I love romance…especially in movies. The longing look between two star-crossed lovers when they first meet, the predictable and overly dramatic fight that ensues halfway through the film, the cheesy one-liner to profess your undying love, and even the overdone act of catching the love of your life at the airport right before they board the plane so you can live happily ever after together. I mean, how they got through customs and immigration in under two minutes I’ll never know, but I am ALL for it.
If you’re a perennially single woman (like yours truly), who is need of some assurance that love is still the one thing worth living for, I hope this list of five romantic movies will make you believe that the greatest thing you’ll learn is to love and be loved in return. I mean, if you’re just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her, when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
After all…nobody puts baby in the corner.
Seriously, if you’re a bird. I’m a bird.
#1 Lost in Translation
Photo from: IMDB
Love comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it comes in the form of Bill Murray. In what I personally believe to be one of Sofia Coppola’s best work, Lost in Translation, a dwindling movie star and an overlooked young girl from an unlikely connection in a hotel at Tokyo. Their chemistry is transparent but the type of love is vague, and I think there is just something so romantic about that. You can’t control who touches your soul and what they do with it.
Favourite quote: The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.
#2 The Holiday
Photo from: IMDB
The premise is two women with guy problems, swap homes in each other’s countries and find love where they least expect. Yes, sure, Jude Law’s character is an unrealistic but perfect depiction of every girl’s dream British man but its Kate Winslet’s story most of us gals can truly relate to. She has Jasper – a charming man who won’t call her his own but won’t leave her alone enough to forget about him – but after years of tormenting herself in unrequited love, she realises that Jack Black is the better man for her.
Let’s face it…we’ve all got a Jesper.
But we deserve a Jack Black.
You go and find your Jack Black, gurl.
Favourite quote: I’m miraculously done being in love with you! Ha! I’ve got a life to start living.
#3 The Way We Were
Photo from: IMDB
Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford (aka the hottest man to ever exist) team up in a classic romance about two people trying to make their relationship work despite their political differences. SPOILER ALERT: It’s not a happy ending. So how is this suppose to make me believe in love, you might ask? Well, love is not perfect or pretty. They are bumps and obstacles you have to overcome. And sometimes, you don’t end up with the one you so desperately want to. But that doesn’t mean you can’t cherish that chapter in your life and find a different and better person for you.
Also, this could be a movie about Robert Redford watching paint dry and I’d still watch it.
Favourite quote: You’ll never find anyone as good for you as I am, to believe in you as much as I do or to love you as much.
#4 Romeo + Juliet
Photo from: IMDB
Set in a pretty damn cool version of Verona, Baz Luhrmann’s take on Shakespeare’s famous play stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as Romeo and Juliet. Honestly…if you haven’t seen this movie, which rock have you been living under? We all know the unfortunate ending (if you don’t…seriously?) But just to watch two people be that madly in love with each other makes me want to go out, put on my best dress and marry the next guy I talk to. It’s so ridiculously dramatic and I can’t even understand half of the dialogue but love is a universal language and that’s all that matters.
Favourite quote: It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
#5 When Harry Met Sally
Photo from: IMDB
Did you really think I was going to do up a list of romantic movies and not have at least one Meg Ryan movie in it? Ha! That would be absurd. In When Harry Met Sally, two good friends who have known each other for years fear that sex will ultimately ruin their friendship. This movie taught me there is no other perfect scenario than falling in love with your irritating best friend whom you hate but can’t imagine your life without.
Favourite quote: You see? That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you.
