A realistic romance movie is always about romance based on practicality instead of happily ever after.
It is a movie inspired by real events or true emotions, not fairy tales and dreams. It is a movie to which you can relate.
A realistic romance movie doesn’t tell you that you should be horrible to anyone and expect them to forgive you because you made a speech in front of their colleagues. Instead, it reveals how important your words and actions are.
You learn right from wrong in a realistic romance movie. It shows characters coping with the repercussions of their actions, not being praised for a brief shining moment.
Most romantic movies seem to be a little over the top, but there are also a few realistic romance movies that you can learn from. There is no need for romantic movies to be cheesy, corny, and fake.
The concept of realistic romantic movies or romcoms (romantic comedies) is sometimes mocked. Find the right ones, and as if they have been based on fact, you will enjoy them.
Here is a list of some realistic romance movies that you can learn from:
1. The New Romantic
This movie, released in 2018, is full of fresh faces. It sheds light on dating in the modern age instead of a fairytale-like romance.
It reflects the absence of romance that we sometimes see where the equivalent of sweeping someone off their feet is swiping right.
This movie (The New Romantic) follows Blake (Jessica Barden) through her life of love—or lack thereof. She discovers what romance really is and what she wants it to be.
This film makes you question what we think is romantic and what we want from a partner.
2. A Swedish Love Story
Youth is distinguished by the kind of innocent beauty that gradually fades away throughout adulthood.
This is among the most interesting realistic romance movies. Roy Andersson’s “A Swedish Love Story” reminds us of the fresh viewpoint of youth on life and love.
Two teenagers find each other in an apathetic world that is drowned in trouble and suffering. Annika and Pär’s parents battle with internal demons, ignoring their children’s issues.
The protagonists construct their intellectual world through a primary erotic relationship, which is free of teenage patterns and conventional aspirations.
The young couple shares tenderness and emotion despite the discouraging attitude of the environment.
Annika and Pär’s neglected love story does seem like a valuable gem lost in a muddy field. The two children’s excessively beautiful faces visualize the grace of their pure, romantic hearts.
In addition, the impressive scenery of the Swedish landscape, where their romance mostly takes place, looks like the real, disappointing world’s opposition.
3. My Best Friend’s Wedding
Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts, and Dermot Mulroney star in this 90’s classic.
From the start, we follow our anti-hero, Julianne Roberts, who is determined to break up her best friend’s wedding because she finally wants to be with him after years of maybe.
You would assume she is going through these challenges in the shenanigans and even a classic sing-along scene to eventually be with the man she has lusted after for years.
Instead, we see a greedy, deranged woman who ends up alone. We see concerns resolved by a couple who are in love. We also learn how important a true friend can be.
4. Blue Valentine
As it usually happens, one day, Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) meet each other. They are young, they are hardworking, and they are in love.
Marriage follows their relationship, and the birth of a daughter soon follows marriage. Within a short period, they find their lives formed according to a traditional standard.
Dean’s got Cindy, Cindy’s got Dean, and life continues. During this path, however, Cindy gradually becomes detached from her former motives that contributed to her present lifestyle.
By comparison, Dean watches his disappointed wife drift away; he loses himself and is overcome by his shortcomings in his attempts to get her close.
The film illustrates Dean and Cindy’s history and presents, in parallel, a search for the causes behind the decay of their love story. What’s gone wrong? The ravages of time cannot keep anything intact, neither body nor mind.
Sometimes, precious objects lose their charm, are covered by a dense layer of dust, and unfulfilled dreams look more like yearnings if they remain grounded somewhere in the past.
5. The Big Sick
The Big Sick is among the best realistic romantic movies since it is based on how Kumail Nanjiani, the co-writer and main character, met his real-life wife, Emily.
The movie begins with a cute meet-up. They start an enjoyable relationship, but because of cultural differences, they end it. Emily ends up in the hospital with a critical illness shortly after the split.
Kumail stuck around to face her outspoken parents, stand up to his own family, and know what he wanted, even though he was no longer with them.
This is a love story, unlike the majority of romance movies. This highlights the external challenges frequently omitted from film plots but issued in a serious relationship that we all face.
6. Léon Morin, Priest
Among the leading figures of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Pierre Melville focused on crime. In 1961, he placed a very different subject under a microscope, and so his exceptional film “Léon Morin, Priest” was made.
Barny (Emmanuelle Riva), an atheist communist, is forced to rethink her aversion to religion by an attractive Catholic priest (Jean-Paul Belmondo) during the German occupation of France.
She visits Léon frequently in his room after Barny’s first confession to share conversations about ethics and religion.
What would lead a grown-up woman to doubt her strong perceptions? At the height of her sensuality, Barny is a young widowed mother, and she clarifies this matter, by mentioning her attraction to a charming woman.
Léon remains focused on the theoretical scope of his relationship with Barny; he never makes it obvious, even though he experiences sexual tension. The spectator is, of course, inspired to consider the deeper thoughts and desires of Léon.
While Riva’s gentle eyes seeking a reaction from a man she incurably loves are hard to forget, a happy ending to this platonic romance will never happen.
The film is set in an ideal space-time, and social setting to show that inherent skill and faith are inextricable from humanity’s psychology and, even more, that they are different facets of the same coin.
Some people choose to share their lives with friends, while others dedicate themselves; in both cases, the scope is to love and be loved.
7. It’s Complicated
This is one of the best realistic romance movies. It shows audiences that twenty-somethings with glowy skin are not the only ones with romance in their brains.
Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep, and Steve Martin starred in this relatable and hilarious romantic comedy about dating after divorce.
It tells older audiences that there is still love out there. It illustrates to younger audiences that growing up does not mean stopping making mistakes.
And the contrast between a stable and a chaotic relationship makes it very clear.
8. Before Sunset
Before Sunset is a remarkable film that subtly brings introspective thoughts on many life-long issues to the surface; it is even more impressive from a technological point of view.
Through this brilliantly synthesized movie, Richard Linklater succeeded in generating deeper queries on one of his favorite subjects: the long-term handling of time.
Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meet in Paris nine years after spending a dream-like romantic day in Vienna. During these nine years, several circumstances have been established: Celine has a good career, and Jesse has a family.
To promote a novel that he (Jesse) wrote about his short love story with Celine, he visits Paris, where Celine lives.
Jesse is at a book signing, and Celine unexpectedly stands before him. The camera watches them walking and chatting until the audience forgets that he is watching a movie and feels that this couple is eavesdropping.
Once again, before Jesse takes a trip to America, he and Celine have one day to spend together. The protagonists cannot escape the electric vibes between them during these hours.
They seamlessly confront their life-defining unpredictable occurrences and decisions. What would Celine and Jesse’s lives be like if they had been together nine years earlier? This is the main issue that this film is about.
Just one fact remains apparent until the end of the day, even before Celine mentions it: Jesse will miss this flight.
9. The Break-Up
The Break-Up is a 2006 romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn living in a luxurious condo. Then, it takes a toll on their long-term relationship.
Though at times over the top, this romantic comedy is one of Hollywood’s most realistic. The Break-Up is one of the most interesting realistic romance movies.
This couple can’t seem to be letting each other go. They are youthful, petty, and jealous.
Although both realize that they are not meant to be together deep down, they are relaxed and can not seem to move on from a turbulent situation.
This is a hilarious movie full of awkwardness. Plus, the beautiful Jennifer Aniston is featured. But it also reveals how a true relationship unfolds.
10. Three Times
How is it possible for love to fail to achieve a final destination in several ways? “Three Times” is an interesting film of Taiwanese New Wave Cinema and a visual masterpiece intended to reveal three separate instances of incomplete romance.
In 1966, a soldier attempts an unsuccessful search for a girl who works as a hostess at a pool bar, traveling to one location after another.
A prostitute falls hopelessly in love with a client during the early years of the 20th century.
Finally, in modern Taipei, until they find themselves alienated from each other, a female pop singer and a male photographer have fallen into the abyss of technical means of communication.
The tales are called, respectively, “A Time for Love,” “A Time for Freedom,” and “A Time for Youth.”
This movie is an attempt by Hou Hsiao-Hsien to make it clear that love is not always sufficient: the pool bar hostess is interested in the young soldier in “A Time for Love.” She is never there for him, though.
Maybe the cherished customer of the prostitute does not reply to her kind of love in ‘A Time for Freedom,’ but he is affectionate.
In ” A Time for Youth, ” both characters are disturbed and unfocused. They handle their feelings clumsily and neglect their chances of happiness.
Sharing feelings is crucial and incredibly complicated. Bad timing, social stereotypes, and even complex conditions of fact might act as barriers to human existence’s substantial intentions.
The right to partnership is gained but not granted; losses are unavoidable, and it is rare to define the responses to relieve the pain.
