Romance movies make us feel like we, too, have a special someone waiting to be found, a soulmate out there for us—even if just for a couple of hours on a Saturday night.
From the comfort of our couch, we can experience love’s ups and downs, its giddy highs and crushing lows, moments of joy and heartbreak — all without risking rejection ourselves.
When it comes to the romance film genre—everyone has a perfect match: films about love at first sight, unrequited love, forbidden love, platonic love, tragic love…
Movies with action and adventure, movies to make us laugh, movies to make us cry, movies to remind us that love can conquer (almost) anything.
This Valentine’s Day, the Inkspot highlights five must-see romance movies.

When James Cameron’s award-winning film “Titanic” burst onto the big screen in 1997, it was an instant blockbuster.
It’s a period piece. An action film. A disaster movie. A special effects masterpiece—the film’s incredible CGI has stood up for a quarter century, the real Titanic didn’t survive a four-day voyage.
And it’s a love story.
The budding romance of third-class Jack Dawson (Leonardo Decaprio) and first-class Rose Dewitt-Bukater (Kate Winslet) ultimately steers the course of the movie.
Set against the backdrop of one of the greatest tragedies of all time is an unforgettable love story—a well-crafted romance capturing the complicated and intense emotions of first love.
Rose has a first-class ticket to a dismal future. She feels trapped—her future already decided for her, engaged to a man she hates.
Jack has a ticket to anywhere—the free-spirit travels where ever his heart, his art, his poker-playing skills may take him.
The pair are polar opposites—and it just works.
After Jack and Rose’s first dramatic meeting, as she debates jumping off the stern of the ship into the icy waters below, Jack gives Rose something she can never let go of.
He teaches her to shed the corseted constraints of life, to shed her concern for “keeping up appearances”—Jack teaches Rose to spit, they dance in steerage, the stand arms spread on the bow. He teaches her to embrace life.
Their “Romeo and Juliet-type” story might be tedious and tiring, but it is a beautiful story of two characters with a depth that goes far below the surface.

When Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) gave Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) a ride from Chicago to New York, it was far from love at first sight.
The two quarreled the entire 18-hour trip.
They argue about happiness. About “Casablanca.” About if telling someone they are attractive is flirting. About Harry’s girlfriend. About love. Sex. Relationships. Everything.
Harry, a cynical, jaded New Yorker, believes that men and women can never be friends without sexual tension; Sally, an optimistic, romantic Midwesterner, believes in platonic relationships, in true love.
Arriving in NYC, the two had no interest in seeing each other ever again.
No argument there.
Fate had other plans—arranging for a series of chance meetings between the pair.
Five years pass, Harry is engaged, and Sally is in a serious relationship when they find themselves on the same flight.
Another five years pass, Sally’s single—her boyfriend did not want to get married. So is Harry; his wife left him for another man.
Harry bumps into Sally in a bookstore, they bond over coffee, talking about their breakups.
They give friendship a chance.
Over late-night phone calls, over dinners, spending time together discussing their disastrous love lives, the two form a platonic friendship.
That friendship doesn’t stop the pair from going toe-to-toe with each other—trading clever lines and sharing witty banter.
Sally, in the famous “I’ll have what she’s having” scene, matches Harry’s arrogance to prove a point.
They still argue — but it’s different.
In moments like this, the chemistry between Harry and Sally is most evident; these characters are made for each other.
“When Harry Met Sally” is far from the typical romance movie, and that is what makes it so good. This romance spans a dozen years, not the usual days, or weeks or months of most romantic comedies.
They watch as everyone else grows up around them, falling in love, getting married, moving in together, and having kids, as nothing seems to work out in their lives.
This movie stands above the traditional romantic comedy because it stands apart—which all starts with Harry, the male lead.
Harry is not the traditional rom-com leading man. He’s not a hunk, a heartthrob—Billy Crystal is no Ryan Reynolds; he is more ugly duckling than Gosling.
The film is a nice reminder that the most handsome guy in the room doesn’t always get the prettiest girl.
Harry can get a catch like Sally because of his personality—something this movie truly develops—the characters have depth. From Sally’s elaborate restaurant orders to Harry’s argument with a kid at the batting cages—they have quirks and character traits that feel authentic.
Harry and Sally remind us that despite all our differences, maybe we aren’t all that different. That with time, we change and grow—and the person we are looking for might be where we least expect them.

Overnight, 13-year-old Jenna Rink’s (Jennifer Garner) birthday wish comes true—she wakes up as a 30-year-old, a transformation which comes with a super cool career and super hot boyfriend (bonus: he is a pro hockey star.)
Yet, not everything is a perfect as she wished. Rink’s childhood best friend, the pudgy Matt Flamhaff (Mark Ruffalo), suddenly turned from dud to stud, but they’re not friends anymore.
Rink’s life seems to have turned upside down; familiar faces are strangers to her now, and the new faces in her life are not welcome ones—even Rink has changed, shifting her values.
This adult life may not be what she envisioned when she was 13.
Why are things so different in the adult world?
This movie encapsulates a child’s dreams with a lethal dose of reality: adulthood isn’t just fun and games.
It’s establishing yourself in the world while figuring out who your real friends are and who you want to surround yourself with—love interests
included.
Watching Jenna figure out life in the 200s while mentally still living in the 1980s is a thrilling, occasionally embarrassing ride.
The romantic tension between her and her childhood best friend—even though he’s engaged—makes the movie a nail-biting exciting time. The romantic journey between Jenna and Matt connects the viewer to the couple—drawing us in with each up and down, each obstacle and challenge the pair is faced with.
The romance in this film is so sweet, so pure.
In Rink’s teen and adult life, one thing is certain: Jenna and Matt are made for each other. Never strangers, always friends.
The friends-to-lovers story arc is wholesome and sweet. Along the way Rink discovers herself, figuring out her identity, separating the good from the bad and determining her values.
The one thing that stays constant throughout Rink’s life is, was and always will be Matt.
“13 Going on 30” is part coming-of-age story, part romance, part comedy, part “Freaky Friday”—and a whole lot of fun.

A classic: he is the bad boy, she is the ice princess.
A match made in Hollywood.
“10 Things I Hate About You”’s Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) only likes to smoke and make bad decisions; he is the classic teen rebel who does what he wants when he wants.
Kat (Julia Stiles) is an outspoken feminist, strong-willed, and independent.
For Kat’s popular younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) to date, Kat must too.
Something she has zero interest in.
Kat is fiercely protective of her sister—staying single is just another way she thinks she can protect her younger sibling.
Enter Patrick, whose interest in Kat is strictly monetary.
Motivated by a bribe from Bianca’s potential prom date, Patrick attempts to woo Kat (keyword: attempts),
instead, he repulses her.
But with each failed attempt at flirtation, Patrick realizes there’s more beneath the surface than the curt, blunt girl everyone else thinks Kat to be.
And as Kat interacts with Patrick more and more, she realizes that the bad boy isn’t so bad after all—some redeeming traits are hiding underneath that head of hair.
There is tension—that bet will eventually be discovered.
That $20 bribe to take Kat out will become more than Patrick bargained for.
There is comedy.
The banter between the two truly is one of the best parts of the film—Kat doesn’t back down around Patrick, who loves to rile her up.
The constant back and forth of sarcastic barbs give the audience a good laugh, even though they can sense the chemistry burbling beneath those mocking words.
There is depth—Patrick and Kat were never enemies, just two teens masking their emotions, trying to find their place in the world, hiding their vulnerabilities, and being afraid to let anyone in too close.
There is a dance scene—the key to any high school movie’s success.
There is an undeniable chemistry between Patrick and Kat that make this high school rom-com a time-tested favorite.

“The Notebook” is worth writing about because the film’s romance is built on impossibly grand gestures and over-the-top acts of affection.
The budding romance between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams) ends when the heiress’s parents object to her relationship with the lower-class lumber mill worker. Allie’s wealthy family abruptly leaves town, ending the relationship.
Still, Noah pines for Allie.
He writes to her every day for a year, pouring his love into each handwritten letter.
Thousands of words trying to describe a singular feeling — his wholehearted devotion.
365 letters of dedication, of admiration, of love.
All go unanswered.
365 letters Allie never received.
Returning from serving in WWII, Noah fulfills a promise he made almost a decade ago to his summer love, buying the abandoned Windsor Plantation to restore it for Allie.
A woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in seven years — a woman engaged.
Noah toils away on the restoration of the house, he’s convinced that if he can just get it done, Allie will come back to him.
This grand gesture works.
“The Notebook” is a story girl and a boy who share an extraordinary, unforgettable love.
A love that can endure almost every obstacle — time, and war, and loss.
It sets an unattainable standard for an idea of what love, of what romance, of what courtship should be. Full of big displays of affection, long-distance longing and a chemistry that can withstand any brutality.
This is what makes it so good.
That is what makes “The Notebook” timeless, an unforgettable love story.