15 best romantic movies on Netflix
Whether you are an old romantic or there is no love at all in that cold, dead heart of yours there is a romance film for everyone.
Romantic movies can come in a number of guises: rom-coms, tear-inducing epics, indie flicks where everyone falls in love with a hipster hint of irony... so with a genre so diverse we thought it right to choose the best romantic movies on Netflix UK that leave you with a certain tingly feeling.
If the idea of film-based love is still leaving you cold, and makes you literally want to break hearts then you better check out our best horror movies on Netflix feature. For the rest of you, we hope the following movies fill you with love.
1. Begin Again
Director John Carney already proved to the world that he can do indie romance with the superb musical Once, but with Begin Again he cemented himself as the go-to director for love on a more Hollywood scale. Kiera Knightly and Mark Ruffalo star as two down-and-outs in the music industry who team up to make, er, beautiful music together.
2. Blue is The Warmest Colour
Before Lea Seydoux became the ultimate Bond girl in Spectre, she showed off her girl bond in Blue Is The Warmest Colour - a heart-wrenching look at the love between two teenagers. Based on a graphic novel, the movie is certainly 'graphic' in places - the sex scenes starring Sedoux and Adele Exarchopoulos are some of the most intimate seen in mainstream cinema - but it's the deep, unbridled love for each other that shines through. Although the movie is long at 179 minutes, when you realise this was trimmed down from the 800 hours of footage shot, you realise just what sort of undertaking this film involved.
3. Chocolat
Yes, the film does have some saccharine moments, but what do you expect when the movie is called Chocolat? Starring Juliet Binoche and Johnny Depp, Chocolat is set in the late Fifties in France, centring on a mysterious woman who comes to a small village and woos its inhabitants with her chocolate making skills. Things heat up when Johnny Depp turns up speaking all Irish as the love interest.
4. Frankie And Johnny
Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer had already been a screen couple in Scarface but in Frankie & Johnny their romance was a little less, well, blood and coke splattered. Pacino is an ex-con looking for a new job. He eventually gets one as a cook and falls for Frankie, a waitress played by Pfeiffer, who has just come out of an abusive relationship. Frankie and Johnny is romance done right - there's nothing fairytale about the love story, it's more two people being cautious about their emotions - which makes for a fantastic watch.
5. Ghost
Ghost is a movie that will always been a mainstay on 'best romance movies' lists. But that shouldn't detract from it being a pretty decent film. As well as the love story elements, the script touches on some pretty heady themes: loss, betrayal and ultimately what actually happens to us all when we die. If the film is to be believed, we will all help our loved ones make sexy pottery to the soundtrack of Unchained Melody.
And about that scene. It's apt that Demi Moore being manhandled by the horny apparition of Patrick Swayze has ended up being one of the most parodied moments in movies. It was directed by Jerry Zucker, who made his name parodying other movies with the likes of the Naked Gun and Airplane franchises.
6. Hannah and her Sisters
Woody Allen has always been a master at balancing comedy and romance, but he has never bettered it than in Hannah and Her Sisters. The film is a triptych of tangled love affairs that centre around Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her sisters Lee (Barbara Hershey) and Holly (Dianne Wiest). Not only does the film boast one of the best performances from Michael Caine, it was also Woody Allen's biggest box-office success. Not bad for a film that Allen famously said he 'screwed up'.
7. Happy Go Lucky
Mike Leigh's Poppy Cross - played by Sally Hawkins - is the ultimate Marmite character. Some will warm to the endlessly optimistic school teacher, others maybe put off by the positivity. She is a whirlwind in this movie, though, hitting everything at a breakneck speed and when romance does finally beckon you really root for the character.
8. His Girl Friday
The screwball comedy genre hit its heyday in the 1940s but no film managed to rise above the brilliance of His Girl Friday. Howard Hughes' classic is a heady mix of comedy and romance that zips along thanks to the machine-gun like dialogue that Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell effortlessly spout. The plot sees Grant as a charismatic git of a managing newspaper editor who tries to woo his ex-wife back into his life by offering her the chance of a front-page story. What ensues is a brilliant tug of war between sexes with a nice dollop of love on the side.
9. Kissing Jessica Stein
As art house movies go, Kissing Jessica Stein thankfully steers away from pretentiousness and boredom usually seen in this genre and instead injects some fun and romance into a story that sees bored journalist Jessica Stein answer a lonely hearts ad that's written by a woman, even though both parties are straight. Although derivative in places, Jessica Stein manages to shine a light on relationships and sexual orientation without being too preachy and uses the backdrop of New York to great effect.
10. Lady Chatterley
DH Lawrence's at-the-time controversial book about the romance that sparks up between an upper-class lady and gamekeeper has gone through a number of movie and TV iterations, but this is perhaps the best version. Made by French director Pascale Ferran, the movie centres on an alternative version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, also written by Lawrence called John Thomas and Lady Jane. The film is exquisitely shot and beautifully acted, and deserved all the Caesers it mopped up at the French equivalent of the Oscars back in 2006.
11. Love Is Strange
Love Is Strange is a great, current tale of two men who have been together for 40-something years and are able to finally get married. John Lithgow and Alfred Molina play the ageing lovers with just the right amount of humour and pathos - even as their lives start to unravel after their wedding - and the movie is beautifully shot with New York once again acting as a superb backdrop for this unique romantic tale.
12. Mermaids
It's not the most conventional romantic movie, but Mermaids has so much going for it. It's a film that tries not to be pigeon-holed. Part comedy, part romance - it's an eccentric patchwork quilt of a movie that is elevated thanks to its superb cast. Cher is fantastic as the idiosyncratic town-hopping mother, while Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci are superb as the daughters who have to try and rebuild lives in each town they go to. Once the movie settles, as the family finally settles, and Bob Hoskins comes on to the scene, Mermaids finds its heart.
13. Pretty in Pink
The words 'romantic' and 'comedy' can sometimes be a recipe for disaster but in the capable hands of John Hughes, it is movie gold. The forever-'80s Molly Ringwald stars as Andie, an outsider who falls for rick kid Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthey). What ensues is a fish-out-of-water tale, all set to one of the greatest movie soundtracks ever. Also, it's 30 years since its release so this is a must watch.
14. Romeo + Juliet
Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom may have hinted at the director's flamboyant style but it was Romeo + Juliet that proved he wasn't just a flashy filmmaker but a brilliant one, too. Shakespeare's tale of two star-crossed lovers is brilliantly brought to life here, in bold primary colours and fast cuts, set to a hyperreal American backdrop. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes are perfect as the doomed lovers, rounding off a movie that managed to make a whole new generation fall in love with the Bard's works.
15. The Thomas Crown Affair
Although not as slick as the original movie starring Steve McQueen, this remake sizzles thanks to the fantastic chemistry between Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Multimillionaire Thomas Crown is bored and unfulfilled so he decides to take up art theft, stealing a Monet for the fun of it. What ensues is the ultimate cat-and-mouse chase that ends up managing to raise more than blood pressures.
