Romance movies have been one of the most successful genres in cinema history. That’s one of the reasons some of them never get the recognition they deserve, or become forgotten with time, as there are too many to count. Here are 10 romance movies that are worth checking out, ranked.
10 Long Shot (2019)
How can a movie made in the last five years be already forgotten? That’s what has happened with Long Shot, a charming movie with fun, romantic performances by both Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron. Rogen plays Fred Flarsky, a journalist who is hired by Secretary of State, Charlotte Field (Theron), to write her speeches on her campaign to become President. They know each other from the past, as she was his childhood crush. This is a funny movie, where Theron proves she can do comedy as good or better than action, and with a great whoever-thought-of-this-deserves-a-raise scene, where Flarsky and Charlotte drop Molly, and she gets called to solve an international incident while being as high as a kite.
About taking the role, Theron told Marie Claire: “When you do something that’s outside your wheelhouse, you naturally function from a place of fear a little bit,” she says. “And Seth is a very confident writer, actor, and director. He steps into the space with so much confidence that it’s intimidating. But he is also so available, and I realized that I could fully trust him and that he had my back.”
9 About Time (2013)
About Time is a romantic comedy with a twist, as the lead character, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), has the power to go back in time in his own life. He uses this power not for good, but to find and fall in love with a beautiful girl, Mary (Rachel McAdams in one of her best movies), whom he has met in a restaurant in the dark. Written and directed by Richard Curtis of Love Actually fame, the movie is a charming rom-com, but it’s also a sweet movie about fathers and sons, one that proved that Gleeson could be a lead character in any movie.
8 She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Jones) is a beautiful artist with three lovers, Jamie (Redmond Hicks), Greer (John Terrell), and Mars (Spike Lee). She doesn’t know with whom to have a happily ever after, so the guys start to pitch themselves to her (and trash the other suitors a bit) in some funny vignettes. She’s Gotta Have It was Spike Lee’s first film ever, and it already showed some of the things the director would become known for, from an all-Black cast to a unique sense of humor, and, as always when he was young, Lee as one of the lead actors.
7 The Lunchbox (2013)
In Mumbai, there’s a lunchbox system, where messengers pick the food from the worker’s home and bring it to the office still warm. When it’s been eaten, the container is sent back home. The Lunchbox uses this real-life procedure to create its love story, as widower Saajan (Irrfan Khan) receives the food cooked by Ila that should’ve been delivered to her husband.
Saajan likes the food so much he decides to put a note on the container, and Ila reads it when the container goes back home. From then on, they start to message each other through the containers while he’s eating all her delicious food. This Indian film is all charm, and romanticism, as the lead characters form a connection through food and letters, while never seeing each other, and the movie delivers a sweet, hopeful ending.
6 Sliding Doors (1998)
Sliding Doors has a great concept for a film, as audiences see what happens to Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) when she catches her train, and also when she misses that same train, getting to watch both versions of her life. It’s a great movie for fans of Everything Everywhere All at Once, and also a unique romantic film, as audiences see how different Helen’s future is when she continues with Gerry (John Lynch), who is cheating on her, and when she starts a new relationship with James (John Hannah has never been better).
It’s one of the first multiverse films ever made, and the “what if” concept makes it for a different kind of romantic film, one where Paltrow is supposed to be British, and we believe her accent.
5 But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
But I’m a Cheerleader is all about Megan (Natasha Lyonne in one of her first starring roles), a cheerleader with a boyfriend she doesn’t like kissing that much, and who is too touchy with her friends, making everyone around her believe she’s a lesbian. Her parents decide to send her to a rehabilitation camp to learn how to be straight, and there, Megan finds a new group of friends while falling in love with another woman, Graham (Clea DuVall).
The film is pretty funny in denouncing what people in the '90s thought was gay in a satirical kind of way, and the performances by everyone involved, but specially Lyonne and DuVall, make it a more than worth it film to watch.
4 Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Barefoot in the Park is one of the best classic comedy movies of the 1960s. This story is all about Paul (Robert Redford) and Corie (Jane Fonda), two newlyweds who discover that they might be too different for their love to survive. Adapted from a Neil Simon play, the couple looks mismatched, and yet it’s easy to believe they’re going to make it, as everything that happens to them has a fun, charming, bubbly point of view, and with an off-the-charts chemistry between the two leads.
The title makes reference to the free-spirited Corie, who might go to Washington Square Park without her shoes, something that might be uncomfortable for her husband Paul.
3 Enough Said (2013)
Enough Said tells a middle-aged love story between Albert (James Gandolfini) and Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss), in a sweet, funny, romantic comedy. Both actors are great, and director Nicole Holofcener knows how to extract the best of them, especially Gandolfini, in a role that’s very far from the kind of intense, almost-violent characters he was used to playing.
About working with Gandolfini, director Holofcener told SBS: "It was his combination of being very focused and serious and also acting like a crazy, foolish clown that we all fell in love with. He improvised but was scared of coming to a comedy with Julia, as he had a very slow pace and she does not. I think he felt he had to match wits with her and be as fast. But once he realized everyone was appreciating exactly who he was and what he was bringing, he would relax and be hilarious in his own way.”
2 Like Crazy (2011)
Like Crazy tells the love story between American Jacob (Anton Yelchin) and Brit Anna (Felicity Jones). When she decides to stay in the States for more time with him, even though her student visa is expiring, she creates the biggest obstacle to their love, bureaucracy, and trying for a long-distance relationship instead.
Director Drake Doremus is a specialist in showing the start of love, and making every look, caressing, and smile count, so that audiences are able to understand how deeply in love Jacob and Anna are. Both actors are also great, making for one of the best performances in Anton Yelchin’s (RIP) career, and being the breakout film for Jones, while even the third wheel of their love story is future star, Jennifer Lawrence. The movie has some bittersweet moments, but it’s a great representation of what young love can be.
1 Ninotchka (1939)
Ninotchka tells the story of the aforementioned character, played by the great Greta Garbo; a Russian staying in Paris who falls in love with a capitalist, Leo (Melvyn Douglas), discovering that the West might have some good things in it, like love. This film was Garbo’s first comedy, and it was sold as such, with ads even saying this film was the first time audiences would see the actress laugh on camera.
Directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch, the movie is both a great romantic comedy, and a dig at many Communist and Russian beliefs. The script was written by none other than Billy Wilder, another Hall of Fame future director, and you can already see his style and jokes in every word Garbo and Douglas say. Maybe because of how old it is, the film has been forgotten as one of the best romance movies ever so, if you have two hours, watch it, you won’t regret it.