5 Gripping Movies Like The Last Sunrise to Watch Tonight

The greatest romantic movies understand that love rarely arrives without a shadow. They mix tenderness with heartbreak, and Amazon Prime’s “The Last Sunrise” leans into that contrast with confidence. Directed by Carlson Young, the romantic drama stars Maia Reficco as Ry Pera, a gifted young dancer whose carefully mapped-out future collapses when she learns she has epilepsy. Faced with the choice between a lifetime of medication and a surgery she fears, Ry opts for the medicine — only to find its side effects leaving her emotionally dulled and detached from the life she once wanted.

Everything changes when Ry’s mother, Isolde (Eva Longoria), relocates them to Mallorca, Spain. There, Ry is pulled into a more open, spontaneous world than the one she has known, forming friendships with locals and slowly rediscovering parts of herself. She also meets Juliàn (Fernando Lindez), a charming fisherman who may be able to reach the feelings she thought she had lost. But romance is only one piece of the story: Ry is still grappling with her medical condition, Juliàn’s family business is under financial pressure and indebted to dangerous people, and Isolde’s company may be tied to the very problems threatening his family.

For viewers drawn to romantic dramas where love blooms against the backdrop of private pain, “The Last Sunrise” offers plenty to sit with. If it leaves you looking for more films about young romance, illness, emotional risk, and lives suddenly redirected, these five movies like “The Last Sunrise” should be next on your watchlist.

One note before diving in, though: this article discusses major plot points from several of these films. In other words, spoilers ahoy.

If “The Last Sunrise” worked for you but you wished it carried an even heavier dose of heartbreak, Adam Shankman’s 2002 tearjerker “A Walk to Remember” is an essential follow-up. Starring Mandy Moore as Jamie Sullivan and Shane West as Landon Carter, the film adapts Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name while updating the story to a more contemporary setting.

Landon begins the film as the familiar popular high school rebel: arrogant, careless, and not especially concerned with the people he hurts. Jamie, by contrast, is the sheltered daughter of a reverend, known more for her quiet conviction than for fitting in. The two are brought together through a school play, though Jamie warns Landon not to fall in love with her. Naturally, this being a romantic drama, their differences only make the connection stronger. The devastating complication is that Jamie has been privately living with incurable leukemia.

It is a classic tragic romance, and it remains one of the most emotionally direct entries in the genre. The film also features Daryl Hannah and Peter Coyote in key parental roles, alongside early appearances from Lauren German and Paz de la Huerta, giving the story a richer ensemble than its simple premise might suggest.

For a film that brings more humor to the intersection of love and illness without losing its emotional force, “The Last Sunrise” fans should consider Stephanie Laing’s 2018 Netflix romantic drama “Irreplaceable You.” The story follows Allie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Sam (Michiel Huisman), childhood sweethearts who seem built for a lifelong happy ending. Their wedding is approaching, their bond feels unshakable, and everything points toward forever — until Allie receives an unexpected terminal cancer diagnosis that overturns every plan they had made.

A strong romantic movie often depends on the people surrounding the central couple, and “Irreplaceable You” has an unusually stacked supporting cast. Mbatha-Raw, known to Marvel viewers for “Loki,” and Huisman, familiar from “Game of Thrones,” share an easy warmth, while Christopher Walken, Kate McKinnon, Brian Tyree Henry, and Steve Coogan help give the film texture beyond its central romance.

What makes “Irreplaceable You” stand out is the way it balances grief with generosity. The film acknowledges the terror of a love story suddenly given an end date, but it also finds light in the friendships Allie forms with other cancer patients. At its heart, this is not only a movie about staying in love; it is about preparing the person you love to keep living after the story you shared comes to a close.

Based on John Green’s bestselling novel, Josh Boone’s “The Fault in Our Stars” is another romantic drama in which cancer is not a twist so much as a constant presence. The film raises the emotional stakes by centering on two teenagers dealing with serious illness: Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley), whose thyroid cancer has spread to her lungs, and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), a cancer survivor she meets at a support group. Their circle also includes Isaac (Nat Wolff), Gus’ friend who is facing his own medical crisis. Even the book that becomes central to the plot is cancer-themed, written by the reclusive and bitter Peter van Houten, played with sharp cruelty by Willem Dafoe.

That sounds like a lot of sorrow, and “The Fault in Our Stars” never pretends otherwise. Instead, it builds the fragility of life into every part of the story, moving from Indianapolis to Amsterdam as Hazel and Gus chase answers, beauty, and a little time together. Somehow, the movie finds room for wit, romance, and devastation in equal measure, with Woodley delivering a particularly nuanced performance in a role that could easily have been overwhelmed by sentiment.

“The Fault in Our Stars” is a believable, touching story about people who find love even in the pits of darkest despair. You might not want it for lighthearted amusement, but if you’re in the market for a particularly thought-provoking romantic drama and one of the best teen romance movies of all time to have a good cry over, it’s an excellent choice.

Justin Baldoni’s “Five Feet Apart” is about two young people who both live with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary condition that damages internal organs and wrecks the immune system. On top of this, Will Newman (Cole Sprouse) has a dangerous bacterial infection that would risk Stella Grant’s (Haley Lu Richardson) important organ transplant surgery should she contract it. So, of course they fall for each other.

Despite its grim subject matter, “Five Feet Apart” is arguably the most straightforward romantic drama on this list, dealing with its subject matter in a similar fashion to “The Last Sunrise.” While not directly based on a true story, the title refers to the minimum “six-foot rule” distance that two cystic fibrosis patients must abide by, which the main couple rebels against in their own small way.

It should be noted that the six-foot rule that acts as the film’s central plot device doesn’t actually work the way “Five Feet Apart” depicts it, since it only applies to outdoors interactions. Still, if you remember not to take medical advice from a romantic teen drama, it’s a moving story about an impossible situation.

Thea Sharrock’s “Me Before You” takes place in a small town in England. Here, stoic former banker Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) resides in a massive manor with his parents Camilla (Janet McTeer) and Steven (Charles Dance), bound in a wheelchair after an accident left him paralyzed. When the bubbly Lou Clark (Emilia Clarke) is hired as Will’s new caretaker, she slowly brings him out of his shell and shows him that he can still enjoy life. But is the couple’s emerging love story enough to keep Will going, especially when he harbors suspicions that Lou would be far happier with a man who has full mobility?

Based on Jojo Moyes’ book of the same title and adapted for screen by Moyes herself, “Me Before You” combines “The Last Sunshine”-style romantic drama with the class disparity themes of “My Fair Lady” and the caretaker buddy comedy-drama of “The Intouchables” to great effect — and even greater tragedy.