The Best Romantic Movies That Will Make You Believe in Love

We’ve been through a lot lately. Hate, fear, division, devastation. Which is why it’s now time to take the garbage of the past out to the curb and make a lot of room for more of the good stuff. Ranging from black-and-white Tinseltown dramas that perfect the Old Hollywood kiss to modern-day queer romances that tug at the tear ducts, the following films are after one thing and one thing only: love.

If violent delights have violent ends, then romantic delights so too have romantic ends. And only Baz Luhrmann can take the two ends of that spectrum and connect them in the middle to form a bloody heart. That’s exactly what the visionary director does with his swoon-worthy 1996 adaptation of the Shakespeare essential, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Watch Now

Nia Long and Larenz Tate get hot and bothered in this classic from writer and director Theodore Witcher. They play a couple whose happenstance meeting in Chicago blooms into a relationship the two can’t seem to define. Though it was a box office dud back in the ‘90s, this is one you’ll want to rekindle. Watch Now

In signature Pixar form, audiences were weeping before the events really took off in Up. In the opening sequence of the movie, we’re treated to an expedited journey through the storybook romance shared between Carl and Ellie. And though Ellie exits the storyline abruptly, her presence is felt throughout the heartwarming adventure—all the way to Paradise Falls, where she always wanted to go. Watch Now

Old Hollywood icons Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper lock lips for the better part of this 1936 Frank Borzage rom-com set in Spain. It follows a French jewel thief and the American holding onto her pearls, and, we have to say, it doesn't get much more romantic than those long, golden-age kisses. Watch Now

Rarely does a modern reboot outdo anything Judy Garland or Barbra Streisand did previously, but such is the case with 2018’s A Star Is Born. The Bradley Cooper-directed masterwork reinvigorated the enduring musical with a dazzling romance story bolstered by thrilling performances from its helmer and costar Lady Gaga. And the magic between these two? Lightning in a bottle. Watch Now

Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah star in Ron Howard’s fish-out-of-water story about a mermaid who reunites with the man she saved when he was a boy. Together on dry land, the two fall in love under the city lights of Manhattan, but are eventually are forced to make a decision: Choose love for the ocean or love for each other? The answer may surprise you. Watch Now

If you’re bored with formulaic tales of romance, look to this time-hopping British delight starring Rachel McAdams and Domhnall Gleeson, from Love Actually director Richard Curtis. Gleeson stars as a bloke who learns his armoire has time-machine powers, so he spends the film jumping back and forth through the years trying to perfect his life. It all makes for a profound and truly romantic watch. Watch Now

Love is never black and white, but Pawel Pawlikowki’s tale of impossible love is. An achingly romantic tale of star-crossed lovers that just may leave a scar, it’s set against the backdrop of the Cold War in 1950s Poland and unfolds through its two leads, Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot. If Casablanca had never walked into our bar, we’d be leaving with Cold War. Watch Now

Beautiful people, far-flung locales, jewel thieving: Could this be a pattern? Here, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant star in this Alfred Hitchcock film that toys with identity, copycats, and of course, romance in the Riviera. The suspense, however, takes a backseat to the chemistry firing between the two leads. Watch Now

Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Peter Howitt's double-scenario story about a London woman who explores two very different paths to love, both hinging on whether she catches or misses a train. Though technical-sounding, this is all just to say that love will find a way. Watch Now

As much as we enjoy a great cuppa with the crew at Central Perk, we're always up for an Irish whiskey at a bar in Dublin. Minnie Driver is Benny Hogan, a student attending university with her two best friends, falling madly in love with a hunky rugby player (Chris O'Donnell), and steamrolling her way straight into heartbreak. Buy the DVD

Grab a plus-one for Malcolm D. Lee's wedding drama starring Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, and Morris Chestnut. Precluding the walk down the aisle, the film works between timelines to reveal the secrets, hookups and friendship fractures plaguing Harper (Diggs) and his pals. But, oh, the chemistry between Lathan and Diggs. Watch Now

The previous and current tenants of a house by the sea are somehow pen-palling across time and space via a magic postbox. Sound familiar? That's because this South Korean's love story is the magical realism that inspired its underwhelming American remake, The Lake House. (This is the only version worth seeing.) Watch Now

This vibrant New Dehli affair from Mira Nair challenges the stereotype of a loveless arranged marriage, following the festivities as dozens of wedding guests fly in (emotional baggage and all) to witness the marital union of a groom and his handpicked bride. Watch Now

Lights, camera, swoon over the final installment in Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain trilogy. A highly stylized musical set in Paris that we can only imagine had an unlimited budget when it came to rhinestones, the film stars Nicole Kidman as a glittery courtesan alongside Ewan McGregor, the poet who loves her. Watch Now

Get a peek at David Gordon Green's softer side with this early work: A delicate exploration of young love starring Zooey Deschanel and Paul Schrader as small-town North Carolina couple Noel and Paul. She's a virgin, he's definitely not—together, they're doomed. Watch Now

Love is never simple in a Jane Austen narrative. In Pride & Prejudice, Mr. Darcy is a man in love with Elizabeth Bennet—but has a hard time making that known. Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen do their duty as lady and gentleman, and the dialogue in Joe Wright’s romance might make you weak in the knees. Watch Now

Character chameleon Tilda Swinton gives bored housewife a go in Luca Guadagnino’s Oscar-nominated visual feast. She's Emma, a woman whose muted desire is awakened when she meets a young chef in Italy. No judgements from us if you want to go back for seconds. Watch Now

Like the June and Johnny of Belgian bluegrass, Elise and Didier make sweet music together—until they don't. A tragic romance that begins with love at first sight, Felix Van Groeningen's Oscar-nominated picture about a couple whose love is tested when their baby gets sick is a must-see for anyone who needs a good cry. Watch Now

Similar to the Before films, Chris Rock's comedic romance is a charming walk-and-talk mostly featuring only its two leads: Rock himself and Rosario Dawson. He plays a comedian trying his hand at serious acting; she's the New York Times reporter who spends the day interviewing him. As much an ode to NYC as it is a modern take on the Cinderella fairy tale, Top Five might just be worthy of your top five. Watch Now

Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga team up to play real-life couple Richard and Mildred Loving in this Jeff Nichols biopic, about an interracial couple whose marriage would be the catalyst for changing miscegenation laws when their case goes all the way to the Supreme Court. Watch Now

This iconic Frank Capra-directed Best Picture winner has a title that could be referring to one of two things: 1) that time Clark Gable’s Peter and Claudette Colbert’s Ellie fell for each other, or 2) that time one film influenced every single romantic comedy that came after it. Watch Now

Before Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were chance-encountering on top of the Empire State Building, French playboy Michel Marnet and lounge singer Terry McKay were making plans for a similar rendezvous after meeting and falling for each other on a cruise ship. Watch Now

Based on a newspaper play about a journalist who wants out of the business, director Howard Hawks' rom-com makes one very simple, yet very significant tweak to the narrative: Hildy is now a woman. Add in Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, and you have one of the most romantic gender-swap movies of all time. Watch Now

You can’t mention romance without referencing Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa. A wartime romance declaring only love can stand the test of time, Casablanca does what most romantic films dare never to do: Forgo the “typical” happy ending. And we’re so glad it does. Watch Now

Dahling, you simply must give David Lean’s proper British drama, set on the eve of WWII, a go. You have Laura, a suburban wife and mother who can’t get a chance encounter with a stranger out of her mind; Alec, the stranger; and the inevitable elephant in the room—desire. Watch Now

The year is 1920-something. Talkies are on the horizon, and everyone’s job at silent film studio Monumental Pictures is in jeopardy. But the only thing we care about are the buttery vocals of Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, and the smooth moves he puts on her. Get ready to fall in love. Watch Now

Audrey Hepburn made Breakfast at Tiffany’s a pop culture phenomenon, but William Wyler made lunch, dinner, and riding a Vespa in Rome a cultural fixture. His film, winner of three Oscars, kick-started a crop of American movies filmed in Rome. But we’re here to talk about romance. So here. Watch Now

Give us a thrilling storyline (man falls for dangerous woman), a suave debonair (Jimmy Stewart), and a classic beauty (Kim Novak), and then just go ahead and stick that fork in—we’re done. Arguably the most romantic film Alfred Hitchcock unleashed, Vertigo is a rabbit hole you want to get lost in. Watch Now

To climb the corporate ladder, a man loans out his apartment to colleagues looking for a little afternoon delight. Director Billy Wilder’s legendary romantic comedy, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, features some of the wittiest banter ever spouted onscreen. Watch Now

A guy who stands up to your father is such a turn-on. This is exactly what Johnny Castle, played by Patrick Swayze, does for his more-than-a-summer-fling fling, Baby, who is, of course, Jennifer Grey. Soul music, naughty dance numbers, cabin lovemaking—it has everything a good Bible Belt movie needs. Watch Now

Nicolas Cage is Ronny Cammareri, the one-handed baker in love with his brother’s fiancée in this Italian-American rom-com. But the real star is Cher as Loretta, a role that snagged her a Best Actress Oscar. That’s amore. Watch Now

It's a fact: the love between Westley and his Buttercup is not only strong, but it is true. How true? Let us count the ways. “True love” may be mentioned more times in Rob Reiner’s fantasy-adventure-romance than there are actual adventures to be had, but it doesn’t get any more swoon-worthy than this. Watch Now

Can men and women actually just be friends? It’s the predicament put to the test in Nora Ephron’s rom-com that made Billy Crystal a superstar, Meg Ryan every woman’s heroine, and Katz’s Deli the infamous New York City setting of the fake orgasm heard 'round the world. Watch Now

If a shameless display of affection does not live up to a man blaring ‘80s rock on his boombox outside our window, then we kindly pass. Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), the protagonist in Cameron Crowe’s mature teenage love story, has revealed just how grand a grand gesture should actually be. Not following? Watch this. Watch Now

Don’t act like cartoons can’t make you swoon. Disney taps into enchantment with an animated tale as old as time: Cursed man must make woman love him to break the spell. Not only were audiences whisked away, but the Academy also—this was the first animated film to receive a Best Picture nom. Watch Now

We're not sure which part of Michael Mann’s epic we love more: The unbridled passion between Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Cora (Madeleine Stowe), their effortlessly disheveled coifs, or the booming orchestral score composed by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman. Watch Now

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Celine take us from Vienna to Paris to Greece, not through action, but ruminations on love, lust and long-term commitment. Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight compose a trilogy detailing one of the best amorphous romances in cinema’s history.

Watch Before Sunrise

Watch Before Sunset

Watch Before Midnight

There’s a lot to love about Ang Lee’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s romantic classic. The cast: Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson play sisters Marianne and Elinore, both yearning to get hitched. The screenplay: Thompson wrestled over staying true to Austen’s words. And, of course, the bonnets. So many bonnets. Watch Now

All aboard James Cameron’s epic melodrama about love on the high seas. Even though the film snagged a boatload of shiny statues, its narrative harbors a fate not nearly as joyous. Feelings about the extra real estate on the big floating door aside, we’d have it no other way. For Jack and Rose, our hearts will go on. Watch Now

Director John Madden’s Oscar winner about the man behind the prose rather than the prose itself blends contemporary humor and Shakespearean comedy into a crowd-pleasing gem of iambic pentameter wordplay, 16th-century affectations and, above all, the juiciest of romances. Watch Now

Sometimes you need a little more than just sweet nothings and rolls in the hay—like an epic martial arts adventure defying the laws of gravity. Ang Lee’s wuxia film takes the action from the rooftops of Beijing to the treetops of a bamboo forest, all while a pair of love stories plays out on the ground below. Watch Now

Wong Kar-wai's melancholic period drama is as romantic as the costume silks are vibrant. A love square of sorts, the story charts the sexual tension blossoming between two neighbors who’ve just learned their partners are sleeping with each other. Like any good romp between the sheets, this one takes its time. Watch Now

As romantic as a Paul Thomas Anderson pursuit can get, Punch-Drunk Love, his follow-up to the oeuvre of misery that is Magnolia, is a trippy, joyous, and oftentimes volatile story about a sad sack (Adam Sandler), the English woman (Emily Watson) he might love, and the extortionist he for sure hates. Watch Now

Are relationships doomed? Probably. Are they still worth it? Absolutely. As Joel (Jim Carrey) undergoes a procedure to permanently erase any memory of his Clementine (Kate Winslet), he’s flooded with their memories together and has to decide if the love outweighs the pain. Watch Now

Mixing business with pleasure: a recipe for spicy onscreen love affairs. One in particular we can’t get enough of? Then-real life couple Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling as Noah and Allie in this soapy Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Their chemistry is so hot, it makes our teeth sweat. Watch Now

Ang Lee’s meditative adaptation about the taboo, two-decade romance shared by a pair of cowboys in the American West marks the pivotal moment when gay cinema went mainstream. As groundbreaking as it is heartbreaking, the film is a tender and unforgettable love story. Watch Now

Sarah Polley broke our hearts with her painfully beautiful story of love and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s about a husband (Gordon Pinsent) who can only watch his institutionalized wife, played by Julie Christie, slip away and fall in love with another patient at her nursing home. Tissues. You will need tissues. Watch Now

Most romantically-tuned films spend 90 minutes or so convincing us why its leading man and woman shouldn’t be together. John Carney’s musical snack uses its reel convincing us the pair—an unnamed busker and a married immigrant—should never part. Watch Now

David Fincher’s 2008 case for an Oscar expounds on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. In the narrative, nothing is permanent—except the love shared by the story’s nominal curiosity and Daisy, played by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Watch Now

Welcome to coupledom—the act of falling in love, making babies and laying down roots—explored road-trip-style in this Sam Mendes odyssey, starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Watch Now

Fall in love at first flight with Jason Reitman’s easy watch about a traveling businessman and the fleeting affair that just might ground him. It stars George Clooney and Vera Farmiga, and when it’s over, watch it again. Rack up those frequent viewer miles. Watch Now

The top-prize film at Sundance 2011, Drake Doremus’s standing-O romantic drama had audiences waxing nostalgic over their first loves. Watching Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones act out the rocky romance between Jacob and Anna, a couple tested by immigration hardships, will do that. Watch Now

Two strangers’ one-night stand forever changes their lives in writer/director Andrew Haigh’s awards magnet, an exploration of intimacy and a vital achievement in gay cinema. Watch Now

Real-life couple Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan star in this romance fantasy, which Kazan also wrote. Inspired by Pygmalion, Kazan’s story follows a novelist who wills an idealistic character into existence. But you should know: Ruby is not a manic pixie dream girl, and things are about to get dark. Watch Now

Suzy and Sam are everything you thought you and your first crush were during that seminal time when adults just didn’t understand. A storybook tale about 12-year-old loves who run away to be together, it has all the elements you want in a Wes Anderson film: wonder, frenzy and a Schwartzman. Watch Now

There’s no sweeping emotional score. No climactic grand gesture. And certainly no the-heavens-are-opening smooch. But don’t count out this documentary about Ushio, an artist with one heck of a right hook, and Noriko, the women who abandoned her dreams to help support his. It’s impossibly romantic. Watch Now

No matter how you define the initialism, PDA is taken to a whole new level in Spike Jonze’s uber-personal romantic drama, starring Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely heart who falls in love with an operating system named Samantha. Here’s hoping for the equally romantic companion film: Him. Watch Now

You know the premise: young love, shaky future. But trust us, Smashed director James Ponsoldt’s walk to remember, written by the 500 Days of Summer crew and starring Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, is as grown-up as whiskey in a Solo cup and has a climax that barrels in like a Mack truck. Watch Now

Ready the appetite; this one’s a feast for the eyes. A feel-good story starring Irrfan Khan, it hinges on a wrongly delivered lunchbox, aka the catalyst for a pen-pal romance between a widower and an unhappy housewife. It’s like You’ve Got Meal... Get it? Watch Now

There’s just something about Brooklyn. The New York City neighborhood has long been the backdrop of romantic films. Our favorite, though? This festival hit from John Crowley, starring Saoirse Ronan as an Irish immigrant who snuggles up to a Dodgers fan. Watch Now

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara bring Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel, The Price of Salt, to gorgeous life as Carol, a woman confined in a loveless marriage, and Therese, the department store clerk who sets her free. Passion, forbidden romance, heartbreaking odds—the stage is set in this Todd Haynes gem. Watch Now

In the summer of 2015, you may have missed this coming-of-age wartime romance starring a sublime Alicia Vikander and Kit Harington. It’s okay: Catch up now with the testament based on Vera Brittain’s WWI memoir, a woman's perspective on love, war and despair. Watch Now

Puppet love is love, too. Case in point: this animated drama that gets personal with an author and the stranger he meets on a business trip. Count on this romantic tale challenging conventional methods. Watch Now

Gridlocked traffic, casting call rejections, commuter smog—isn’t all so romantic? But, really, Damien Chazelle’s love letter to the classic movies of yore enchants with dance numbers, musical interludes, and the onscreen chemistry firing between real-life pals Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Watch Now

Equal parts celebration of young love and brotherly bond, John Carney’s sorta-autobiographical indie lets ‘80s pop rock and original ballads do the talking. The story is about a teen who starts a grunge band to impress a girl, and its climax will leave you in a puddle of emotion. Watch Now

Richard Tanne’s indie offers a peek into what the first date between future president Barack Obama and his future first lady, Michelle, looks like. Let’s just say ice cream is involved, and those looking to date right now can learn a thing or two from this romantically mellow walkabout. Watch Now

Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet star in Luca Guadagnino’s sensory adaptation of André Aciman’s same-name novel, about a 17-year-old’s first love. An erotic midsummer dream, Elio and Oliver’s budding romance is a marvel to watch unfurl, from the dance floor to that infamous peach scene. Watch Now

Love comes in all shapes and sizes, including a mute woman and her fish monster. Guillermo del Toro is perhaps the only filmmaker we’d trust to construct a film about a forbidden romance between a female janitor and a captive creature with gills—and we must say, bravo. Watch Now