10 romantic movies to right a Valentine’s Day gone wrong

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be cheap chocolates, flat champagne and badly made rom-coms. Here are ten easy-to-find movies that have the right levels of romance, laughter and tears this Valentine’s Day.

Don’t leave yourself a sitting shot for potential Valentine’s Day doom and gloom.

If your V-Day starts trending towards cheap chocolates, flat champagne and heart-shaped foil balloons on a stick, you’ve got to have a back-up plan in place.

Here are ten easy-to-find movies on a variety of streaming services that will restore the right levels of love, romance, laughter and tears to your Valentine’s Day in the click of a button …

Who could forget Julia Roberts‘ iconic performance in Notting Hill.

NOTTING HILL

Foxtel

All this winning romantic comedy from UK screenwriter Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings & A Funeral) had to do was bring together Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Then it just sets off on its merry way, stretching the elastic of its will-they-finally-get-together? tension to just this side of its absolute snapping point. Roberts is Anna Scott, a $15 million-per-film movie star who has lobbed in London on a whistlestop publicity tour. A chance encounter with longtime loser-in-love William Thacker (Grant) in his bookstore gets hearts a’fluttering on a mutual basis.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

Actors Sandra Bullock & Peter Gallagher in While You Were Sleeping.

Disney Plus

Slick lawyer Peter (Peter Gallagher) gets mugged at a railway station, and is plucked away from an oncoming train by a heroic, heart-of-gold type, Lucy (Sandra Bullock in the kind of role she relishes). He goes into a coma in hospital, she gets mistaken for his fiance, and the rest of this kooky crowd-pleaser just about writes itself. Like most effective rom-coms, this is all heart and no head, but it does have a habit of sneaking in some intriguing twists and turns when you least expect it.

SET IT UP

Netflix

Netflix churns out original rom-coms at a rapid-fire rate. This casually witty and utterly adorable ball of meet-cute fluff is the best to roll off the assembly line so far. Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are overworked executive assistants both toiling for overdemanding bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) in the same Manhattan corporate HQ. To make their lives easier, Harper and Glen conspire to bring their slave-driving overseers together. And wouldn’t you just know it? The scheme backfires in ways that beings them closer together instead. Don’t worry about that very familiar premise here. Focus instead on the effortless chemistry between Deutch and Powell (both clearly destined for bigger, better things).

THE VOW

Based on a true story, ‘The Vow’ was a real tear-jerker

Foxtel

This kooky romantic drama has a happy knack of wrong-footing viewers the right way, time and time again. Supposedly based on a true story, the premise pitches Rachel McAdams as a funky sculptor who contracts amnesia in a car accident, and no longer recognises hunky record-producer hubby Channing Tatum. While she reverts to a past life as a straitlaced law student, he frets and frowns upon how to rewrite a marriage that could already be history. There are some scenes where it is miraculous that Tatum and McAdams were able to remain upright, what with the huge nuggets of guilty-pleasure gold unceremoniously plonked in their way. Definitely one for both avid chick-flickers and the so-bad-it’s-good crowd.

CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.

What isn’t to love about a movie that features a shirtless Ryan Gosling?

Foxtel

A solid, almost apologetically sincere comedy, perhaps a little too play-safe for some adventurous tastes, but played to near-perfection by a top-flight cast. Steve Carell (Date Night) stars as Cal, a middle-aged Mr Average who has just been dumped by Emily (Julianne Moore), his wife of over twenty years. With assistance from a younger Mr Smooth named Jacob (Ryan Gosling), Cal gradually becomes a proficient player of the dating game. The more you burrow into its many subplots, the more interesting and creatively connected the film becomes.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS

In-laws, hey.

Foxtel, Netflix, Amazon

Anyone who has a weakness for clever feel-good comedies, fairytale romance, high fashion, great food and/or utterly charming performances are going to be bowled over by how strong this movie connects with each and every pleasure centre. All storytelling roads intersect in a blinged-up Singapore doubling down on the glitz and glamour as the city’s society wedding of the decade approaches. As a madcap, mega-affluent array of family and friends arrive for the nuptial revelry, American-raised Rachel (Constance Wu) discovers her Singaporean boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) belongs to the richest old-money clan in all of Southeast Asia.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER

500 Days of Summer was a true stroke of genius

Google, iTunes, YouTube Movies

One of the better romantically inclined comedies of the past 15 years flashbacks and fast-forwards through the 500 days of a young couple’s problematic relationship. The order in which we witness Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) continually getting together, falling apart and misreading each other’s signals is a true stroke of genius. With sharp writing, clever direction and pitch-perfect performances, what is there not to love?

COLD MOUNTAIN

What would a Valentine’s Day list be without Jude Law?

Foxtel Now, Stan

Jude Law is a wounded Confederate soldier who goes AWOL from the front line of the Civil War to be reunited with his Southern belle sweetheart Nicole Kidman. Epic romance specialist Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) serves up an attractive adaptation of Charles Frazier’s acclaimed novel. Benefits greatly from the presence of Renée Zellweger as a feisty frontierswoman.

THE BIG SICK

Stan

Kumail Nanjiani (TV’s Silicon Valley) plays a stand-up comic who has found his perfect match in Emily (Zoe Kazan). He is determined to keep believing this is so when Emily contracts an illness that puts her in a deep coma. If you expect the movie to start desperately grasping for the nearest sentimental cliche, think again. Nanjiani (who co-wrote the screenplay with his wife based on their own fraught courtship) has a lot to say about modern love and the healing act of being there for someone who doesn’t even know you’re there. Though you’ll be listening hard, you’ll often be laughing even harder.

MORE MOVIES:

RICHARD JEWELL A CHILLING TALE DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD

WHY YOU SHOULD SEE PARASITE RIGHT AWAY

WHY BIRDS OF PREY ISN’T FOR THE FAINT HEARTED

MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING

Another classic Julia Roberts movie.

Google, iTunes, YouTube Movies

We started this list with a dose of rom-com icon Julia Roberts, and that’s just how we’re gonna end it too, OK? Australia’s own P.J. Hogan followed his superb direction of Muriel’s Wedding with an equally strong American feel-gooder. If the sight of a surly, self-loathing Roberts trying to ruin the impending nuptials of a hyper-sweet Cameron Diaz doesn’t put a smile on your dial, then you are very hard to please indeed. The final exchange between Roberts and best bud Rupert Everett is a cracker, too – a vital lesson in how to leave an audience happy without the need for a happy ending.