“Love is a beautiful thing. When you find it, the whole world tastes like Daffodil Daydream. So you gotta hold onto love… tight! And never let go.” – Deadpool
We love love, and we love watching love blossom on screen. But when we think of romance in cinema, we find ourselves thinking back to former eras that introduced Gone With the Wind, Brief Encounter, Annie Hall, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Casablanca, Ghost and plenty more.
What about modern cinema’s take on romance? Hoyts and Flicks want to know what you think is the most romantic film of the last decade.
VOTE IN THE POLL AND WIN TICKETS TO HOYTS
That means the film has to have come out from roughly 2006 onwards. This means The Notebook doesn’t count – as much as we love that film, we’re pretty bloody sick of it winning these polls all the time.
In the poll, we’ve created a shortlist of 11 films, curated to accommodate both praise and popularity.
The Shortlist
“Smart and sweet, funny and genuinely moving. Should probably come with a ‘there’s something in my eye’ warning.” – Empire
“Pure class.” – Matt Glasby, Flicks
“Romantic dramas don’t come much better than this tender, thoughtful throwback…” – Adam Fresco, Flicks
“One of the most valuable young adult films Hollywood has produced in the last decade.” – Liam Maguren, Flicks
“A winningly unique ROM-com boasting achingly human joy and melancholy.” – Steve Newall, Flicks
“Winningly unpretentious tale uses a wispy romantic narrative as a vehicle for attractive original tunes.” – Variety
“The film is not a beautiful object or a memorable cultural one, and yet it charms, however awkwardly.” – New York Times
“By the end, you cannot bear the thought of these characters not finding their slice of happiness…” – Liam Maguren, Flicks
“This is a love story, at times a rom-com, and – spoiler for real life – somewhat of a tragic one.” – Giles Hardie, Flicks
“An undeniably sweet movie that had me pleasantly surprised in where it ended up.” – Liam Maguren, Flicks
“A montage of WALL•E trying to rouse EVE from her stand-by mode, and the pair later cavorting through space, are as romantic as anything ever achieved with fleshier cast members.” –Empire
We didn’t include some of our favourite romantic film, such as Like Crazy and Anomalisa, because they were so heavily underseen. On the flipside, we couldn’t bring ourselves to add successful slop like Safe Haven.
Plenty of great rom-coms were considered, like Trainwreck, Sleeping With Other People and Crazy, Stupid, Love. However, given this is a list of most romantic films of the last decade, we found these films to be more com than rom.
In a similar vein, films like Blue Valentine and Before Midnight didn’t make the cut. While these two films are outstanding commentaries on the nature of love, it’s bloody difficult to call either of them ‘romantic’.
Of course, you might disagree with our science on this one. That’s why we’ve given you the 12th option that lets you choose your own film from the past decade.
