I have been a fan of the RomCom since before I can remember.
It’s a love I share with my mother and have actively begun to transfer onto my youngest son. He often complains that all of these movies “end the same,” but I know he secretly enjoys them or at least tolerates them enough to climb onto the couch with me and hunt for one to watch every weekend.
But, my personal love for romance movies encompasses much more than the happy go lucky with a sprinkle of romance many romcoms turn out to be.
I enjoy all types of romance movies: paranormal romances (like Ghost with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze), forbidden romances (think Twilight), more dramatic romances (Time Traveler’s Wife), super sexy romances (50 Shades), and everything in between.
I am always on the hunt for great romance movies, new or old, to watch, so I reached out to my Facebook community to ask them which titles top their lists when it comes to big screen love.
They came through, like always!
Arguably Awesome: The 30 Best Romance Movies You Should Definitely See
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, 2018
Starring: Lana Condor, Noah Cinteneo, Janel Parrish
When her secret love letters somehow get mailed to each of her five crushes, Lara Jean finds her quiet high school existence turned upside down.
Watch on Netflix.
Some Kind of Wonderful, 1987
Starring: Mary Stuart Masterson, Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, and Craig Scheffer
A young tomboy, Watts, finds her feelings for her best friend, Keith, run deeper than just friendship when he gets a date with the most popular girl in school, Amanda. Unfortunately, the girl’s old boyfriend, Hardy, who is from the rich section of town, is unable to let go of her, and plans to get back at Keith.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Some Kind of Wonderful
Pretty Woman, 1990
Starring: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts
A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets… only to fall in love.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Pretty Woman
Love, Actually, 2003
Starring: Hugh Grant, Matine McCutcheon, Laura Linney
Intertwined stories examine the complexities of the one emotion that connects us all: love. Among the characters explored are David (Hugh Grant), the handsome newly elected British prime minister who falls for a young junior staffer (Martine McCutcheon), Sarah (Laura Linney), a graphic designer whose devotion to her mentally ill brother complicates her love life, and Harry (Alan Rickman), a married man tempted by his attractive new secretary.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Love, Actually
Time Traveler’s Wife, 2009
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana, Arliss Howard
Clare desperately tries to build a life with her one true love, despite the fact that his time traveling forces them apart with no warning, never knowing when they will be reunited.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Time Traveler’s Wife
The Notebook, 2004
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams
Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love during one summer together, but are tragically forced apart.
Watch on Amazon Prime: The Notebook
Ghost, 1990
Starring: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg
A ghost teams with a psychic to uncover the truth behind his murder – and to rescue his sweetheart from a similar fate.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Ghost
Serendipity, 2001
Starring: John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, Bridget Moynahan
A couple reunites years after the night they first met, fell in love, and separated, convinced that one day they’d end up together.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Serendipity
Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, 2018
A case of mistaken identity leads to an unexpected romance when a teen joins forces with a popular student to win the heart of her high school crush.
Available on Netflix
The Man in the Moon, 1991
Starring: Resse Witherspoon, Emily Warfield, Jason London
Maureen Trant and her younger sibling Dani share a strong connection, but local boy Court Foster threatens to throw their bond off balance. Dani and Court meet first and have a flirtatious rapport — but when he meets Maureen, he falls hard and they begin a passionate affair. The new couple try to keep their love hidden from Dani, but she soon learns the truth, disavowing her sister. But a heartbreaking accident later reunites the girls.
Watch on Amazon Prime: The Man in the Moon
Moonstruck, 1987
Starring: Cher, Nicolas Cage
Loretta Castorini, a bookkeeper from Brooklyn, New York, finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls for the brother of the man she has agreed to marry.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Moonstruck
Love and Basketball, 2000
Starring: Omar Epps, Sanaa Lathan, Dennis Haysbert, Alfre Woolard
Monica and Quincy are two childhood friends who both aspire to be professional basketball players. Quincy, whose father, Zeke, plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, is a natural talent and a born leader. Monica is ferociously competitive but sometimes becomes overly emotional on the court. Over the years, the two begin to fall for each other, but their separate paths to basketball stardom threaten to pull them apart.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Love and Basketball
Hope Floats, 1998
Starring: Harry Connick, Jr., Sandra Bullock
When her picture-perfect life comes crashing down around her, Birdee Pruitt must start over. With no place else to turn, the former beauty queen heads back home…to Smithville, Texas.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Hope Floats
Return to Me, 2000
A lonely Bob Rueland is embraced by Grace Briggs, who is surrounded by a coterie of substitute mothers including her Irish grandfather, who, with his Italian brother-in-law, run a Chicago restaurant.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Return to Me
Under the Tuscan Sun, 2003
Starring: Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Raoul Bova
When Frances Mayes learns her husband is cheating on her from a writer whom she gave a bad review, her life is turned upside down. In an attempt to bring her out of a deep depression, her best friend, Patti, encourages Frances to take a tour of Italy. During the trip, the new divorcée impulsively decides to purchase a rural Tuscan villa and struggles to start her life anew amid colorful local characters, including the handsome Marcello.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Under the Tuscan Sun
Mannequin, 1987
Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, James Spader
Jonathan Switcher, an unemployed artist, finds a job as an assistant window dresser for a department store. When Jonathan happens upon a beautiful mannequin he previously designed, she springs to life and introduces herself as Emmy, an Egyptian under an ancient spell. Despite interference from the store’s devious manager, Jonathan and his mannequin fall in love while creating eye-catching window displays to keep the struggling store in business.
The Wedding Date, 2005
Starring: Amy Adams, Debra Messing, Dermot Mulroney
With the wedding of her younger sister (Amy Adams) fast approaching, Kat Ellis (Debra Messing) faces the undesirable prospect of traveling alone to London for the ceremony. While this is bad enough, Jeffrey (Jeremy Sheffield), the man who left her as they moved closer to marriage, happens to be the groom’s best man. Determined to show everyone — most of all Jeffrey — that her romantic life is as full and thrilling as ever, Kat hires a charming male escort (Dermot Mulroney) as her date.
Watch on Amazon Prime: The Wedding Date
The Holiday, 2006
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black
Dumped and depressed, English rose Iris agrees to swap homes with similarly unlucky in love Californian Amanda for a much-needed break. Iris finds herself in a palatial Hollywood mansion while Amanda navigates the lanes of a picture-perfect English village. Soon enough, both lovelorn ladies bump into local lads perfect for a romantic pick-me-up.
Buy here: The Holiday
Notting Hill
Starring: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant
Anna Scott is the world’s most famous movie star. Her picture has been plastered on the cover of every magazine and every time she makes a move, the entire world knows about it. William Thacker owns a travel bookstore in the quaint neighborhood of Notting Hill with a roommate from hell and a nonexistent love life. When their paths cross, the couple comes to face with the ultimate question: can two people fall in love with the whole world watching?
Watch on Amazon Prime: Notting Hill
The Vow, 2012
Starring: Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams
Inspired by a true story, The Vow tells the tale of a husband (Channing Tatum) who must regain the love of his wife (Rachel McAdams) after a coma steals the past five years of her memories.
Watch on Amazon Prime: The Vow
Chocolat, 20o0
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Judy Dench, Alfred Molina
Nobody could have imagined the impact that the striking Vianne (Binoche) would make when she arrived in an old-fashioned French town. In her chocolate shop, Vianne begins to create mouth-watering confections that inspire the villagers to abandon themselves to happiness! But it is not until another stranger, the handsome Roux arrives in town that Vianne is finally able to recognize her own desires!
Watch on Amazon Prime: Chocolat
When Harry Met Sally, 1989
Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby
In 1977, college graduates Harry Burns and Sally Albright share a contentious car ride from Chicago to New York, during which they argue about whether men and women can ever truly be strictly platonic friends. Ten years later, Harry and Sally meet again at a bookstore, and in the company of their respective best friends, Jess and Marie, attempt to stay friends without sex becoming an issue between them.
Watch on Amazon Prime: When Harry Met Sally
P.S. I Love You, 2007
Starring: Gerard Butler, Hilary Swank
When Gerry, the husband of Holly Kennedy, dies from an illness, she loses the love of her life. Knowing how hard Holly will take his death, Gerry plans ahead. Beginning on her 30th birthday, she receives the first in a series of letters written by him, designed to ease her grief and encourage her to move forward to a new life.
Watch on Amazon Prime: P.S. I Love You
50 First Dates, 2004
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Sean Astin
Henry lives an enviable life in a Hawaiian paradise, spending every night with a beautiful tourist in search of an island fling. It’s a sweet life with no strings attached…until he meets Lucy. He and Lucy hit it off from the get-go, but the next day she acts like she doesn’t know him. Lucy has short-term memory loss so every night all memory of her day is erased. But a man in love will go to any lengths to win over the girl of his dreams, and if that means having to find imaginative ways of doing it over again every day, then Henry’s up for the challenge.
Watch on Amazon Prime: 50 First Dates
My Girl, 1991
Starring: Anna Chlumsky, Dan Aykroyd, Macaulay Culkin
Tomboy Vada Sultenfuss has good reason to be morbid: her mother died giving birth to her, and her father operates a funeral service out of their home. The other kids think she’s a freak, and it certainly doesn’t help that her best friend, Thomas J. Sennett, is a boy. To make matters worse, Vada is desperately in love with her English teacher, Mr. Bixler.
Watch on Amazon Prime: My Girl
Roxanne, 1987
Starring: Steve Martin, Daryl Hannah
D. Bales is the witty, intelligent and brave fire chief of a small Pacific Northwest town who, due to the size of his enormous nose, declines to pursue the girl of his dreams, lovely Roxanne Kowalski . Instead, when his shy underling Chris McConnell becomes smitten with Roxanne, Bales feeds the handsome young man the words of love to win her heart.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Roxanne
You’ve Got Mail, 1998
Starring: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Struggling boutique bookseller Kathleen Kelly hates Joe Fox, the owner of a corporate Foxbooks chain store that just moved in across the street. When they meet online, however, they begin an intense and anonymous Internet romance, oblivious of each other’s true identity. Eventually Joe learns that the enchanting woman he’s involved with is actually his business rival. He must now struggle to reconcile his real-life dislike for her with the cyber love he’s come to feel.
Watch on Amazon Prime: You’ve Got Mail
Splash, 1984
Starring: Daryl Hannah, Tom Hanks, John Candy
A young boy saved from drowning by a beautiful mermaid, falls in love with her 20 years later when she returns to seek him out. Before he can choose between life on dry land or a deep sea paradise with his dream woman, the lovers are rudely interrupted by the intervention of a scheming scientist.
Watch on Amazon Prime: Splash
Enchanted, 2007
Starring: Amy Adams, James Marsden, Patrick Dempsey
A classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York City. In this story, an animated princess is sent into the real world by an evil queen, where she meets a handsome lawyer. Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?
Watch on Amazon Prime: Enchanted
While You Were Sleeping, 1995
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Peter Gallagher, Bill Pullman
Lonely transit worker Lucy Eleanor Moderatz pulls her longtime crush, Peter, from the path of an oncoming train. At the hospital, doctors report that he’s in a coma, and a misplaced comment from Lucy causes Peter’s family to assume that she is his fiancée. When Lucy doesn’t correct them, they take her into their home and confidence. Things get even more complicated when she finds herself falling for Peter’s sheepish brother, Jack.
Watch on Amazon Prime: While You Were Sleeping
Want to see the full list of mom approved best romance movies? Check out the recommendations here: Best Romance Movies of All Time