The 25 Best Romance Movies of the 21st Century
by malthe-tuxen | created - 13 Oct 2019 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicMy 25 personal favorite romance movies from 2000-2024
Honorable Mentions:
A Star Is Born (2018)
Phantom Thread (2017)
God's Own Country (2017)
Paterson (2016)
The Danish Girl (2015)
The Theory Of Everything (2014)
Frances Ha (2013)
Blue Is The Warmest Color (2013)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Bridesmaids (2011)
Biutiful (2010)
Mr. Nobody (2009)
Up In The Air (2009)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)
Knocked Up (2007)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Love Actually (2003)
Good Bye, Lenin (2003)
Talk To Her (2002)
Amelie (2001)
High Fidelity (2000)
In The Mood For Love (2000)
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1. Before Midnight (2013)
R | 109 min | Drama, Romance
We meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna.
Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Ariane Labed
Votes: 172,073 | Gross: $8.11M
With:
Before Sunset (2004)
2. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)
R | 103 min | Drama, Romance
A boy is raised by a Buddhist monk in an isolated floating temple where the years pass like the seasons.
Director: Kim Ki-duk | Stars: Kim Ki-duk, Oh Yeong-su, Jong-ho Kim, Kim Young-min
Votes: 86,794 | Gross: $2.38M
3. Call Me by Your Name (2017)
R | 132 min | Drama, Romance
In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.
Director: Luca Guadagnino | Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar
Votes: 315,354 | Gross: $18.10M
4. The Handmaiden (2016)
Not Rated | 145 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Cho Jin-woong, Moon So-ri
Votes: 172,557 | Gross: $2.01M
5. La La Land (2016)
PG-13 | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future.
Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 670,877 | Gross: $151.10M
6. Her (2013)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara
Votes: 669,114 | Gross: $25.57M
7. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
PG-13 | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After being dumped by the girl he believes to be his soulmate, hopeless romantic Tom Hansen reflects on their relationship to try and figure out where things went wrong and how he can win her back.
Director: Marc Webb | Stars: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Geoffrey Arend, Chloë Grace Moretz
Votes: 557,467 | Gross: $32.39M
8. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
R | 134 min | Drama, Romance
Ennis and Jack are two shepherds who develop a sexual and emotional relationship. Their relationship becomes complicated when both of them get married to their respective girlfriends.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Randy Quaid
Votes: 382,056 | Gross: $83.04M
9. About Time (I) (2013)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.
Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson
Votes: 385,641 | Gross: $15.32M
10. Marriage Story (2019)
R | 137 min | Drama, Romance
Noah Baumbach's incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.
Director: Noah Baumbach | Stars: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Julia Greer, Azhy Robertson
Votes: 346,198 | Gross: $2.00M
11. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
R | 129 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later.
Director: Juan José Campanella | Stars: Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, Carla Quevedo
Votes: 222,297 | Gross: $6.39M
12. The Artist (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 100 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When George, a silent movie superstar, meets Peppy Miller, a dancer, sparks fly between the two. However, after the introduction of talking pictures, their fortunes change, affecting their dynamic.
Director: Michel Hazanavicius | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell
Votes: 248,570 | Gross: $44.67M
13. Big Fish (2003)
PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.
Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange
Votes: 458,763 | Gross: $66.26M
14. Little Children (2006)
R | 137 min | Drama, Romance
The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations in suburban Massachusetts.
Director: Todd Field | Stars: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley
Votes: 116,722 | Gross: $5.46M
15. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 299,706 | Gross: $50.93M
16. Little Women (2019)
PG | 135 min | Drama, Romance
Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women, each determined to live life on her own terms.
Director: Greta Gerwig | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen
Votes: 245,366 | Gross: $108.10M
17. Revolutionary Road (2008)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s struggle to come to terms with their personal problems while trying to raise their two children.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Christopher Fitzgerald, Jonathan Roumie
Votes: 224,927 | Gross: $22.91M
18. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Socially frustrated Barry Egan calls a phone-sex line to curb his loneliness. Little does he know it will land him in deep trouble and will jeopardize his burgeoning romance with the mysterious Lena.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Andrews
Votes: 177,357 | Gross: $17.84M
19. Carol (2015)
R | 118 min | Drama, Romance
An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.
Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler
Votes: 142,328 | Gross: $12.71M
20. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn't commit.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 52,483 | Gross: $14.92M
21. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
R | 122 min | Drama, Romance
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Director: Céline Sciamma | Stars: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel, Luàna Bajrami, Valeria Golino
Votes: 109,368 | Gross: $3.76M
22. A Single Man (2009)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An English professor, one year after the sudden death of his boyfriend, is unable to cope with his typical days in 1960s Los Angeles.
Director: Tom Ford | Stars: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult
Votes: 117,733 | Gross: $9.17M
23. Cast Away (2000)
PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White
Votes: 638,346 | Gross: $233.63M
24. Mr. Nobody (2009)
R | 141 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A boy stands on a station platform as a train is about to leave. Should he go with his mother or stay with his father? Infinite possibilities arise from this decision. As long as he doesn't choose, anything is possible.
Director: Jaco Van Dormael | Stars: Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh-Dan Pham
Votes: 245,769 | Gross: $0.00M
25. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
R | 108 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.
Director: Michel Gondry | Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Gerry Robert Byrne
Votes: 1,077,530 | Gross: $34.40M
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