Best Romantic Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now (January 2021)

We all need a little love in our lives, and sometimes there’s no better place to get a dose of those feel-good romance vibes than a favorite movie. If you’re looking for romantic movies you can watch right now, we’ve put together a list of the best romance films streaming on Amazon Prime Video right now, from classics, to rom-coms, to dramatic love stories and sexy thrillers.

Check out the list below, and if you didn’t find what you’re looking for here, check out our full list of the Best Movies on Amazon Prime or, if you’ve got Netflix and you’re still in the mood for love, check out our list of the Best Romantic Movies on Netflix.

Editor’s Note: This article was last updated on January 26. New additions include Sleepless in Seattle, Something’s Gotta Give, and Love Actually.

Sleepless In Seattle

Director: Nora Ephron

Writer: Nora Ephron, David S. Ward, Jeff Arch

Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Rob Reiner, Rosie O’Donnell

A classic Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan flick (second only to You’ve Got Mail), Sleepless in Seattle has all the hallmarks of a rom-com from the early 90s. Hank plays Sam Baldwin, a recent widower, who tells his story of grief on the radio and touches the hearts of women across the country. One of them happens to be Ryan’s Annie, who writes to Sam to meet her on the top of the Empire State Building. Sam’s son Jonah finds the letter and is immediately taken by the fact that Annie mentions the Orioles, and the rest is history. The Hanks/Ryan chemistry is undeniable and for many years, Sleepless in Seattle was the gold-standard for rom-coms. If you haven’t seen this classic, it’s time. — Therese Lacson

Something’s Gotta Give

Director/Writer: Nancy Meyers

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand, Amanda Peet, Jon Favreau

A charming story of opposites attract and finding love later in life, Jack Nicholson plays a 60-something philandering record company owner named Harry who is dating Amanda Peet‘s Marin, a 30-something auctioneer. While on a weekend in the Hamptons with Marin, he meets Erica (Diane Keaton), Marin’s mother and famous playwright. When Harry has a heart attack, he is stuck in the Hamptons while Marin heads back to the city and his only company is Erica. The two fall in love, but it’s not quite smooth sailing for them. Nicholson is suave and charming as he changes his sleazy ways for Erica and Keaton is effervescent as the intelligent and lively Erica, a role that got her an Oscar nomination. This is definitely one for the lovers and if you’re a francophile or an appreciator of Keanu Reeves in a pair of tight jeans, this is the one for you. — Therese Lacson

Love Actually

Director/Writer: Richard Curtis

Cast: Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley

While it is most definitely a Christmas movie, Love Actually is first, and foremost, about love. And I am of the firm opinion that the best time to watch holiday movies is during the rest of the year when it’s not the holiday time. This ensemble movie brings together a group of British actors and takes place the weeks before Christmas, counting down to the holiday. It follows families, office workers; from kids preparing for the nativity play to the newly minted Prime Minister, everyone gets a love story. The movie is prolific in pop culture but if you’re itching for a return to Hugh Grant dancing to “Jump” by The Pointer Sisters fire up Amazon Prime. — Therese Lacson

Something Wild

Director: Jonathan Demme

Writer: E. Max Frye

Cast: Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels, Ray Liotta

Johnathan Demme was a true cinematic chameleon. Whether he was terrifying with Silence of the Lambs, moving audiences with Philadelphia, or delivering one of the best concert movies of all time with Stop Making Sense, Demme’s filmmaking prowess transcends easy labels. Naturally, when he turned his lens towards romance with the 1986 gem Something Wild, the result was a genre-bending piece of stunning cinema that bears his most striking trademark: tapping into the heart of the human experience.

Melanie Griffith stars in one of her most captivating roles as a wildcard woman and carefree petty criminal who picks up Jeff Daniels’ straight-laced everyman and sparks up a passionate, unpredictable affair. Swept up in each other, their initial meeting spirals into a wild adventure, from sexy romps to meeting the parents to her high school reunion, and in the film’s most impressive tonal pivot, smack into her abusive ex (Ray Liotta), who will do anything to get her back. Something Wild truly lives up to its title; a bit kinky, yet extremely sweet, but always with a present edge of danger. It’s a sexy screwball odd-couple road trip domestic crime drama love story, and even with all those boxes to check, Demme somehow finds time to let the moments breathe, and in doing so, letting you get swept up in one of the most unique, breathless movie romances, right alongside the swooning characters. And not for nothing, the soundtrack also rips. – Haleigh Foutch

Sylvie’s Love

Director/Writer: Eugene Ashe

Cast: Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Regé-Jean Page, Aja Naomi King, Eva Longoria

If it’s a swooning period piece you’re looking for, Sylvie’s Love is a guaranteed hit. A lush, lovely slow-burn, Eugene Ashe’s romantic drama stars Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha as a pair of ambitious creatives, who first spark a connection over their love of jazz in 1957 New York; a connection that ties them together for a passionate, decades-long love affair with intoxicating highs and heartbreaking lows. Cinematographer Declan Quinn frames a rich, sumptuous world for their love to take root, set to a fantastic and appropriately jazzy soundtrack. Sylvie’s Love moves a little too slowly at times, but all that time with the characters, and giving them so many moments to let the emotions breathe, also pulls you deeper into their lovely, though fraught, love story.

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His Girl Friday

Director: Howard Hawkes

Writer: Charles Lederer

Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Cliff Edwards

Arguably the benchmark for screwball comedies, the classic romantic comedy His Girl Friday stars Cary Grant as a veteran newspaper editor who learns his ex-wife and star reporter, Hildy (Rosalind Russell), is engaged to a new man. Intent on winning her back, he convinces Hildy to chase down one last story together and the duo, obviously, rekindle their love amidst the comedic antics and unfolding mystery. It’s a cracking comedy classic, still magnetic with the old school movie star charisma of Grant and Russell, and Howard Hawkes’ legendary filmmaking command.

What If

Director: Michael Dowse

Writer: Elan‌ Mastai

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Adam Driver, Mackenzie Davis, Megan Park

You’d be hard-pressed to think of two more likable, amiable actors in the game than Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, and their 2013 rom-com What If is every bit the easy-watching, feel-good love story you’d expect. The film takes an interesting if ultimately familiar spin on the genre starring Radcliffe as Wallace, a young man burned by a string of bad relationships who sparks up an instant friendship (and undeniable chemistry) with Chantry (Kazan) – who happens to live with her longtime boyfriend.‌ Together, they try to figure out what it means to be best friends with the person who might also be your soul mate. And they do it with a heck of a supporting duo in Adam Driver and Mackenzie Davis as a demonstrative, passionate couple who absolutely cannot keep their hands off of each other, a hilarious foil couple to Wallace and Chantry’s abstinent love. Fun, sweet, and witty, it’s a classic feel-good rom-com with an unbeatable cast.

Charade

Director: Stanley Donen

Writer: Peter Stone

Cast: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, Jacques Marin

Part romance, part crime thriller, Charade is one of the essential early entries in a personal favorite genre I like to call “sexy criminals doing sexy crime”. The sexy criminals in question are Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, delivering a dazzling battle of on-screen charisma in a film that was firmly planted in the last gasps of vibrant Old Hollywood schtick just as “grittier” filmmaking was starting to take hold of cinema. See, there’s a whole lot of murdering going on and the Grant/Hepburn duo are making awfully sexy eyes at each other, but with the great Stanley Donen directing, the 1963 caper is firmly rooted in that Golden Age ambiance, interested above all in delivering one heck good time at the movies, breezing through one twisty-turny reveal after the next, Grant and Hepburn beaming at each other the whole way through.

Life Itself

Writer/Director: Dan Fogelman

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Benning,‌ Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Jean Smart, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Antonio Banderas, Laia Costa, Lorenza Izzo, Samuel L.‌ Jackson

I cannot, in all good conscience, tell you that Life Itself is a good romance movie. It is, however, an absolutely baffling, unpredictable, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that you have to see to believe. Just try to keep up with the emotionally terroristic twists and turns of Life Itself‘s melodrama. Remember the first episode of This Is Us, and that big “Oh shit” moment of realization at the end? Life Itself is like the weaponized version of that, over and over again, in a completely ridiculous, cuckoo bananas, epic love story with an over-the-top wealth of talent in the ensemble. Proceed with caution, but also, do not miss it.

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Brittany Runs a Marathon

Director/Writer: Paul Downs Colaizzo

Cast: Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Utkarsh Abudkar, Lil Rel Howery, and Micah Stock

Brittany Runs a Marathon is not the movie you think it is, in the very best way. The film stars Jillian Bell as an overweight woman who sets out to train for and run the New York marathon as a way to get in shape, which she also believes will change her life for the better. Changes do come, but they’re a mix of positive and negative as Bell’s character learns the hard way that her issues are related to who she is as a person rather than how she looks on the outside. It’s a surprising, sweet, and frequently hilarious comedy with a dash of romance for good measure. But it’s also genuinely moving, and Bell gives a star-making performance that deftly navigates both comedic and dramatic territory. Brittany Runs a Marathon isn’t just one of the best comedies of 2019, it’s also one of the best films of the year full-stop. – Adam Chitwood

The Big Sick

Director: Michael Showalter

Writers: Emily Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani

Cast: Kumail Najiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon’s real-life love story serves as inspiration for the most delightful romantic comedy in years in The Big Sick. Directed by Michael Showalter from a script by Nanjiani and Gordon, the film stars Nanjiani as himself and Zoe Kazan as Emily in the stranger-than-fiction story of two people falling in love despite clashing cultures, family expectations, and a mysterious life-threatening illness.

The story follows a standup comic (Nanjiani) who falls for a woman who heckles him (Kazan) at a show. He tries to hide the relationship from his parents, who expect a strictly traditional arranged marriage to a Muslim woman, but their romance faces an even greater hurdle when she falls into an inexplicable coma and he bonds with her parents (who you can’t help but fall in love with thanks to the performances from Ray Romano and Holly Hunter). Bursting with heart and earnest good nature, The Big Sick is a witty and charming exploration of love, commitment and family, and it’s a bonafide crowd-pleaser to boot.

To Catch a Thief

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writer: John Michael Hayes

Cast: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Hughs, Charles Vanel

Alfred Hitchcock‘s stunning caper embodies Old Hollywood glamour. Set in the ritzy locations of Cannes, To Catch a Thief stars Cary Grant as John “The Cat” Robie, a retired jewel thief who gets caught up in a new round of crimes when he takes the heat for a new string of robberies in the French Riviera. Looking to clear his name, he gets tangled up in a romantic escapade with a beautiful young socialite (played by the great Grace Kelly) that sends him zipping through the stunning locale on the hunt for the real criminal. Gorgeous, romantic, thrilling, and elegant to the bone, To Catch a Thief is one of the all-time great capers; an enchanting mystery bolstered by two of cinema’s most charming movie stars.

The Handmaiden

Director: Chan-wook Park

Writers: Seo-kyeong Jeong and Chan-wook Park

Cast: Min-hee Kim, Tae-ri Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jing-woo Jo

The Handmaiden is the most downright gorgeous erotic thriller ever made. Liberally inspired by Sarah Waters‘ British melodrama, Chan-wook Park gives the source material a cultural transplant to 1930s Japan-occupied Korea where Sook-Hee (Tae-ri Kim) takes a job as a handmaiden to the mysterious, troubled Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim), sparking a passionate affair that reshapes their lives. Our entry point to the twisted tale is through Sook-Hee, a thief by trade and family tradition who is in fact teaming with a fake count Fujiwara (Ha Jung-woo) in a scheme to defraud Lady Hideko of her fortune, but when Sook-Hee falls for her mark, the fiendish plan is thrown for a loop as new layers of deception and manipulation are uncovered at every turn.

Two-Night Stand

Director: Max Nichols

Writer: Mark Hammer

Cast: Miles Teller, Analeigh Tipton, Jessica Szohr, Kid Cudi

Ah, to be trapped together – a familiar setting for any fictional love to blossom. In a set-up that may feel familiar in this age of social distancing and quarantine, Two‌ Night Stand stars Analeigh Tipton and Miles Teller as two folks who meet on a dating website and wind up trapped in a small apartment together a whole lot longer than they expected when a blizzard hits the morning after their one-night stand. Teller and Tipton have electric chemistry, which keeps the film pulsing all along, even when the script veers into some deeply weird displays of boundary issues in the final act. But up to that point, there’s plenty of winning banter, steamy love scenes, and a convincing character bond that keeps you rooting for their ever after.

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