Top 5 Rom-Coms For Valentines day
Romantic comedies get an unfair rap in the entertainment world. The bad examples tend to define the genre, from the blandly formulaic to the ridiculously raunchy. But a really good rom-com can leave you feeling light and happy, like a perfectly executed dessert at the end of a satisfying meal. For this Valentine’s Day, we’ve rounded up five rom-coms that are thoroughly fun to watch with a significant other, friends, or family (including older kids)
Leap Year (2010, PG)
Leap Year is a shining example of the road trip rom-com, a subgenre with plenty of opportunities for humorous mishaps and teamwork between the main couple. Amy Adams stars as Anna, an uptight over-planner who embarks on a disaster-filled trip across Ireland to propose to her boyfriend on Leap Day in accordance with an old tradition. Along the way, she meets Declan (Downton Abbey’s Matthew Goode, with a suspiciously fluctuating Irish accent), a surly pub owner who joins in on her journey and makes her question her carefully-laid plans for the future. Leap Year serves up plenty of travel-related hijinks and romantic scenes set against the gorgeous Irish countryside.
Language: Several instances of mild profanity. Declan uses strong Irish profanity a few times, very quickly or in a mumble.
Violence: Declan briefly brawls with some men in a pub.
Sexual Content: Mild sexual innuendo and romantic tension throughout. We briefly see Anna in underwear, and silhouetted behind a shower curtain. In a luggage-related gag, a man removes Anna’s underwear from her suitcase.
Questionable Content: Declan breaks a chicken’s neck while he and Anna are cooking together, and we hear a gruesome crack sound effect. Anna gets drunk to the point of throwing up..
Penelope (2006, PG)
Penelope is a beautiful modern fairy tale rom-com that manages to be sweet and earnest without being twee. Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) is a kind young woman born under a family curse: she has a nose that looks like a pig’s snout. The only way to break the curse is to find someone of noble birth who will love her, but her family’s matchmaking efforts go awry when gambling con man Johnny (James McAvoy) infiltrates the Wilhern estate. Beneath the movie’s fantasy plot and playful visual style, Penelope offers some great conversation starters about beauty, acceptance, and self-fulfilling prophecies.
Language: A few instances of mild profanity.
Violence: Penelope’s mother repeatedly hits a trespassing reporter. There is no blood, but the reporter wears an eyepatch for the rest of the movie.
Sexual Content: A female friend makes a mild sexual joke to Penelope who, having lived a sheltered life, doesn’t get it.
Questionable Content: Many characters exaggerate about how frightening Penelope’s nose is: we see some scary drawings and hallucinations of her. Penelope gets drunk in her first independent jaunt through the city. Several of Johnny’s gambling friends smoke and drink alcohol.
Austenland (2013, PG-13)
Austenland is a confection, a unique blend of colorful Jane Asuten finery and madcap humor. Director Jerusha Hess is also the co-writer and co-creator of Napoleon Dynamite, and echoes of Dynamite’s bizarre comedy style are all over Austenland. Modern-day Austen superfan Jane (Keri Russell) books a vacation to Asutenland, a remote English manor house in which guests and paid actors pretend they are living in the early 19th century, complete with costumes and pre-written backstories. Once there, Jane finds herself with a variety of Regency Era suitors, and has a hard time telling the difference between fiction and reality. Austenland is full of laughs, and has lots of wonderful Easter eggs and references for devoted Jane Austen fans.
Language: Absolutely no profanity whatsoever. Characters call each other some rude yet creative names.
Violence: Slapstick-style fighting. Two men have a Bridget Jones-style brawl over Jane’s affections.
Sexual Content: What this movie lacks in profanity it makes up for with a heavy dose of bawdy humor and anatomical references. We see several supporting characters engaging in comically over-passionate kissing. There is a close-up of some footmen in tight-fitting pants.
Questionable Content: In a brief but frightening scene, a man makes creepy, unwanted sexual advances on Jane, and she successfully fights him off.
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009, PG)
In Confessions of a Shopaholic, spunky journalist Becky Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) has to conceal her compulsive shopping habit when she accidentally lands a job as a financial advice columnist. The movie is unapologetically fluffy and wacky, with plenty of high fashion, slapstick comedy from Becky, and some charming give-and-take between her and her boss-turned-love-interest Luke (Hugh Dancy). But underneath the glamorous costumes and swanky New York party scenes, Shopaholic also delivers a surprisingly thoughtful portrayal of addiction. Becky’s shopping problem causes serious financial and emotional harm to herself and the people around her, and the happy ending of the movie is only the beginning of Becky’s recovery journey, not a magical cure for all her problems.
Language: Mild profanity throughout, with one instance of Becky referring to another woman as a b****
Violence: In a quick and silly shopping scene, Becky fights another woman over a pair of shoes.
Sexual Content: Mild sexual jokes and innuendo. A very brief scene shows an unmarried couple (not the main leads) sleeping in the same bed. Some of Becky’s outrageous outfits are revealing.
Questionable Content: Becky’s financial writing career begins as the result of a drunken evening with a friend.
This Beautiful Fantastic (2016, PG)
The quietly gorgeous This Beautiful Fantastic may not fit the traditional rom-com formula, but it is romantic and funny and wonderful. Jessica Brown Findlay, also of Downton Abbey fame, plays Bella Brown, an odd and fastidious librarian with a pathological fear of nature. When her cantankerous neighbor Alfie (Tom Wilkinson) takes issue with her neglected backyard, Bella begins a journey of self-discovery through gardening, and a romance with eccentric inventor Billy (Jeremy Irvine). Bella and Billy’s love story is not the centerpiece of This Beautiful Fantastic (I was personally rooting for something to happen between Bella and her charming housekeeper Vernon, played by Sherlock’s Andrew Scott), but the movie is nonetheless filled with flowers, fairy tales, and deep slow-burn friendships. What could be more romantic for Valentine’s Day?
Language: Two or three mild swear words, with one instance of Vernon calling Alfie a b******. Alfie viciously insults the people around him for the first half of the movie.
Violence: None!
Sexual Content: None!
Questionable Content: I’m questioning why more people haven’t heard of this stunning movie.
