Everyone loves a happy ending, but sometimes it is the sad ones that mean the most. When it comes to romance, the film world has often taken multiple different perspectives to portray how love can come across. One of these is a love story between two people that have their fair share of trials and tribulations, but ultimately it isn't meant to be. The way these movies draw on the dark realities of love is something both confronting to audiences but also comforting to see a story they can relate to.
Now with Valentine's Day around the corner, some people out there might just need a good cry come February 14. These movies are packed with enriching romantic dramas that will have you reaching for the tissues.
10 Five Feet Apart (2019)
Stella (Haley Lu Richardson), a 17-year-old cystic fibrosis patient, spends the majority of her time in the hospital. When she meets Will (Cole Sprouse), an incredibly charming teen with the same disease, her life's routines, limits, and self-control are all put to the test. Despite the fact that they are required to keep five feet between them, there is an instant connection. The urge to ignore the rules grows stronger as their connection grows.
This is one film that will have everyone in the room crying. A beautiful love story between two kids weighed down their whole life by their shared disease falling in love knowing it can't last. The ending will tear your heart and stomp it to a pulp.
9 The Light Between the Oceans (2016)
Tom (Michael Fassbender), a war-weary light housekeeper, and Isabel (Alicia Vikander), his lovely young wife, lead solitary lives. One day they come across a little boat floating in the sea with a baby girl inside. Isabel, who has suffered two prior miscarriages, convinces Tom to raise the girl as their own child without telling anybody what happened. Even though the baby still has a mother who is looking for her, Tom does everything he can to keep the child with them in an effort to make Isabel happy.
The line between right and wrong can be difficult to see, and this movie also decides not to give you what you expect. Both Fassbender and Vikander give outstanding performances as a married couple torn apart by their secrets. The film has audiences thinking what hey would do in their place.
8 Remember Me (2010)
Remember Me is a love story focusing on two new lovers: Tyler (Robert Pattinson), whose parents divorced after his brother committed suicide, and Ally (Emilie de Ravin), who has been living life to the fullest ever since she saw her mother murdered. Even though the circumstances that brought them together eventually pose a threat to their relationship, her energy helps in his healing from the catastrophe that befell his family.
It is a very emotional and intense film that demonstrates the power of both grief and love. The core characters are all severely broken and damaged individuals who, as a result of come into each other's lives, grow as people and discover their own reasons for living life fully.
7 My Girl (1991)
With her whole life being overshadowed by death, Vada (Anna Chlumsky), a dreary 11-year-old, learns to navigate her life alongside her best friend Thomas (Macaulay Culkin). The unlikely duo of a hypochondriac tomboy and kid who is allergic to everything spend their summer break experiencing a number of firsts.
My Girl is one of those priceless little gems that appears to be something it is not. While the movie wants to amuse the younger audience it also manages to bring back painful memories of childhood innocence loss for the older audience.
6 Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a bright 17-year-old, is spending the summer of 1983 with his family at their 17th-century villa in Lombardy, Italy. He soon meets Oliver (Armie Hammer), a dashing PhD candidate who is serving as Elio's father's intern. Immersed in the sun-drenched glory of their surroundings, Elio and Oliver learn the intoxicating joy of new desire over the course of a summer that will change their lives forever.
Call Me by Your Name quickly became a global hit and was exalted as a great LGBTQ+ film. This film honors the idea of love and depicts it in a heartfelt and moving manner. By the time the film is through, the final credits audiences will only be sobbing and sniffling. One of the most lovely yet painful relationships to grace the silver screen.
5 Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Based on the Stephen Chbosky novel, this story follows 15-year-old Charlie (Logan Lerman), a kind and innocent outsider, as he deals with his first love (Emma Watson), his best friend's suicide, and his own mental illness while trying to find a community of people to belong to. Sam and Patrick, two seniors, take the shy freshman under their wing and help him adjust to life in the outside world.
While the romance between Charile and Sam is something beautiful, it's the love that Charlie gains for his new-found friends that exudes of the screen. Lerman brings depth and believability to the character of Charlie, managing to accurately portray mental illness in a film that many people relate to.
4 All the Bright Places (2020)
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All the Bright Places follows the story of Theodore (Justice Smith) and Violet (Elle Fanning). Theodore meets Violet when she is standing on the edge of bridge and even though their relationship gets off to a rocky start, the two end up changing each other lives forever. As they both struggle with their own individual mental health and scars of their pasts, they learn, together, that even in small and unseeingly moments, they can find meaning.
This movie does an extraordinary job at portray pain, both in public and behind closed doors. With a relationship consist of two people who really need to look after themselves first viewers can guess it doesn't end the best way. However, All the Bright Places shows that everything happens for a reason.
3 A Star is Born (2018)
Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), a seasoned musician, meets and falls in love with struggling artist Ally (Lady Gaga). She has all but given up on her ambition to become a famous singer, but Jack manages to bring her into the spotlight. However, as Jack continues to struggle with his own inner demons, their emotional relationship is unraveling just as Ally's career soars.
A Star is Born is a love story mixed with pain, addiction, fame, and tragedy. The film can only be described as a double-edged sword as it touches your emotions and grows on you from the love of the two central characters and the pain combined with fame and sorrow. The chemistry between the two leads is the cherry on top.
2 Me Before You (2016)
After losing her job at her small town's baker, Louisa Clark (Emilia Clarke) gets employed as a carer for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin), a banker who was crippled in an accident. Following his accident, Will has become depressed and hates life, but little does her know that Louisa is about to steamroll his life with her sunny personality and the two end up buting heads about everything. However, as they start to develop feelings for one another, Wills secret looms over their happiness.
Me Before You reminds people what it is to really love someone. It's the undeniable, overwhelming pull from our hearts that grows only when we really let ourselves care about someone unselfishly. This bittersweet film will leave audience thinking about the meaning of life and love.
1 Atonement (2007)
It was a day that would have consequences for all three of them when thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) saw her elder sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and her lover Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) being intimate in the library. Briony misinterprets what has happened between them, and as a result of her reaction, the two lovers are subsequently torn apart—possibly for good—as war breaks out in Britain.
The vast complexities of the story and the events that happen are not easily explained by this short summary. Here, the magnificent cast shows their full range as they balance a variety of emotions, including lust, recklessness, selfishness, and spite. Atonement will leave a mark, a scar, or a wound on your soul since it is an excruciatingly genuine and tragic story.