Add falling in love into the mix, and determining whom to trust becomes a mine field. Can the sisters find a balance between relying on their hearts and using good sense without losing everything they hold dear?



Nora Roberts' Montana Sky

The wealthy stock dealer bequeaths his Montana farm to the three daughters provided they would live there together at least for a year.



3 Women
3 Women(1977)
7.098

Two co-workers, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship after becoming roommates.



Starlet
Starlet(2012)
6.8

An unlikely friendship forms between 21 year-old Jane and the elderly Sadie after Jane discovers a hidden stash of money inside an object at Sadie's yard sale.



Summer 1993
7.1

After her mother's death, six-year-old Frida is sent to her uncle's family to live with them in the countryside. But Frida finds it hard to forget her mother and adapt to her new life.



Corrina, Corrina
6.7

When Manny Singer's wife dies, his young daughter Molly becomes mute and withdrawn. To help cope with looking after Molly, he hires sassy housekeeper Corrina Washington, who coaxes Molly out of her shell and shows father and daughter a whole new way of life. Manny and Corrina's friendship delights Molly and enrages the other townspeople.



Sister
Sister(2012)
6.7

A drama set at a Swiss ski resort and centered on a boy who supports his sister by stealing from wealthy guests.



Practical Magic
6.8

Sally and Gillian Owens, born into a magical family, have mostly avoided witchcraft themselves. But when Gillian's vicious boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov, dies unexpectedly, the Owens sisters give themselves a crash course in hard magic. With policeman Gary Hallet growing suspicious, the girls struggle to resurrect Angelov -- and unwittingly inject his corpse with an evil spirit that threatens to end their family line.



Don't Air Your Dirty Laundry In Public

Lupita and Toña work as housemaids at the Ruíz Palacio’s house, an aristocratic Mexican family. For a long time they have been mistreated and poorly paid. They’re now fed up with the abuse and lack of respect they get from their employers.



The Motel Life
5.7

A pair of working-class brothers flee their Reno Motel after getting involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident.



A Tale of Three Sisters

A stagnant and gloomy village in the 1980s. Reyhan, Nurhan, and Havva, three sisters were sent to town as 'besleme' (foster child and maid). Since they fail their foster parents for different reasons, they are sent back to their father's house in their poor village. Deprived of their dreams of a better life, they try to hold on to each other.



Foxfire
Foxfire(2013)
5.6

Set in the 1950s, a a group of young girls in upstate New York form their own gang.



House of Angels
5.8

In a small village in Västergötland, everything is turned upside-down when the local loner dies and his cottage is inherited by his unknown relative Fanny. She rides into town on a big black motorcycle with her androgynous boyfriend Zack, wearing black leather and spikes. When they decide to stay, Flogfält's plans to buy the cottage are upset.



Uncle Buck
6.796

Buck Russell, a lovable but slovenly bachelor, suddenly becomes the temporary caretaker of his nephew and nieces after a family emergency. His freewheeling attitude soon causes tension with his older niece Tia, loyal girlfriend Chanice and just about everyone else who crosses his path.



A Simple Story
5.9

A middle-aged woman leaves her partner and drifts back to her ex-husband, while the lives of her middle class friends intersect with her own.



Sentimental Value
7.6

Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.



Pollyanna
Pollyanna(1960)
6.936

A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.



Tokyo Twilight
7.682

Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.



Beautiful Girls
6.7

During a snowy winter in the small fictional town of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, a group of lifelong buddies hang out, drink and struggle to connect with the women who affect their decisions, dreams and desires.



Breaking Surface
6.7

Two Swedish/Norwegian half sisters go on a winter diving trip in Northern Norway, when they get trapped after a rockslide.



Landline
Landline(2017)
6.071

A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.



Family
Family(2018)
6.5

Kate Stone is career-focused with a brash attitude that keeps relationships at an arm's length. When her estranged brother calls asking her to baby-sit her tween niece Maddie, Kate reluctantly agrees to help. But baby-sitting overnight unexpectedly turns into a week, and Kate's life spins into chaos. As Maddie reveals stories of being bullied and of wanting to run away and be a Juggalo, the two form a unique bond.



Nana
Nana(2005)
6.725

Two girls named Nana meet on a train to Tokyo. Nana K. aims to reunite with her boyfriend and Nana O. hopes to make it big in the music business. Despite their differences, the pair hit it off and become roommates.



Sense and Sensibility

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his estate must pass on by law to his son from his first marriage, John and wife Fanny. But these circumstances leave Mr. Dashwood's current wife, and daughters Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, without a home and with barely enough money to live on. As Elinor and Marianne struggle to find romantic fulfillment in a society obsessed with financial and social status, they must learn to mix sense with sensibility in their dealings with both money and men.



The Other
The Other(1972)
6.5

A series of gruesome accidents plague a small American farming community in the summer of 1935, encircling two identical twin brothers and their family.



To the Stars
5.784

Under small-town scrutiny, a withdrawn farmer’s daughter forges an intimate friendship with a worldly but reckless new girl in 1960s Oklahoma.



Saint Frances
6.6

At the start of the summer, Bridget has an abortion just as she lands a much-needed job in affluent Evanston, Illinois — nannying a six-year old.



Little Boxes
6.1

It's the summer before 6th grade, and Clark is the new-in-town biracial kid in a sea of white. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act 'more black,' he fumbles to meet expectations, while his urban intellectual parents Mack and Gina also strive to adjust to small-town living. Equipped for the many inherent challenges of New York, the tight-knit family are ill prepared for the drastically different set of obstacles that their new community presents, and soon find themselves struggling to understand themselves and each other in this new suburban context.



Anne of Green Gables

At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. But they get an unexpected jolt when they're mistakenly sent a girl instead: Anne Shirley.



Stranger Things
8.486

Oona, a recent graduate in anthropology, has returned to her dead mother’s seaside cottage in southern England to prepare it for sale. Her arrival disturbs Mani, a wary vagrant who has been squatting on the property.



Girlfriends
6.6

A photographer and her best friend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.



Rambling Rose
6.138

Rose is taken in by the Hillyer family to serve as a 1930s housemaid so that she can avoid falling into a life of prostitution. Her appearence and personality is such that all men fall for her, and she knows it. She can't help herself from getting into trouble with men.



Despite Everything

Sara, Lucía, Sofía and Claudia are sisters, 4 modern women with very different personalities, who come together at their mother's funeral, after which they discover the man they've all called "dad" throughout their lives is not really their father. They embark on a quest to discover who their real fathers are, discovering more about themselves, their mother, and their lives.



Interiors
Interiors(1978)
6.8

When Eve, an interior designer, is deserted by her husband of many years, Arthur, the emotionally glacial relationships of the three grown-up daughters are laid bare. Twisted by jealousy, insecurity and resentment, Renata, a successful writer; Joey, a woman crippled by indecision; and Flyn, a budding actress; struggle to communicate for the sake of their shattered mother. But when their father unexpectedly falls for another woman, his decision to remarry sets in motion a terrible twist of fate…



Brothers
Brothers(2024)
7.083

Two young brothers are abandoned by their mother during summer of 1948, they run into the forest and survive there for seven years.



Tiny Furniture
5.641

After graduating from film school, Aura returns to New York to live with her photographer mother, Siri, and her sister, Nadine, who has just finished high school. Aura is directionless and wonders where to go next in her career and her life. She takes a job in a restaurant and tries unsuccessfully to develop relationships with men, including Keith, a chef where she works, and cult Internet star Jed.



Certain Women
6

Three strong-willed women strive to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest: a lawyer forced to subdue a troubled client; a wife and mother whose plans to construct her dream home reveal fissures in her marriage; and a lonely ranch hand who forms an ambiguous bond with a young law student.



Twin Sisters
6.8

1920s Germany. Two sisters aged six years, no sooner see their remaining parent buried when they are torn apart. Lotte goes to live with her upper middle class Dutch aunt in Holland, Anna to work as a farm hand on her German uncle's rural farm. The World War II impacts each of their lives and finally in old age they meet again.



Uptown Girls
6.872

Molly Gunn, the freewheeling daughter of a deceased rock legend, is forced to get a job when her manager steals her money. As nanny for precocious Ray, the oft ignored daughter of a music executive she learns what it means to be an adult while teaching Ray how to be a child.



How to Be a Good Wife

Paulette Van Der Beck and her husband have been running the housekeeping school of Bitche in Alsace for many years. Their mission is to train teenage girls to become the perfect housewives at a time when women were expected to be subservient to their husband. After the sudden death of her husband, Paulette discovers that the school is on the verge of bankruptcy and has to take her responsibilities. But while preparations are underway for the best housekeeping competition TV show, she and her lively students start questioning their beliefs as the nation-wide protests of May 1968 transform society around them. Reunited with her first love, André, and with the help of her eccentric stepsister Gilberte and strict nun Marie-Therese, Paulette joins forces with the schoolgirls to overcome their suppressed status and become liberated women.



The Chambermaid
6.492

Eve, a young chambermaid at a luxurious Mexico City hotel, confronts the monotony of long workdays with quiet examinations of forgotten belongings and budding friendships that nourish her newfound and determined dream for a better life.



Deidra & Laney Rob a Train

After their mother ends up in jail, two sisters turn to train robbery in order to support their family.



Microhabitat
7.6

Miso lives from day to day by housekeeping. Cigarettes and whiskey are the two things that get her through the day. As cigarette prices and rent start to rise, Miso decides to give up her house for cigarettes and whiskey, leading her to couch surf with old friends while reconsidering her place in life.



Brother and Sister
4.844

Alice and Louis are brother and sister. She is an actress; he was a teacher and poet. For more than 20 years, Alice has hated her brother. In all this time they haven’t seen one another. The death of their parents brings the siblings face to face.



Material Girls
5.3

Two wealthy sisters, both heiresses to their family's cosmetics fortune, are given a wake-up call when a scandal and ensuing investigation strip them of their wealth.



Martha Marcy May Marlene

After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.



The Whales of August

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.



Waitress
Waitress(2007)
6.7

A small town waitress stuck in a lousy marriage finds love when an exciting out-of-towner enters her life.



Miranda
Miranda(1985)
5.1

In 1950s Ferrara, a lonely innkeeper explores a series of relationships while awaiting her missing husband’s return from war.



Home
Home(2008)
6.86

Along with her husband and three children, Marthe lives in an eden of her own creation, nearly isolated from the rest of the world. The arrival of a construction vehicle, however, pierces their tranquil, hermetic existence—before long a disused highway has been re-opened, and the family finds their home situated in the midst of rush-hour traffic. While the privileges of clean air, quietude and privacy are thus denied them, Marthe remains determined to stay no matter the cost.



Gray Matters
5.8

Sam and Gray are such a well-matched pair that it is difficult to believe they are brother and sister rather than husband and wife. They both share a love of 1940s movies and dancing, and when they meet Charlie, they have something else in common: They both fall in love with her. Sam must deal with unexpected feelings of jealousy, while Gray struggles to come to terms with her sexual orientation.



Bird
Bird(2024)
7.237

12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.



Curfew
Curfew(2012)
7.3

At the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister asking him to look after his nine-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours.



Peppermint Soda
6.41

In the fall of 1963, Anne is becoming a teenager. She lives in Paris with her mother and her older sister, Frédérique. They're just back from summer at the beach with their father. School starts. A turbulent year awaits them both.



SubUrbia
SubUrbia(1997)
6.2

A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.



Inventing the Abbotts
6.285

In the 1950s, brothers Jacey and Doug Holt, who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, lovely Abbott sisters. Lady-killer Jacey alternates between Eleanor and Alice, wanting simply to break the hearts of rich young women. But sensitive Doug has a real romance with Pamela, which Jacey and the Abbott patriarch, Lloyd, both frown upon.



Auntie Mame
7

Mame Dennis, a progressive and independent woman of the 1920s, is left to care for her nephew Patrick after his wealthy father dies. Conflict ensues when the executor of the father's estate objects to the aunt's lifestyle and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school.



The Baby-Sitters Club
5.351

Seven junior-high-school girls organize a daycare camp for children while at the same time experiencing classic adolescent growing pains.



An Autumn Romance
7.2

When librarian Taylor Harris suddenly loses her job, she decides to visit her brother in a small town in Montana. There, she gets involved in the fight to help save her brother's hotel from tycoon Joel Sheenan, who wants to renovate it.



Safe
Safe(1995)
6.949

Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.



Fried Green Tomatoes
7.682

Amidst her own personality crisis, a southern housewife meets an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in 1920s Whistle Stop, Alabama.



Sibling Rivalry
5.147

Marjorie Turner is suffocating in her marriage and day to day life. An extramarital affair with a stranger seems to be the answer until her paramour has a fatal heart attack, and turns out to be less of a stranger than she could have thought...



A Map of the World

School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's child, the town turns against her and Alice finds herself fighting charges of child abuse.



The Help
The Help(2011)
8.2

Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.



Melancholia
7.2

Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.



The Daytrippers
6.459

Eliza D'Amico thinks her marriage to Louis is going great until she finds a mysterious love note to her husband. Concerned, she goes to her mother for advice. Eliza, her parents, her sister Jo, and Jo's boyfriend all pile into the station wagon and go to the city to confront Louis with the letter. On the way, the five explore their relations with each other and meet many interesting people.



Small Apartments
5.842

When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.



Wine Country
5.482

A group of friends head to the land of oaky Chardonnays and big, bold Cabernet Sauvignons for one member of the squad’s 50th birthday party.



Mothers' Instinct
6.895

Housewives Alice and Celine are best friends and neighbours who seem to have it all. However, when a tragic accident shatters the harmony of their lives, guilt, suspicion and paranoia begin to unravel their sisterly bond.



French Women
5.757

A story about 11 girls living in Paris. Each of them has its own problems: career, love life, children. Every girl has their complexes and virtues. They always look elegant, hiding their inner feelings. Will they reach all the goals and overcome all their difficulties?



Teen's Confessions
6.3

Four sisters work together to raise rent money after learning they have to move to another neighborhood in this coming-of-age drama based on the series.



Straight A's
5.2

Pressured by his late mother's ghost to return home to the family he abandoned, a former addict grabs a bag of pills and a sack of marijuana and hits the road to Shreveport.



Women in Love
6.5

Growing up in the sheltered confines of a 1920s English coal-mining community, free-spirited sisters Gudrun and Ursula explore erotic love with a wealthy playboy and a philosophical educator, with cataclysmic results for all four.

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