The 10 Most Uplifting Romance Movies of All Time, Ranked

Image via Warner Independent Pictures Published Nov 12, 2026, 8:17 AM EST Jeremy has more than 2900 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows. His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings). When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account. He has achieved his 2025 goal of reading all 13,467 novels written by Stephen King, and plans to spend the next year or two getting through the author's 82,756 short stories and 105,433 novellas. Sign in to your Collider account There are undeniably sappy romantic movies out there, and sure, some of them are nice when you're in the mood for that kind of thing. On the other end of things, you’ve also got downbeat romantic movies, or films that might well be anti-romances. Break-up movies would fit into this category (see Blue Valentine, Scenes from a Marriage, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). If you want something that doesn’t feel sappy, though, yet you're also not in the mood to have your soul crushed, the movies below might well be worth jumping into. They are the best uplifting romance movies ever made, because they go for some big emotional beats without overdoing it, and really, what they’re all going for tonally is just nailed. That’s the main thing, and yes, most of them can be recommended to grouchy people who might be tempted to write off all romance movies as too cheesy or sentimental. These ones could make those folks see the light. 10 'Amélie' (2001) Image via UGC Fox Distribution Amélie is a nice movie that’s also largely about being nice. That’s what the titular character does, and sure, she’s a bit eccentric and maybe a tad unsettling, but she is nice. She means well. And also, the world around her is pretty strange and definitely heightened, so she kind of fits in with that world, albeit not perfectly, but again, she’s trying, and she wants to find someone she can fall in love with, too. There aren’t a ton of narrative beats here, so Amélie is technically light on story, yet that doesn’t matter too much when it’s going for something else, and because it wants to be more than a little strange throughout and stuff. Also, Amélie looks pretty great throughout, with a bold use of color and an overall energy that makes it feel quite fantastical at times, alongside the unusual sense of humor and the quirky romance angle it has going on at the same time, too. 9 'Groundhog Day' (1993) Image via Columbia Pictures Bill Murray plays the main character in Groundhog Day, and that guy, Phil, is a pretty rotten one at the start of the movie. He’s then put through hell, though, because he keeps living the same tedious day over and over again, which feels like karma for a while, but then goes on long enough that you start feeling sorry for him and hope he can break out of it. And, like, he does, because Groundhog Day is here among uplifting movies, so that does guarantee it has at least a somewhat nice ending. It’s well-earned, thankfully, and it does make for a pretty substantial and undeniably great character arc. Elsewhere, Groundhog Day balances all the genres it belongs to (comedy, romance, fantasy to some extent, and a little by way of drama) incredibly well. 8 'The Big Sick' (2017) Image via Amazon Studios/Lionsgate The Big Sick isn't just based on a true story, but one of the people in that true story, Kumail Nanjiani, pretty much plays himself. He was also a writer, alongside Emily V. Gordon, with Nanjiani and Gordon being married in real life, and The Big Sick is loosely based on what happened when they met, fell in love, and then navigated Gordon (named Emily Gardner in the film) being diagnosed with Still's disease. Because it touches upon that, it’s kind of a romantic dramedy, but when you know it was written by two people who are still together, a happy ending is inevitable, with it just being the case that they have to go through a lot before that sense of emotional catharsis is reached. As a film, The Big Sick feels very sincere, and the ups and downs of the whole situation are felt immensely throughout. 7 'Punch-Drunk Love' (2002) Sure, Punch-Drunk Love is a romance movie that’s heavy on anxiety, so it’s not really an easy watch, but it does end up being heartwarming, at least once you battle past all the nerves. That’s what the main character has to do, kind of. Like, he endures a lot before he can eventually be in love with someone else out there who complements his personality while sharing some of his struggles. Paul Thomas Anderson is at his most sentimental here, and yeah, that’s not saying a lot, since he’s not exactly the most sentimental of directors, but what he tries to do here? He does make it work. Also, Adam Sandler really is fantastic in Punch-Drunk Love, playing a huge role in the tense part of the movie feeling as tense as it does while also making his character, Barry Egan, feel sympathetic alongside feeling flawed. 6 'Sing Street' (2016) Image via The Weinstein Company While it isn't quite old enough to be a classic just yet, there’s a good chance Sing Street will be considered one once enough time has passed. For now, it’s still tentatively worth considering as an all-time great musical, and of all the movies and TV shows from the 2010s that looked back upon the 1980s in one way or another, this is absolutely one of the better ones. It’s about a teenage boy navigating a strained home life and some difficult times at a new school, and then what happens when he decides to put together a band basically only because he wants to impress a girl. There are so many points in Sing Street where it could've felt like too much, or become a bit too cheesy, but it toes the line perfectly and is ultimately very sweet without being saccharine. 5 'Moonrise Kingdom' (2012) Image via Focus Features It isn’t the most twee of all the Wes Anderson films, but Moonrise Kingdom does still have its moments, and it’s unlikely anyone will mistake it for the work of another director. It's set on a small island and follows two 12-year-olds who fall in love and decide to run away together. When they venture into the wilderness, they prove capable of surviving, but some adults still band together and try to find them. It’s got a good mix of coming-of-age stuff, comedy, and romance that ultimately feels quite sweet. Moonrise Kingdom gets a bit overshadowed by The Grand Budapest Hotel, which came out a couple of years later and seems to be regarded by most people as the better Wes Anderson movie, but Moonrise Kingdom should still be allowed to stand on its own, and out of any other movie’s shadow. It’s also a good balance between the hyper-Wes Anderson movies (2014 onwards) and the stuff from the 1990s and 2000s that felt ever so slightly more grounded and, for lack of a better word, authentic. 4 'The Princess Bride' (1987) Image via 20th Century Studios If you can find a person who doesn’t like The Princess Bride, then congrats, because you’ve found the human being equivalent of a diamond (in terms of rareness… maybe not in terms of other qualities associated with diamonds). Here, you get a movie that feels like a fairy tale and a gentle parody of those sorts of stories at the same time, and then it’s also a story within a story, which is a way to reflect the postmodern quality of the book the movie was based on. It all works quite miraculously, and even judged generally as a movie, rather than a comedic romance/fantasy film, it really could well be one of the very best of all time. Still, it’s a fairly different movie compared to the book, in some ways, and maybe has a tiny bit more heart in the end? It all works quite miraculously, and even judged generally as a movie, rather than a comedic romance/fantasy film, it really could well be one of the very best of all time. It’s one of the most uplifting and pleasing of all the crowd-pleasers. 3 'Singin' in the Rain' (1952) Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Singin’ in the Rain is possibly the best of all the classic musicals, and also likely the easiest to get into and appreciate. It’s got a breezy story about the film industry transitioning from silent movies to talkies, and while you get a sense of the difficulties involved with all that, it never becomes a heavy-going or downbeat watch. If you want something thematically similar, but more cynical and/or darkly comedic, there is always Sunset Boulevard and the more recent Babylon. There’s also a chance Singin’ in the Rain is great and irresistible enough to convert someone who might otherwise be a musical naysayer. There’s a focus on comedy here, above all else, and then some simple but sweet romance thrown in for good measure, so yes, it can still count here for present purposes. It’s just a good time of a movie, and one of the most undeniably likable in the history of cinema, too. 2 'Before Sunset' (2004) Image via Warner Independent Pictures The Before trilogy is an undeniably fascinating one. The first movie, Before Sunrise, is probably the most romantic, make no mistake. That one sees two young people meeting by chance, spending a whole night together, and then having to part in the morning, saying they’ll reconnect, but not knowing if that'll really come to pass. It does come to pass, but only nine years later, and by chance, in Before Sunset. They only spend a bit over an hour together in this one, and there are more realities of life explored here that stop it from feeling as sweeping or consistently romantic as Before Sunrise. Yet the reconnecting happening at all – and the ultimately hopeful final scene – do make it eventually feel like the most optimistic film of the three (and then the final one, Before Midnight, is more grounded and intense, yet still a great way to round out the whole trilogy). 1 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989) Image via Columbia Pictures You might not like rom-coms generally, but When Harry Met Sally is so good you'll probably be willing to make an exception for it. Well, if you don’t make an exception for it, then you're missing out, since it is effortlessly funny and romantic without ever being contrived or running the risk of feeling cheesy. It’s just honest about relationships and the ups and downs of falling for someone, but then in the end, it focuses more on the ups. The harder parts of navigating a long-term relationship make that ending more rewarding, of course, and this all sounds very obvious, but genuinely, no other romance movie of the sort that When Harry Met Sally is does it as well. Annie Hall is very well-written and honest, but somewhat more bittersweet by the end, while When Harry Met Sally is just all sweet by the end, yet thankfully not in a way that'll make you feel nauseous. It’s just a great movie.