Five romantic movies guaranteed to make you cry
Film is a great medium to turn to when you’re feeling sad. There are countless comedies out there to cheer you up, as well as stories that might make you feel less alone. Then there are those that will allow you to let out a big, cathartic cry, perhaps one you’ve been holding in for a long time.
As pink and red decorations and boxes of chocolates flood the shelves of every shop, it can be hard to stomach this celebration of love every February if you don’t have anyone to share it with – or maybe you’re just not the sentimental type. If you’re feeling bitter about Valentine’s Day and need something a little less fluffy and hopeful to watch, you might find a tear-jerking emotional drama more appealing.
Movies that don’t reward us with happy endings often seem cruel, like the director is purposefully trying to upset us and make us miserable for the rest of the day. But sometimes a really depressing romance film is what we need so that we can release any pent-up feelings we’ve been harbouring.
So, from unsuspectingly heartbreaking movies like Atonement to classic tales of romance’s unfairness, such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, here are five romantic films guaranteed to make you cry.
Five romantic movies guaranteed to make you cry:
‘One Day’ (Lone Scherfig, 2011)
When the Netflix miniseries One Day was released in 2024, it became one of the most popular shows of the year. Yet, over a decade prior, Lone Scherfig adapted the book, written by David Nicholls, into a movie. While we’ll admit that it’s not the greatest movie on this list – Anne Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent leaves little to be desired – it’s certainly one that will punch you in the gut and leave you sobbing. Told over the course of 20 years, we watch Emma and Dexter as they attempt to resist each other’s advances and remain friends.
It’s a classic romantic set-up, leading us to believe that after all this will-they-won’t-they malarkey we’ll be rewarded with a happy ending. One Day doesn’t give us what we want, though, making it a soul-crushing watch that’ll have you feeling incredibly existential and make you question whether the amount of pain we often go through for love is even worth it.
‘Blue Valentine’ (Derek Cianfrance, 2010)
You only need to have seen Blue Valentine once for it to sear itself into your brain and refuse to leave. Directed by Derek Cianfrance, the movie uses flashbacks to depict a crumbling relationship, showing the highlights of Dean and Cindy’s relationship (played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, respectively) intercut with bitter arguments and screaming matches. It’s a painful watch, with the couple’s initial meeting and their sweet early dates and moments spent together being brutally undermined by later scenes.
Blue Valentine is not the kind of movie to watch on a first date or when you’re in the honeymoon stages of a relationship. Rather, it’s the kind of film you might gravitate towards when you’re freshly single and in need of a cry. Be warned, however, Blue Valentine really has all of the components to make you feel as though love is totally futile and painful, and you might end up feeling even worse.
‘Call Me By Your Name’ (Luca Guadagnino, 2017)
Sometimes, a love affair is just as long as a summer, something that Elio painfully discovers in Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino’s moving romantic drama that helped to put Timothee Chalamet on the map. Released in 2017, the movie tracks the relationship between a 17-year-old named Elio and the 24-year-old Oliver, who comes to Italy to help Elio’s father with some academic research. While Elio tries to maintain a relationship with a girl, Marzia, he can’t resist Oliver’s charms, secretly rendezvousing with the American graduate student.
Yet, while Elio reckons with his sexuality and feels himself falling in love for the first time, he is forced to come to terms with the fact that Oliver is only staying with his family for the summer, and then he’ll be flying back home. It’s a tender, emotional, and often bizarre story, encapsulating the inevitabilities of first loves and the eventual heartbreak most of us come to experience.
‘Atonement’ (Joe Wright, 2007)
Based on Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name, Atonement is a heartbreaking story of childhood innocence shattering something beautiful between two adults, leading to a lifetime of regret. The movie tells the story of Briony (a young Saoirse Ronan), a 13-year-old who mistakenly accuses the housekeeper’s son, Robbie, of being a rapist, causing Robbie and Briony’s sister, Cecilia, to be torn apart. As Robbie is arrested and then sent to war, Briony must live with a lifetime of guilt for splitting up Cecilia and Robbie, who loved each other, as well as wrongly sending him to prison.
Wright uses narrative structure well, creating a powerful emotional impact that plays with the audience’s expectations. The movie is a harsh reminder that sometimes life is cruel and things just don’t work out the way we hope them to, and you’ll likely find yourself holding back tears as you reach the end of Atonement.
‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg ‘(Jacques Demy, 1964)
We understand that musicals aren’t for everyone, but The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is far from your average Hollywood musical. Released by Jacques Demy in 1964 and associated with the French New Wave, the film follows a young woman who works in an umbrella shop with her mother, but all she wants is to marry her boyfriend, Guy. Shortly after he is sent to war, she discovers she is pregnant, but the pair must continue their lives separately.
With a gorgeous colour palette and fantastic performances from Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo, the film accurately captures the experience of moving on from a love that you’re not ready to say goodbye to. The final scene is one of the most quietly heartbreaking moments in cinema, with Demy showing us that sometimes, this is just how life pans out.
