I know I’m not the only one who wants to relax at the end of a long week with a nice movie, but then when I click to find something to watch, I waste a good 30 minutes just trying to find a movie. My criteria for a good rom com movie is something light but thought-provoking (something with more substance than a Hallmark Christmas movie, for example), and I don’t want to watch people having sex. You’d think that wouldn’t be too high of a bar, but often it is.
So, here are a few of my top picks if you have a similar dilemma and would like to watch a fun, romantic flick with some depth.
In this film based on a novel by Jane Austen, two sisters with different temperaments experience their own love stories. One sister is so detached from her emotions that she remains distant when she shouldn’t. The other is so emotionally invested that she falls head over heels without stepping back to think clearly. Each has to learn to temper her natural tendencies to make a relationship work. Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson give wonderful performances in this adaptation, making for a lovely and rewarding watching experience.
A zoo, an Italian restaurant, an architect, and a heart transplant walk into a bar ... and it turns out they make a great movie together. Minnie Driver plays Grace, a server at her family’s restaurant. She serves Bob while he’s on a blind date, and he hits it off with her instead of his date. After that, a charming relationship develops. Bob and Grace’s respective friends are real and enjoyable, making for a funny and comforting ride.
In an unusual love story that revolves around garden and yard upkeep, Bella discovers friendship through her strange neighbor and his hired help. She realizes there is much more than meets the eye in the people she meets, while confronting her fears about nature. The cinematography has a strange dreamlike quality about it, and the ending is a strange one that I did not expect (and do not particularly agree with). This all adds up to create an interesting and unexpected one and a half hour adventure.
This movie is both a romance and a comedy, but it doesn’t fit the typical rom com equation. The premise is that Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) is stuck in an airport terminal for the foreseeable future because his country’s civil war places him in a legal deadzone. Hijinks and love stories abound, but nothing ends up quite as tidily as one might hope. And in that lies the depth and soul of the movie.
Yours, Mine, and Ours (1968)
Sweet, spunky, and widowed Lucille Ball meets handsome, stable, and widowed Henry Fonda, and they fall in love (but don’t tell each other about the many children each one has been parenting alone). Their adventures trying to unite two different families into one after their wedding day are a funny and lovely witness to parenting and true love. Movies don’t often show the ever after part of happily ever after, and it is refreshing to see that the foundation of their relationship is mutual love and service to each other and their family (rather than attraction and compatibility being the foundation of a relationship as seen in other rom coms).
