Romantic movies reach our hearts, and whether they give us the warm and fuzzy feelings we crave or leave us heartbroken, romance is one of the most enduring and evergreen genres in film, and storytelling in general. Everyone loves a good love story, and elements of love are woven through other genres as well, so whether you’re in the mood for a feel-good rom-com, an erotic thriller, holiday romance, or heartbreaking drama, we’ve got you covered with our list of the best romance movie on Hulu right now.
In addition to Hulu, you can also check for romantic movies on other streaming platforms. See our articles on the Best Romantic Movies on Amazon Prime and The Best Romantic Movies on Netflix.
Editor’s Note: This article was last updated in August 2021 to remove expired films, including 500 Days of Summer, Footloose, Friends with Benefits, and Something’s Gotta Give.
Table of Contents
And So It Goes
Director: Rob Reiner
Writer: Mark Andrus
Cast: Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton, Sterling Jerins, Annie Parisse, Austin Lysy, Michael Terra, Sawyer Simpkins, Maxwell Simkins
This 2014 romantic comedy/drama is another look at finding love in your golden years. It stars Michael Douglas as Oren and Diane Keaton as Leah. They end up being thrown together when Oren unexpectedly has to take custody of his 9-year-old granddaughter temporarily. Not knowing how to deal with it, he seeks out the help of his neighbor Leah. Through this new situation, they bond and begin to find love in an unexpected place. If you enjoy Michael Douglas, this film is a great option for a lighthearted film.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Director: Celine Sciamma
Writers: Celine Sciamma
Cast: Noemie Merlant, Adele Haenel, Luana Bajrami, Valeria Golino, Christel Baras, Armande Boulanger
If you are looking for a lesbian love story, look no further than the highly acclaimed 2019 French film called Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Set in the 18th century, this film features a young painter, Marianne, played by Noemie Merlant, who falls for Heloise, played by Adele Haenel. They meet when Marianne is commissioned to paint Heloise’s portrait. Heloise is engaged to a Milanese nobleman, who she does not want to marry. As Marianne paints her, the two fall for each other, even though their love appears doomed. This movie is a great example of a well-done love story that will pull at your heartstrings, and Celine Sciamma‘s script is as poetic as her lens, creating and capturing a lovely, unforgettable, heartbreaking love story.
Palm Springs
Director: Max Garbakow
Writers: Andy Siara, Max Barbakow,
Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milloti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin, Chris Pang
In a nod to Groundhog Day, the film Palm Springs features a time loop. While forced to live the same day repeatedly, Sarah, played by Cristin Milloti, and Nyles, played by Andy Samberg, begin to fall in love. They attempt a seemingly endless amount of ways to escape the time loop where they are forced to attend Sarah’s sister’s wedding, but to no avail.
This film is an intriguing take on the time loop premise. Usually, just one person is trapped, but this adds another person in the know about what’s going on. This premise helps bond them and draw them to each other as they fight to get their lives back. If you love alternate reality films, Palm Springs is a must-see.
Romeo + Juliet
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Pete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, Diane Venora
Among the most famous love stories of all time, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been adapted, cribbed from, and a source of inspiration for countless films, but Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation is one of the best, most faithful, and all-encompasing of them all. Maintaining the original archaic text while updating the setting to contemporary times, Luhrmann put a distinct stamp on the material with his unforgettable aesthetic and outstanding cast.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes star as the doomed lovers from warring families, and they’re as magnetic and enchanting as any pair of actors to play the iconic characters – which means they also absolutely tear your heart to shreds when the whole thing goes to hell. Because, yes, Romeo and Juliet is a formative love story, but it’s also one of the great tragedies, and Luhrmann embraces the full scope of that tragedy, exploring a city undone by the violent, unending grudge-match between two powerhouse families that corrupts and poisons everything everything it touches. – Haleigh Foutch
If Beale Street Could Talk
Director: Barry Jenkins
Writers: Barry Jenkins, James Baldwin
Cast: Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo
This drama/romance from 2018 features some tough situations and themes. Tish, played by KiKi Layne, discovers she is pregnant, but her beau, Fonny, played by Stephan James, is soon wrongly accused of rape and incarcerated. The quest for justice soon begins to help her love and the life they were building together. This tragic love story pulls at the heartstrings as Tish and Fonny push through together toward a justice they may never get. It will make your heart ache for this couple, and if you saw Barry Jenkins Best Picture-winning previous film Moonlight, you already know how beautiful but wrenching his films can be.
Bound
Directors/Writers: Lana and Lilly Wachowski
Cast: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, Christopher Meloni
A steamy love story, a gripping crime thriller, and a groundbreaking icon of queer cinema, Bound is also just a straight-up fantastic film. Just three years before Lana and Lily Wachowski changed modern action cinema with The Matrix, they delivered their feature debut with this 1996 neo-noir. Jennifer Tilly stars as Violet, a reframing of the femme fatale who falls for Corky (Gina Gershon), an ex-con doing handiwork in her apartment complex. There’s just one problem, Violet is a “mob doll”, the longtime girlfriend of a mafioso (Joe Pantoliano), and when his criminal cohorts swam their apartment during a particularly chaotic and bloody night of money laundering, Violet and Corky devise a plan to snag the cash and start a new life. 25 years later, Tilly and Gershon are as magnetic as ever and Bound holds up as a breathless thriller, poignant piece of erotic romance, and a downright stunning piece of technical filmmaking from the Wachowskis. – Haleigh Foutch
Spontaneous
Director: Brian Duffield
Writers: Brain Duffield, Aaron Starmer
Cast: Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Yvonne Orji, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Rob Huebel, Chris Shields, Marlowe Percival
If you are looking for a gruesome but unique love story premise, check out Spontaneous. This 2020 romance features elements of horror and inspires you to live in the present. It begins innocently enough with Dylan, played by Charlie Plummer, confessing to Mara, played by Katherine Langford, that he has a crush on her. The horror elements come in when their schoolmates begin spontaneously exploding. Amid all of the blood, love begins to form between Dylan and Mara, who comfort in each other amidst the chaos. Since they never know when they may explode, the teens begin living for today and attempting to make each day count, and writer-director Brian Duffield wields the constant threat with precision, blending genres to create a wholly heartfelt about finding what makes life worth living and fighting for it, even in the direst of circumstances.
Supernova
Director: Harry Macqueen
Writers: Harry Macqueen
Cast: Colin Firth, Stanley Tucci, Pippa Haywood
If you are looking for a well-done LGBTQ+ love story, look no further than Supernova. This film is a love story featuring Sam, played by Colin Firth, and Tusker, played by Stanley Tucci. They have been partners for 20 years and embark on a trip across England to visit family, friends, and significant places from their past. This premise is expertly conveyed by these two dynamite actors, both of whom do stunning, subtle work as a devoted couple keeping their romance alive, even as a heavy grief settles into every moment of their lives together. Overshadowing the trip is Tusker’s struggle with dementia. They strive to make the most of the time they have together while he still remembers the past and knows who he is in the present. It’s a heartbreaking journey, but a beautiful one, and if you’ve ever known someone in Tusker’s shoes, it’s an especially emotional experience.
In The Cut
Director: Jane Campion
Writers: Jane Campion and Susanna Moore
Cast: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh,
If you’re looking for something a little spicier and scarier, In the Cut is a twisted little blend of romance, psychological thrills, and a bit of old-fashioned slasher horror. Starring Meg Ryan as a yearning woman seemingly lost in the clutter of the big city and Mark Ruffalo as a boorish cop who also happens to be a sexual powerhouse, In the Cut is more of a lust story than a love story, but it is a powerfully atmospheric and seductive one, with The Piano director Jane Campion infusing the crime thriller with her talent for erotic cinema. Set in New York City, a serial killer is leaving behind grisly crime scenes of dismembered women, and Ryan’s Frannie finds herself tangled up in the investigation, and subsequently drawn into a passionate, lurid affair with Ruffalo’s Detective Malloy.
This one doesn’t have the best critical track record, but if you like sexy cinema that’s so grimy and steamy you feel like you need to wipe down your screen afterward, don’t let the reviews sway you. In the Cut rules, and it’s a fascinating exploration of desiring the forbidden and grotesque; even when Frannie starts to believe Malloy may be the murderer, she can’t resist the animal magnetism and as Philippa Snow wrote in her excellent piece for the New Statesman, “In the Cut is masterful in its suggestion of the ambient, omnipresent air of sexual threat that exists in traditional heterosexual dynamics, and is equally masterful in the way it manages to make an argument for its forthright, feminist heroine being turned on by that tension.” Human attraction is never simple and often perverse, but few films are so willing to look at the dark undercurrent of psychosexual dynamics that underline so much of humanity’s sexual history, and few filmmakers could do it with the style and slow-kindling eroticism that Campion pulls off here. – Haleigh Foutch
Plus One
Director/Writers: Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer
Cast: Maya Erskine, Jack Quaid, Beck Bennett, Rosalind Chao, Perrey Reeves
Recent years have proven something of a rebirth for the rom-com genre, but this one has slipped a bit under the radar. And it shouldn’t! Starring PEN15’s Maya Erksine and The Boys star Jack Quaid, the 2019 rom-com Plus One is just as charming as that duo sounds on paper. Erksine and Quaid play a pair of long-time friends who realize they have an ungodly amount of weddings to go to and agree to be each other’s plus-ones for the duration of their marriage marathon. Naturally, their newfound, though originally silly, commitment to each other (and the fact that they’re constantly seeing each other all gussied up) sparks something new in their relationship, and the film follows their rocky road to falling for each other as they learn to resolve their communication and commitment issues in an updated riff on Four Weddings and a Funeral.
The film never quite reaches the all-timer heights of its predecessor, but it’s a heartfelt spiritual successor that’s, as a bonus, genuinely very funny. Packed with witty one-liners and laugh-out-loud banter, Plus One wisely leans on the charms of its lead actors, giving them quality material to match their magnetic chemistry. – Haleigh Foutch
The Age of Adaline
Director: Lee Toland Krieger
Writers: J. Mills Goodloe, Salvador Paskowitz
Cast: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew
The Age of Adaline presents us with an intriguing fantasy romance with a bit of mystery. You may be surprised to find out that the story is not based on a book. It has that feel to it, but it is an original story that Goodloe and Paskowitz came up with independently. It features Adaline Bowman, played by Blake Lively, who stops aging due to a car accident. She lives the next eight decades as a 29-year-old. She keeps to herself to avoid suspicion, but then she meets Ellis Jones, played by Michiel Huisman, who makes her feel again. Lively, Huisman, and Harrison Ford are captivating to watch as you try to figure out what’s going on. You are taken along on a fantastical journey of love, loss, and love bringing you back again.
Blast From the Past
Director: Hugh Wilson
Writers: Bill Kelly, Hugh Wilson
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley
This 1999 romantic comedy, starring Brendan Fraser as Adam and Alicia Silverstone as Eve, is an enjoyable fish out of water film. It has elements of Fraser’s claim to fame, Encino Man. He once again stars as a man who is out of time and out of place in the world. This time, he has been in a bomb shelter with his parents, played by Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek, for 35 years following a bomb scare in the 1960s. Fraser is definitely in his element as the wide-eyed innocent Adam. His charm practically leaps off the screen, and his interactions with Eve will make you laugh. It’s also great to see Silverstone shine in a role that isn’t Clueless.
Princess Cyd
Director/Writer: Stephen Cone
Cast: Jessie Pinnick, Rebecca Spence, Malic White, James Vincent Meredith, Tyler Ross, Matthew Quattrocki
A sweet, subtle coming out and coming-of-age film, Princess Cyd takes a light touch to the topics at hand, which range from grief to sexuality to faith, giving the underseen 2017 gem an inviting airiness. Jessie Pinnick stars as Cyd, a self-assured and assertive teenager spending the summer with her aunt, Miranda Ruth (Rebecca Spence), a religious intellectual and well-known writer. Writer/director Stephen Cone unfolds an understated, intergenerational investigation of the self, carried out in the sometimes tense but never quite sparring exchanges between the two and their counter-but-not-clashing world views.
As Cyd explores gender and sexuality, falling for a girl for the first time, Miranda seeks to get more in touch with her own sense of intimacy, offering two views of what it means to get to know yourelf better by getting to know someone else. The film takes such a subtle hand to existential questions, it can sometimes verge on feeling stoic, but that’s a strength just as much as it is a weakness, leaving space for more subtle emotions and evolutions – and plenty of room to savor Cyd’s blossoming summery romance. – Haleigh Foutch
Happiest Season
Director: Clea Duvall
Writers: Clea Duvall and Mary Holland
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Aubrey Plaza, Allison Brie, Mary Holland, Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, Dan Levy, Jake McDorman
Happiest Season is a complicated little number and definitely not the feel-good rom-com a lot of audiences were hoping for the first major queer Christmas romance, but if you’re looking for a seasonal love story that sidesteps the usual saccharine tropes, it might be the right fit. Kristen Stewart stars as Abby, a young woman who’s about to meet her girlfriend Harper’s (Mackenzie Davis) family for the first time and makes a grand plan to propose at their big annual Christmas party. Problem is, Harper’s family doesn’t know she’s gay, and when Abby gets there, she’s faced with being put back in the closet and realizing there’s a part of her Harper she never knew.
Stewart is wonderful as Abby and you never stop rooting for her, but perhaps Happiest Season’s biggest problem is she’s surrounded by an ensemble of characters that are almost entirely cruel and unlikable. There are exceptions, of course, Dan Levy is reliably magnetic as Abby’s best friend, Aubrey Plaza is her most accessible and irresistible as Harper’s ex, and co-writer Mary Holland is the surprise scene-stealer as Harper’s oddball sister. But ultimately, that community of cruely is part of the point, and though Happiest Season doesn’t offer the healthiest or, well… happiest depiction of queer romance, its a pretty effective exploration of how difficult it can be to love someone who grew up having to hide who they are, and how messy it can be when they finally decide to stop hiding. I just sure hope Abby and Harper went to therapy afterward. – Haleigh Foutch
Another Time
Director: Thomas Hennessy
Writers: Thomas Hennessy, Scott Kennard
Cast: Justin Hartley, Arielle Kebbel, James Kyson, Chrishell Stause, Alan Pietruszewski, Mark Valley, Jack McLLaughlin
Justin Hartley, of This is Us fame, stars as Eric in this 2018 Sci-fi Romance that centers around time travel. He meets the woman of his dreams, Julia, played by Chrishell Stause, only to find out that she already has a fiance. An idea sparks in Eric about going back in time and meeting Julia before she has a chance to meet her fiance.
While going back in time leads to some unforeseen consequences, it also enables Eric to see things in a new light and seek out love in a new way when he realizes he was chasing after the wrong thing. This film is a fun time travel saga that will keep you cheering on the hero until the end.
Christmas Crush
Director: Marita Grabiak
Writer: John Burd
Cast: Cindy Sampson, Robin Dunne, Chris Violette, Erica Deutschman, Eve Crawford, Konstantina Mantelos, Paul Constable
While it may be a bit early for starting on the Christmas romances, put Christmas Crush from 2019 on your list. This film is a fun, but cautionary, be careful what you wish for tale. Addie, played by Cindy Sampson, wishes for her neighbor to fall in love with her. Unfortunately, she is not specific enough, and instead of the wish causing Sam, played by Robin Dunne, to fall in love with her, it hits Pete, played by Chris Violette, instead. I really enjoy Christmas-related romance films, and this one is entertaining. Addie is a likable protagonist who becomes more confident in herself as the film goes along. It will hook you as you wonder how she will untangle herself from this romantic predicament.
Christmas Perfection
Director: David Jackson
Writers: Lauren Hynek, Elizabeth Martin
Cast: Caitlin Thompson, James Henri-Thomas, Robbie Silverman
This 2018 movie is another intriguing Christmas-centric romp, starring Caitlin Thompson as Darcy, who enters into a Christmas world of her own making. Obsessed with creating the perfect Christmas, Darcy is always disappointed. That is until she enters into the world of her Christmas village, where it is Christmas every day. When her friend Brandon, played by James Henri-Thomas, follows her into the fantasy world, they discover that they have feelings for each other. Darcy soon learns that maybe perfection isn’t all it’s cracked up to be after all. This film is a unique take on the Christmas romance. It is entertaining, funny and makes you think about enjoying the imperfections in things. If you like Christmas romances where the protagonist learns a lesson, this is the perfect fit for you.
Date Night
Director: Shawn Levy
Writer: Josh Klausner
Cast: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Jimmi Simpson, Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mila Kunis
This 2010 film takes on a new spin, using a typical date night to lead into a crazy adventure for married couple Claire, played by Tina Fey, and Phil, played by Steve Carell. To reinvigorate their relationship, they plan a date night, but when they steal another couple’s reservation, it leads to a case of mistaken identity. It turns out the couple whose reservation they stole is mixed up with a mob boss, and they are intercepted by his goons. The night they had planned gets completely derailed as they have the adventure of their lives, in over their heads, but relying on each other to get through it. It is a crime, romance, and comedy film all rolled into one, starring two of the most charismatic stars in 2000s comedy.
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