Recommend good romance movies

[maninahat]

What with the deplorable success of 50 Shades of Grey, let's take an opportunity to remind ourselves that there are actually good romance movies out there. This thread is for romance film recommendations. Please recommend some lesser watched ones and justify why they are worth watching.

Spoiler: I'm a Cyborg, But Thats Okay

A Korean rom-com about a girl who is submitted to a mental hospital, because she believes she is a killer cyborg.

It is quite odd, and as with a lot of Korean movies, utterly devoid of any taboos regarding gore and violence (despite selling itself as a cutsie love story). For that reason, I don't recommend it for squeamish people. I do recommend it for anyone else though, especially people who are antipathetic to the "job orientated white woman swaps career goals for the arrogant yet charming guy she just met" standard plot that rom-coms seem to love.

Spoiler: Bringing up Baby

Bringing up Baby is an early example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl plot... but done well. Katherine Hepburn - you might remember her as being the greatest actress of all time - plays a stalker with a pet leopard. She falls in love with a stuffy paleontologist and spends the entire movie trying to force some reciprocation out of him. What makes it stand out above other manic pixie plots is that Katherine Hepburn's Mrs Random manages to be quirky and bubbly without being overbearing and narcissistic. She doesn't wither and die once she has served her purpose of "fixing" the male lead, because she isn't in it to fix the male lead, she is in it to get her guy. The novelty of seeing such a proactive female character does a lot to hide the fact that this movie is essentially about a criminally dangerous sex pest. It's also very funny, and has perhaps the earliest explicit reference to homosexuality in a movie:

So there is that too.

 

[Chris Mosher]

Say Anything by Cameron Crowe starring john Cusak is pretty good.

 

[Username Redacted]

Amelie (2001): A French romantic-ish, comedy-ish quirky movie. Audrey Tautou is adorable as the titular character and the whole movie is just generally charming. The only romance movie I will recommend to people and the only romance movie that I've watched more than once. Also, for whatever this is worth, it's one of the very few romantic type movies to make IMDB.coms top 250.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Dirty Dancing and Ghost, for that Swayze delight.

Plus, Ghost can be sufficiently creep at times... and I'm not just talking about that Whoopi Goldberg/Demi Moore love scene.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Soderbergh's Out Of Sight definitely counts:


Clooney on great form, and a ballsy, classy, savvy star-making turn by Lopez - who then went on to--- er, not be a very good film star, for some unknown reason... Great cast, great score, too.

Does Lost In Translation count?


It certainly has elements of romance in it, and feels like a very romantic flick, albeit with a introspectively melancholic edge.

The Adjustment Bureau:


Yeah, it maybe doesn't add up as a concept, but it's a fun film with a nice twist (not as in plot twist, though), and I think Damon/Blunt make an obscenely adorable onscreen couple.

And finally:


Grosse Pointe Blank doesn't seem to get the lurve it deserves, and whilst it's definitely rough around the edges, it's a plucky lil' film packed with cracking performances. And the Cusack/Driver romance is, again, adorable - more so because of the assassin-y hijinks that punctuate the story.

Oh, hell, once more with feeling...


Get Over It's pretty much a teen comedy, but it has a canny script and performances, and seems to have flown under the pop cultural radar, which is a shame. Foster and Dunst make a great, believable pairing, and I think it ends up being surprisingly touching as well as funny.

 

[SquidVicious]

Harold and Maude (1971). While it's definitely one of the progenitors for the manic pixie dream girl, this time it takes the form of a 79 year old woman that the young suicidal love-lorn star falls for. It has a very nice soundtrack from Cat Stevens and some hilariously elaborate and well executed faux-suicide sequences from Harold. I would post a trailer, but the one I watched on YouTube didn't really do much in the way of making the movie sound compelling.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Since the OP can watch Korean movies, I HIGHLY recommend this other Korean romance film "My Sassy Girl"! Seriously that is my definitive romance movie of all time.

Just to be clear, look out for the original Korean version and NOT the US remake as it is god awful!

 

[newfoundsky]

Dude no seriously. Letters to Juliet. It's a romcom that shows that sometimes people are in love but just don't click together as much as they thought they did. (Usual affair of falling in love with someone you meet within a week though)

 

[lacktheknack]

If you have eight hours, I really did like the Pride and Prejudice miniseries.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Right, not all these are completely about romance but still have romantic presence. All are highly recommended:

Happy accidents/coincidences (I forget which now...oops) Its about time travel. Oooor is it?


The Time traveller's wife (Still time travel. Yup!)


C.R.A.Z.Y. (French coming of age drama)


Eye of the Beholder -(My personal fave. Ewan Mcgregor is a british spy who just taps and records political naughty boys, accidently witnesses serial killer of males, Ashley judd kill a guy he was spying on. Then starts following this lady to try and figure out why she is killing. He has an imaginary daughter that talks to him too. A unique film.


Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (Sighs heavily)


Happiness (It has to be seen to be believed. Just for the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman's mini story. RIP dude.)

 

[Luthor55555]

Best one in my opinion is Love Actually. Many different stories all intermingled and very well acted and directed. Also one of the only movies that I like Keira Knightly in lol.

If you have eight hours, I really did like the Pride and Prejudice miniseries.

Its so good! its one of the only classic english lit books that I like and it keeps to it faithfully and even improves on the original in many ways. I can't recommend both of these more highly. Also I just realized that I only talked about british movies but what can I say? they are pure quality

 

[BloatedGuppy]

In addition to some of the ones already mentioned (most particularly Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Say Anything) I'll add the following:

High Fidelity - Should be mandatory viewing for everyone, most particularly young guys either having relationship difficulty or just coming out of a relationship. Some hard truths in there about how we take our significant others for granted, and suffer from grass is greener syndrome. All wrapped up in a frothy comic package.

500 Days of Summer - Also mandatory viewing, this time for the freshly broken up. Touches on how we project onto people romantically, and how it can both blow up relationships and trap us in a cycle of chasing an idealized person who doesn't actually exist. Also wrapped up in a frothy comic package.

Take This Waltz - Meditation on fidelity and (again) taking our loved ones for granted and chasing the "new", this time from a very female-centric point of view and most definitively NOT wrapped in a frothy comic package.

Almost Famous - As much a love letter to Rock and Roll as a story about love between two people, but contains a nice deconstruction of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" archetype (much like 500 Days of Summer) and some nice expressions of platonic love

Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight - Richard Linklater's critically acclaimed "Before" trilogy, mapping the course of a relationship over 20 odd years by revisiting it at intervals. Incredibly naturalistic dialogue and near flawless performances from the two principles. Rank high amongst the best "romantic" movies ever made, and arguably one of the more important trilogies in film history. Must see for film buffs.

 

[Jeivar]

There are only two romance movies I have ever enjoyed watching, so that must mean they're good. Firstly there's Love, Actually. Aside from good acting and characters, there's the fact that it's many small stories and so doesn't need to work in the ridiculous drama and complications that most romance stories use as padding.

Second is a Canadian movie called When Night is Falling. It's about a teacher at a conservative Christian college who suddenly falls in love with a free-spirited performance artist in a small circus. What makes it work is how incredibly likeable the leads are, their chemistry feels real and the whole thing is just very human. There is no villain and any drama occurs very naturally and believably. And it has a happy ending.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5mszOh_Qis

If watching it on DVD I recommend a second viewing with the director's commentary. Something about that woman's voice and attitude is just hypnotic.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet (The only adaptation that is the truest to Shakespeare's works)

P.S. I Love You is more about dealing with loss but still pretty good rom/com wise

Made of Honor

The Book of Life

The Princess Bride

Center Stage

She's The Man

No Reservations

When in Rome

The Decoy Bride

Under the Tuscan Sun (which is 100000% different than the book as the book is a memoir and the movie is highly inaccurate and needs to be viewed as two separate things with the same title)

Cocktail

Flashdance

Top Gun

27 Dresses

Austenland

Pride and Prejudice (the BBC miniseries is great as is the one with Kiera Knightly)

Blood and Chocolate

Chloe (ok might not actually be romance but I classify it as such so there)

Chocolat

Ella Enchanted

Ever After

Gnomeo & Juliet (bonus: it's full of puns)

Maid in Manhattan

Niñas Mal(It's in Spanish so you'll need English subtitles)

Practical Magic

Pretty Woman

Rome and Jewel (2008 interracial Romeo and Juliet adaptation)

Secretary

Shakespeare in Love

Stardust

The King & I

Waitress

When Harry Met Sally

to a lesser extent: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (I swear to you it's not porn. It's a musical with Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds in it but there is nudity in it).


Honestly, it's not hard to find better movies than 50sog.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

I.Q. is pretty good. Also the Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet (1968) is the only version of that story I've seen where it looks like the director and cast actually understood the play.

 

[Ronald Nand]

I'm not a big fan of romance, but I've seen a few that stick out to me:

-500 Days of Summer- I liked this movie, but it was probably its plot subverted the typical plot of a romance movie.
-The Lunchbox- This is a Hindi movie directed by a Western Director if that makes sense. The movie manages to make you care about the couple despite the fact that they primarily communicate through notes, I found that the movie was pretty clever.

 

[Christopher Forssman]

I watch benny and joon or the other sister when they are the midday movie and if im home.....Diehard or the predator is pretty good too. they are a kind of romance movie right??

 

[JustAnotherAardvark]

That's the problem with asking about 'lesser watched', is I've no idea what I like is 'even watched'.

I'm guessing you've seen Three to Tango?
If not, why not?

Matthew Perry
Oliver Platt
Neve Campbell
Oliver Platt
...other people...
...who do stuff...
Oliver Platt
...
Plus reasons.
And Oliver Platt.

See it.
Nao.

 

[GoodOmens]

I feel confident in recommending Once, with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.