Last Updated on March 6, 2024
Whether you are single or married, romance is always welcome! So snuggle up with your partner or grab a bag of snacks, choose a great movie from our list and lose yourself in a world where attraction, longing and love comes first.
1. The Notebook (2004)
In 1940, two teenagers meet in South Carolina and fall in love. But since Noah Calhoun is poor, Allison “Allie” Hamilton’s wealthy parents cause a rift between them. The lovers regret the breakup but Allie’s family and World War II keep them apart.
Years later, the now-engaged Allie returns to Carolina to be with Noah forever. In the present day, the elderly Noah reads their love story from a notebook to Allie, who has dementia, so that she can remember their life together.
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2. Titanic (1997)
This epic love story follows a forbidden love that blossoms on the doomed RMS Titanic. Jack, a poor artist, convinces Rose, an upper class girl stuck in a loveless engagement, not to kill herself. They discover that they are soulmates but Rose’s violent fiancé will stop at nothing to destroy them – not even when the ship hits an iceberg and starts to sink.
3. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Graduates Harry Burns and Sally Albright meet in 1977 when they share a drive to New York City to start their respective careers. They discover that they have very different ideas about relationships and upon arrival, they separate on unfriendly terms.
Over the next 12 years, they keep running into each other, facing the same emotional obstacles and relationships with other people. But every time they meet, their attraction grows stronger.
4. Pride & Prejudice (2005)
During the 18th century in rural England, the five Bennet sisters are under pressure to find suitable marriages. So when the newly-arrived wealthy bachelor Charles Bingley holds a ball to meet the locals, the Bennet family attends.
At this event, Elizabeth Bennet meets Bingley’s friend, Mr. Darcy, whom she feels has too much pride. While they cannot deny their attraction to each other, Elizabeth must learn to move past her prejudice and the gossip to see that his love for her is real.
5. Love Jones (1997)
Poet Darius Lovehall gives readings at a classy nightclub. One evening, right before he’s set to go on stage, Darius encounters gifted photographer Nina Mosley.
He aggressively pursues her but even after they spend a night together, neither are sure if the match is a good one. Darius and Nina have to overcome breakups, arguments and ex-lovers to find the answer.
6. The Best Man (1999)
Best man Harper has a secret. In college he had slept with Mia, the bride-to-be, while she was already in a relationship with Lance, the groom. He tries his best to keep a lid on things. But Harper had written a book about his college days and the night before the wedding, Lance gets his hands on a copy.
This leads to violence, old tensions resurfacing, and Lance calling off the wedding. Harper has to find a way to save his best friend’s happiness by convincing him to marry Mia.
7. Atonement (2007)
In 1935, Briony Tallis is a 13-year-old English girl from a wealthy family. While spying on her older sister’s trysts with the housekeeper’s son, Briony mistakes their love for assaults. After their cousin is attacked by an unknown assailant, Briony’s testimony causes her sister’s lover, the innocent Robbie, to be arrested for rape.
Her sister never forgives her and Robbie’s life is ruined after going to prison. After he dies from wounds sustained during the Battle of France, Briony feels that the only way she can atone for her actions is to write a book where her sister and Robbie have a happy ending.
8. A Star Is Born (2018)
Ally is a talented singer-songwriter struggling to get noticed. But one night she meets Jack Maine, a famous country rock singer. He’s so impressed by her that he invites her to perform with him on stage. Her career takes off and they fall in love.
But as Ally wins awards, Jack’s alcoholism is ruining his career and their relationship. Fearing that Jack’s public spectacles will destroy his new star, Ally’s record producer confronts Jack with tragic results.
9. The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Hazel and Gus are two teenagers who meet and fall in love at a cancer support group. After they read each other’s favorite books, Gus surprises her with plane tickets to Amsterdam. He reveals that he has managed to track down the author of her book who had mysteriously vanished in Amsterdam after the novel was released.
Hazel, who identifies with the cancer-stricken girl in the book, is happy to go. Once in Amsterdam, their feelings deepen but they also experience tragic setbacks and a mean author with his own painful past.
10. Her (2013)
Depressed by his impending divorce, Theodore Twombly buys an operating system with an ever-evolving AI called Samantha. At first, Samantha convinces him to sign his divorce papers and to go on a blind date. But when Theodore falls in love with the AI, she reciprocates.
But her strange attempts at intimacy and the fact that she also loves hundreds of other people bothers Theodore. He and his friend Amy, who had also fallen for an AI, get together to support each other when all the AIs leave Earth.
11. Call Me By Your Name (2017)
During the summer of 1983, 17-year-old Elio lives in rural Italy and enjoys time with his friends. But when a 24-year-old American student, Oliver, arrives to live with the family over the summer, Elio’s life changes forever. As the two spend more time together, their attraction grows stronger and they start a relationship in secret.
The holiday romance comes to an end when Oliver and Elio, with his family’s blessing, spend a few days together on their own to say goodbye.
12. Carol (2015)
Therese Belivet is an aspiring photographer stuck in a department store job and she cannot imagine marrying her tepid boyfriend. One day she meets a glamorous customer named Carol who invites her to lunch.
Soon, Carol brings her gifts, supports her photography career, and takes Therese on a surprise train trip during which they reveal their true affection for each other. While the relationship comes at a cost for both women, they find themselves and each other in this Christmas romance story.
13. Dirty Dancing (1987)
This evergreen classic follows the romance of Frances “Baby” Houseman, a doctor’s daughter, and Johnny Castle, a dance instructor. Baby’s family vacations at Kellerman’s, the resort where Johnny works. When she learns that his dance partner, Penny, needs an abortion but also cannot miss an important competition, Baby offers to stand in for her.
The couple fall in love as they dance together but when Baby’s father treats a very ill Penny after the abortion was botched, he wrongfully believes Johnny got her pregnant and tries to break up his daughter’s relationship.
14. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are hired to herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain for the summer. After a drunken tryst one night, Ennis tries to keep it a one-time thing but they still develop a deep bond.
The men separate, and settle down with wives and children. But four years later a chance encounter rekindles their painful attraction and this time Jack insists that they create a life together. Ennis’s reluctance to lose his children has tragic results.
15. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Benjamin Button is born with a curious affliction. He enters the world looking like an old man. Abandoned at an orphanage, his caregivers soon realize that he is aging in reverse.
During his “childhood” he meets seven-year-old Daisy and over the years, they meet several times with Benjamin growing younger. When they reach a compatible age, they fall in love and have a daughter but feeling that his condition makes him a bad father, Benjamin leaves. But he has underestimated Daisy’s dedication to him.
16. Like Crazy (2011)
When Anna Gardner, a British exchange student, meets Jacob Helm at a Los Angeles college, the couple fall in love. Anna spends the summer after graduation with Jacob, overstaying her expired student visa. As a result, she is deported and banned from entering the United States. Anna and Jacob cannot forget each other and do everything to reunite. But they also learn the hard way that absence does not always make the heart grow fonder.
17. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
When Romeo and Juliet meet at a party, their love is instant and passionate. But they marry in secret, hoping to avoid the ire of their families; the Capulets and Montagues who sometimes clash violently.
The lovers plan to run away but Romeo is forced into hiding after he kills Juliet’s cousin for murdering his best friend. Juliet is told by her family that she will get married to another man. With the help of a sympathetic priest, Juliet fakes her own death but after Romeo mistakes her for dead and fatally poisons himself, Juliet takes her own life.
18. About Time (2013)
On Tim’s 21’st birthday, his father reveals that both of them can travel back in time. His father cautions him that this gift is not a joyride and it comes with consequences.
Tim is excited, however, and tries to improve his love life and also to fix sad events. But as he discovers, messing with the timeline threatens his children and thwarts life lessons. Tim learns to appreciate the present and the love he shares with his wife and family.
19. The Shape of Water (2017)
Elisa Esposito lives a mundane life as a cleaner in Baltimore, Maryland. But her workplace is a government facility that has many secrets. When a mysterious creature is captured and brought to the laboratory, Elisa forms a romantic bond with the amphibian humanoid.
His captors decide to kill the unusual man and vivisect him to possibly use his biology to advance technology. With the help of other cleaners, a Russian spy, and her odd neighbor, Elisa hatches a plan to free him.
20. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
New York City firm Lacuna erases bad memories. When their relationship goes south, Joel Barish and Clementine Kruczynski decide to wipe each other from their minds. While Clementine’s procedure goes smoothly, Joel starts to resist as he encounters flashbacks to happier times. After Joel’s mind is also cleaned, he runs into Clementine and unaware of their past, they fall in love and go on a date.
21. La La Land (2016)
Mia Dolan is a struggling actress in Los Angeles and Sebastian “Seb” Wilder is a jazz musician freshly fired from his job. Over their mutual despair, they bond and encourage each other to follow their dreams. But when they move in together, Mia keeps failing at auditions and Seb has to freeze his dream of opening a jazz club to take a job to support them. After a big argument, they break up.
However, Seb helps Mia to land a big audition and tells her to keep fighting for her dreams. Years later, they run into each other again and Mia is a successful actress and Seb has opened a popular jazz bar.
22. Casablanca (1942)
In 1941, ex-gun runner Rick Blaine lives in Casablanca. His nightclub is the hub for German and French officials, and desperate refugees trying to slip into the United States. When Rick holds “letters of transit” for a crook, things heat up. Knowing that the papers give anyone the right to move freely around German-occupied Europe and to Portugal, the authorities try to strongarm Rick into handing them over.
But when his ex-lover, Ilsa Lund, arrives and tells him she needs the letters to escape to America with her fugitive husband, it tears open old passions and secrets for Rick and Ilsa.
23. The Bodyguard (1992)
Not everyone loves Rachel Marron, who is a superstar in the world of acting and music. A stalker is sending her death threats and after a bomb rips through her dressing room, Marron’s manager hires ex-Secret Service agent Frank Farmer as her bodyguard.
Frank faces an uphill battle to keep her alive with Marron resenting his protection, the distraction of their growing attraction, and as they discover, the relentless killer was hired by somebody close to home.
24. Testament of Youth (2015)
In 1914, Vera Brittain and her brother Edwars are looking forward to studying at Oxford University. She’s aware that both her brother’s friends, Roland and Victor, like her.
But when World War I breaks out, their youth treats the experience as something exciting. Vera convinces her father to allow her brother to go off to war. But as she discovers, the horrors of war leave nothing intact, not her family nor the tragic romance with both friends.
25. Before Sunrise (1995)
This love story follows Jesse and Celine as they walk around Vienna, two total strangers killing time as they wait for the next flight. As their discussions become more candid, their attraction grows and they talk about why their previous relationships had failed.
Near the end of the night, they make an unusual pact. They agree to separate and without exchanging any contact details, to meet again in six months at the train station where they first disembarked in Vienna.
26. Anna Karenina (2012)
This intricately woven tale provides a look at Russian high society during the 1870s. Anna Karenina is a socialite married to a Count. When she meets another Count, Alexei Vronsky, they start an affair.
Soon, Anna realizes that she’s pregnant with her lover’s child and he urges her to abandon her marriage but when she goes with Vronsky to Italy, high society shuns her. After being dismissed by her husband and suspecting her lover of infidelity, the heartbroken Anna makes a desperate decision.
27. The Holiday (2006)
When Iris Simpkins and Amanda Woods both experience romantic disasters, they decide to swap homes for two weeks. While on this holiday, they meet each other’s friends and family. In particular, Amands falls for Iris’s brother while Iris bonds with a male friend of one of Amanda’s neighbors. Both guys also have painful baggage but the two couples find healing and love, despite their misgivings.
28. The Spectacular Now (2013)
Sutter Keely is a popular 18-year-old who drinks too much. After blacking out on somebody’s front lawn, he meets Aimee Finecky who is a sheltered and innocent girl his age. He makes her drunk for the first time and also becomes Aimee’s first lover.
Aimee tries to keep him on the right path but Sutter falls apart after he meets his long-absent father who is a deceitful alcoholic and he takes it out on her. By the time Sutter tries to turn things around, Aimee is at college and no longer enamored by him.
29. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
In this eighteenth century romance, a gentlewoman named Héloïse refuses to have her portrait painted for suitors as she doesn’t want to be married. Her mother, having promised her to a Milanese nobleman, hires a painter named Marianne.
Marianne must pose as Héloïse’s paid companion and paint her portrait in secret. But unable to betray their growing bond, Marianne tells Héloïse the truth. Knowing that she’s to be married off and there’s no way to stop it, the pair spend their last days together enjoying a beautiful but bittersweet romance.
30. Love Actually (2003)
In this popular romance tale, several short stories follow different couples as they meet, fall in love, grow apart or learn to trust again after a deep betrayal. All the couples are linked to each other, either through family, their workplace or the overall storyline. You can look forward to appearances by favorites such as Rowan Atkinson, Kiera Knightly, and Hugh Grant.