Film

Jennifer: A Woman’s Story

A widow inherits her husband's shipping empire and discovers she's not prepared to surrender it to the men circling the boardroom. This 1979 TV movie is a competent drama about power, grief, and the particular loneliness of being the only woman in a room full of sharks. It's for anyone who enjoys seeing Elizabeth Montgomery in a role that demands steel.

If you liked this

Dynasty1981

The definitive wealthy-widow-navigating-corporate-intrigue show. Cristal Carrington enters a dynasty and immediately becomes the center of every power struggle. If you enjoyed the boardroom stakes in Jennifer, Dynasty scales everything up—the wealth, the betrayals, the glamour.

But It's campy and unashamed about it. If you want gritty realism, you'll find Dynasty increasingly difficult to take seriously as it goes on.

Dynasty poster

The Poseidon Adventure1972

A large ensemble disaster film with strong female characters who refuse to be helpless. Shelley Winters and Carol Lynley are front and center in the survival stakes. Same era, same sensibility about women's competence under pressure.

But It's a disaster movie first and a character study second. If you want intimate drama, this swings toward spectacle.

The Poseidon Adventure poster

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore1974

Ellen Burstyn as a widow who refuses to be defined by her loss. She seizes agency and builds her own life. The same late-70s tone of female self-determination, just on a smaller, more personal scale than Jennifer's corporate stage.

But It moves slowly and is more interested in emotional texture than plot momentum. Some viewers find that frustrating.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Jennifer: A Woman’s Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Johnny Belinda1948

Both are stories about women asserting control over their own destinies against institutions (legal, social, corporate) designed to override their will. The specifics differ wildly, but the core struggle is identical.

Jane Wyman won the Oscar for playing a deaf woman fighting her community's prejudices and a man's assault on her autonomy. It's a 1948 film about a woman's right to bodily autonomy and her own choices. The moral engine is the same as Jennifer—a woman refusing to be silenced or controlled.

But It's a melodrama and operates in that register. The emotional stakes are huge and deliberately underscored. Modern audiences sometimes find that register hard to enter.

Johnny Belinda poster
More like this (6)

All That Jazz1979

Released the same year as Jennifer, it's a fevered meditation on ambition, control, and what you're willing to sacrifice for power. Different setting entirely—a Broadway choreographer instead of a shipbuilder's widow—but the same hunger to survive on your own terms.

But It's deliberately artificial and stylized, almost hallucinatory. If you want naturalistic drama, this will feel alienating.

All That Jazz poster

The Accused1988

Jodie Foster as a woman fighting a system designed to dismiss her. Like Jennifer, it's about a woman going up against entrenched male authority and having to prove her worth in a room that doesn't want to listen.

But It deals with sexual violence directly and graphically. The subject matter is genuinely disturbing, not just dramatic.

The Accused poster

Kramer vs. Kramer1979

Another 1979 film about custody battles and reinvention. Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman in a domestic drama that earned serious awards recognition. The same year, the same emotional territory—people fighting for what matters to them.

But The gender politics are dated in ways that might make modern viewers uncomfortable. It feels of its time in ways that don't always hold up.

Kramer vs. Kramer poster

Executive Suite1954

The granddaddy of corporate drama. A huge ensemble of executives battling for control of a corporation after the chairman dies. It's shot in technicolor and full of intrigue. Jennifer essentially remakes this structure for a female protagonist.

But It's long, it's slow, and the color grading can look garish now. The pacing assumes a theater audience with time to spare.

Executive Suite poster

Lifeguard1976

Sam Elliott in a small, character-driven story about a man choosing who he wants to be. It shares Jennifer's low-key, deeply felt approach to personal stakes and the cost of ambition. Both are intimate despite their surface plots.

But Almost nothing happens, by conventional plot standards. If you need momentum and incident, this will feel aimless.

Lifeguard poster

Ghostwatch1992

Both are television productions that swing for something more ambitious than the form was expected to deliver. Both treat their medium seriously and refuse to coast on familiar beats. Both trust their audience and their own craft.

A BBC television play that looks like a live paranormal investigation broadcast, shot as found-footage decades before that became a genre. It's formally inventive, deeply uncomfortable, and proves that TV drama in the late 80s and early 90s was doing surprising structural things. If you loved the bold confidence of 70s/80s television, this is a shock to the system.

But It's structured to be deeply unsettling and the horror builds slowly. Some viewers found it genuinely disturbing when it aired, and it holds that power. It's not entertainment in a comfortable sense.

Ghostwatch poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

Vertical Roll