Sometimes there’s nothing like a good cry. Especially when the woes of romance hit hard. If playing sad music, staring out the window at the rain, or wallowing in your sorrows isn’t working, it may be time to queue up a good old-fashioned tearjerker.
The heart-wrenching possibilities for a devastating love story are endless. Is it unrequited devotion that pierces you most? Lovers kept apart by disease, tragedy, or society? Maybe a series of just-missed connections that threaten any chance at happiness?
Here’s a curated list of melancholy romance movies that may just bring you the catharsis you crave. Watch ’em and weep.
Two lonely teenagers living in a small town in Indiana find meaning and connection in Brett Haley’s romantic drama, based on the novel by Jennifer Niven. The teen weepie stars Justice Smith as an outcast with mysterious inner demons and Elle Fanning as a girl tormented by the recent death of her sister. Working together on a school project to uncover the beauty of their home state, the sad duo find, in each other, a bright place — but it may or may not be enough to propel each of them through their personal darkness.
A forbidden romance between a sick young woman and one of her doctors is at the heart of this Brazilian melodrama from Diego Freitas. Nina (Giulia Be) is a gifted pianist who’s struggled with lupus for most of her life, preventing her from playing with a symphony orchestra. When she forges a bond with Gabriel (Henrique Zaga), he encourages her to chase her dream and audition for the orchestra. As Nina’s artistry and the couple’s love both blossom, her worsening condition and the suspicions of the hospital’s administration threaten their fragile hopes.
Spanning decades, this Vietnamese tearjerker from filmmaker Victor Vu tells a tale of unwavering, unrequited love. Ngan (Tran Nghia) has been in love with his best friend, Hà Lan (Trúc Anh) — the owner of the titular dreamy eyes — since childhood. As they grow older and their lives take divergent paths, he remains devoted and shows up for her when she experiences great hardship. But how long can a person sustain such a love without reciprocation? And at what point will it be too late for Hà Lan to realize that what she’s always wanted is right in front of her?
Based on Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz’s 1937 novel Znachor (which had been adapted twice for the screen previously, in 1937 and 1982), Michal Gazda’s 2023 drama Forgotten Love brings a heartrending story to epic life. Leszek Lichota stars in the Polish film as a surgeon who suffers a traumatic injury, leading his family to believe he’s dead. Fifteen years later, however, he resurfaces with no memories of what happened but his professional knowledge still intact. He begins to practice medicine again and is reunited with his daughter, who starts to bring pieces of his past back into focus.
In Dan Levy’s 2023 feature directorial debut, the main falling-in-love story has taken place well before the first scene — but it’s no less of a romance for it. Reeling after the death of his husband (Luke Evans), Marc (Levy) travels to Paris with his two best friends (Ruth Negga and Himesh Patel) to confront his grief and reckon with some newly uncovered truths about his relationship. What results is a dramedy packed with love — romantic love, platonic love, new love, and never-lost love. What’s not to love about that?
Some people, when faced with unfathomable heartbreak, jump into action — however futile. That’s the idea behind Irreplaceable You, in which a young woman named Abbie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) receives a shocking terminal cancer diagnosis and immediately embarks on a mission to proactively replace herself for her fiancé, Sam (Michiel Huisman). Best friends since childhood, Abbie and Sam have never imagined a future without each other, and Sam has no idea how to even attempt romance with anyone else. There’s humor to be found in Abbie’s singular enterprise, but make no mistake — Stephanie Laing’s romantic dramedy will have you reaching for the Kleenex.
In Augustine Frizzell’s time-jumping drama, the key to a once-thwarted romance lies in a love letter. Adapted from Jojo Moyes’ novel, The Last Letter from Your Lover stars Shailene Woodley as a wealthy young woman in the 1960s, Joe Alwyn as her controlling husband, and Callum Turner as a journalist with whom she has an affair — and begins a correspondence. In the present day, Felicity Jones plays a journalist who unearths one of the lovers’ letters and becomes determined to learn how their story ended, all while finding romance herself with her colleague, played by Nabhaan Rizwan.
Marta (Ludovica Francesconi) is a charming yet quirky young woman who’s eternally optimistic despite having cystic fibrosis and losing her parents at a young age. She and her two best friends move into her parents’ home, and despite Marta’s failing health, she decides she can’t die without falling in love. Marta sets her sights on a rich and handsome student, Arturo (Giuseppe Maggio), following him through social media, his rowing club, and at school until he notices and asks her out. They’re from entirely different worlds, but they start to fall in love, and Marta must decide how far to go before the reality of her situation threatens to end it all.
Anna (Sofia Carson) is a driven young woman from Queens, New York, with a finance job lined up, which offers the stability her parents desire. But when an opportunity to do a graduate program in poetry at Oxford arises, she gives herself a year to indulge her artistic interest. What she doesn’t expect is Jamie (Corey Mylchreest), a teaching assistant who deepens her understanding of poetry and opens her eyes to a life of surprise and adventure. He’s not part of her plan, but love doesn’t follow an agenda — nor do life’s toughest challenges, as they learn together.
Cassie (Sofia Carson), an aspiring musician, and Luke (Nicholas Galitzine), a troubled Marine get married — not out of love, but so they can get the military benefits. Over the course of Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum’s romantic melodrama, however, their practical (albeit fraudulent) arrangement begins to evolve into something deeper. Meanwhile, they navigate a series of hardships, including health crises, family tensions, military complications, and, inevitably, Luke’s demons finally catching up with him.
