Romantic comedies are the ultimate go-to, light-hearted movies that you can watch time and time again and they will always make you laugh, cry or just feel good.
So get the chocolate and wine out, because here’s a list of the top 12 best rom-coms of all time to watch.
12. Suddenly 30
Starring: Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo
Release date: 23 April 2004
Director: Gary Winick
Box office: 96.5 million USD
Synopsis: On her 13th birthday, Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) makes a wish to wake up as a 30-year-old, and that’s exactly what happens. Jenna finds herself living in her dream apartment with a dream job, but it isn’t exactly what she thought it would be, so she tries to reconnect with her childhood best friend Matt (Mark Ruffalo).
Memorable moment: There are so many funny and sweet moments in Suddenly 30, but the one where Jenna finds out that Matty still has the dollhouse he made her for her 13th birthday has to be our favourite.
11. Love Actually
Starring: Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman
Release date: 26 December 2003
Director: Richard Curtis
Box office: $246.9 million USD
Synopsis: It’s Christmas time in London and Love Actually interweaves the love stories of very different couples. With its amazing cast and touching storylines, Love Actually has to be one of the best rom coms of all time.
Memorable moment: If we have to choose just one, it’s the moment Mark (Andrew Lincoln) confessed his love to Juliet (Keira Knightley). Yes, we know Mark is best friends with Juliet’s husband, but you can’t deny how romantic the gesture was.
10. 10 Things I Hate About You
Starring: Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa Oleynik
Release date: 24 June 1999
Director: Gil Junger
Box office: $53.5 million USD
Synopsis: Popular high school girl Bianca (Oleynik) can’t date boys until her older sister Kat (Stiles) does. So when new student Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) wants to date Bianca, he pays Patrick (Ledger) to get closer with Kat. The rom com is adapted from William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew.
Memorable moment:One of the best scenes is when Patrick sings Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ to Kate on the high school sporting field. Ever since we’ve wanted a boy to do the same. We miss you, Heath.
9. Crazy, Stupid, Love
Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone
Release date: 12 September 2011
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Box office: $142.9 million USD
Synopsis: Parents Cal (Carell) and Emily (Moore) seem to have a picture perfect life, until Emily asks for a divorce and Cal’s world completely changes. The middle-aged dad seeks the help of Jacob (Gosling) to get his life back on track.
Memorable moment: A shirtless Ryan Gosling doing the Dirty Dancing lift. Enough said.
8. Set It Up
Starring: Glen Powell, Zoey Deutch, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs and Pete Davidson
Release date: 15 June 2018
Director: Claire Scanlon
Synopsis: Two overworked and underpaid assistants come up with a plan to get their bosses off their backs by setting them up with each other.
Memorable moment: It’s not often a modern rom-com can compete with the classics, but this Netflix film was an *instant* classic thanks to its cheesy but classic storyline and the perfect chemistry! We don’t want to spoil too much but the Sexy Pizza Scene is definitely not one to miss…
7. The Holiday
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law
Release date: 26 December 2006
Director: Nancy Meyers
Box office: $205.1 million USD
Synopsis: Unlucky in love Iris (Winslet) swaps her English cottage with newly single Amanda’s (diaz) California mansion. In different countries for the holidays, the two women meet men who might just be their happily ever after. A good romantic comedy to watch anytime of the year, but we recommend cosying up and watching it during Christmas.
Memorable moment: When Iris and Miles (Black) bond for the first time over their unrequited loves, Iris gives a very relatable speech about heartbreak.
“What I am trying to say is I understand feeling as small and as insignificant as humanly possible. And how it can actually ache in places that you didn’t know you had inside you.
“And it doesn’t matter how many new hair cuts you get, or gyms you join, or how many glasses of Chardonnay you drink with your girlfriends. You still go to bed every night going over every detail and wonder what you did wrong or how you could have misunderstood.”
We told you it was relatable.
6. Sweet Home Alabama
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey and Josh Lucas
Release date: 19 December 2002
Director: Andy Tennant
Box office: $180.6 million USD
Synopsis: Fashion designer Melanie Carmichael (Witherspoon) has reinvented herself after moving from her small hometown to New York City. But after her boyfriend Andrew (Dempsey) proposes, Melanie has to go back home after years away to finally divorce her husband and first love, Jake (Lucas). So good.
Memorable moment: When the movie flashes back to a young Melanie who asks young Jake why he would want to marry her, and he responds: “So I can kiss you anytime I want”. Nawww!
5. How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
Starring: Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey
Release date: 24 April 2003
Director: Donald Petrie
Box office: 177.4 million USD
Synopsis: Andie Anderson (Hudson) is assigned to write a story for the women’s mag she works for about how to get a guy to leave her in just 10 days. That guy ends up being advertising executive Benjamin Barry (McConaughey) who, at the same time, had made a bet that he can make any woman fall in love with him in just 10 days. Starring two Hollywood heavyweights, it’s a must see.
Memorable moment: When Andie and Ben get their frustrations out by singing Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’ on stage.
4. You’ve Got Mail
Starring: Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks
Release date: 26 December 1998
Director: Nora Ephron
Box office: 250.8 million USD
Synopsis: As the internet bridges the gap between two unknowing business rivals, their real-life personas threaten their relationship.
Memorable moment: Although the premise of this movie is pretty out of date, the inner book-lover in us can’t get past this iconic film – especially the memorable moment when Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) takes his aunt and nephew into a children’s bookshop and meets Kathleen Kelly (Meg yan) for the first time.
3. Notting Hill
Starring: Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts
Release date: 10 June 1999
Director: Roger Michell
Box office: 364 million USD
Synopsis: Bookstore owner William Thacker’s (Grant) life turns upside down when the world’s most famous actress Anna Scott (Roberts) walks into his shop.
Memorable moment: In what has to be everyone’s favourite scene from Notting Hill, William’s sister (the late actress Emma Chambers) blurts out “holy f**k” when she bumps into Anna in William’s home, before going into a complete fan-girl rant.
2. Bridget Jones’s Diary
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
Release date: 26 July 2001
Director: Sharon Maguire
Box office: $281.9 million USD
Synopsis: She has just turned 32 and a forever-single Bridget Jones (Zellweger) decides to keep a diary, lose weight, stop smoking and find a decent man. The first film has spawned two sequels, and together they are three of the best rom-com movies yet.
Memorable moment: There are so many great scenes in this rom-com, especially when you put all three films together. But one of our favourites is when the loveable Bridget attends a party dressed as a playboy bunny before finding out that the “prostitutes and priests” theme had been cancelled. Oh, Bridge.
1. Sleepless In Seattle
Starring: Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan
Release date: 5 August 1993
Director: Nora Ephron
Box office: $227.8 million USD
Synopsis: Realising that Sam has still not come to terms with his wife Maggie’s death, his eight-year-old son Jonah forces him to call a national radio talk show, with the hopes of finding him a companion. Among the many women who hear Sam’s story and fall in love with him solely because of it is Annie Reed, a Baltimore-based newspaper writer.
Memorable moment: This whole movie builds up to a perfect An Affair to Remember-like happy ending. A picture-perfect meeting on top of the empire state building? Count us in!
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