5 days Ago By Jason Struss
They say spring is for lovers. If that’s true, there’s nothing better than watching a good rom-com at home. Netflix has plenty of them, from original movies to beloved classics you want to watch again and again.
The newest addition to this list is The Hating Game, a 2021 rom-com starring Pretty Little Liars’ Lucy Hale. It’s one of the most popular movies on Netflix right now, and after watching it, you can understand why it’s so popular.There’s also a classic ‘90s Julia Roberts love story and not one but two Sandra Bullock rom-coms on this list.
Netflix clearly loves this genre, and wants its subscribers to watch as many of them as possible.Need more recommendations? Then check out the Best New Movies on Netflix, (HBO) Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime and More, 9 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now, 9 Best Movies on Hulu Right Now and 4 Underrated Movies on Netflix in April 2025.‘The Hating Game’ (2021)Lucy (Lucy Hale) hates Josh (Austin Stowell), and the feeling is mutual.
But when their respective publishing companies merge, forcing them to work closely with each other, they make a pact: whoever gets a promotion first stays, while the other has to quit. But their agreement is complicated by their growing affection for each other, turning their hating game into a love connection that neither one is prepared to make.The Hating Game, based on Sally Thorne’s bestselling novel, doesn’t rewrite the rom-com playbook so much as it faithfully follows it step by step.
In this instance, that’s OK as Hale and Stowell are entertaining as enemies who become friends who want to become something more. The movie is a wish-fulfillment fantasy — the world of publishing isn’t romantic at all — but it’s light and fun without being offensively bad. ‘La Dolce Villa’ (2025)Eric (Scott Foley) is a fiftysomething widower who isn’t looking for love.
But when he travels to Italy to help his daughter purchase and renovate a neglected villa, he soon falls for the town’s charismatic mayor, Francesca (Violante Placido). Can he learn to love again? And will Francesca, who also lost her spouse, reciprocate Eric’s feelings?La Dolce Villa doesn’t leave much doubt about the outcome, but what it lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in charm. Foley and Placido are great at playing middle-aged lovers wary of finding romance again and the film’s Tuscan locations are pretty to look at.
La Dolce Villa combines love and real estate in a glossy package, and it’s one of the better Netflix original rom-coms on the streaming service.‘The Lost City’ (2022)Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) is a popular romance-adventure writer who is kidnapped by a deranged billionaire, Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), who believes she knows the location of some buried treasure due to her archaeological research. The only ones who can save her are CIA agent Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt) and Alan Caprison (Channing Tatum), a cover model for her most popular fictional creation, Dash McMahon.
But when Jack is incapacitated, it’s up to Abigail to save herself by teaming up with the inept Alan and finding her way out of a dangerous jungle ...
and away from Abigail.The Lost City steals so much from the 1984 rom-com classic Romancing the Stone that you’d be tempted to call the cops to report a robbery. But the film is just different enough to work on its own and the opposites-attract chemistry between Bullock and Tatum works wonderfully.
Radcliffe chews the scenery as the villain, and you can tell he loves leaving his nice-guy Harry Potter persona behind.‘Pride & Prejudice’ (2005)Pride & Prejudice is typically categorized as a costume drama, but it’s actually one of the first — and best — rom-com stories ever written. Jane Austen’s classic novel has been adapted plenty of times over the years, but this 2005 iteration ranks as the best.
It’s alive and vital in a way few period movies are, and lead star Keira Knightley gives one of her best performances ever as Elizabeth Bennet, the prototype for all the genre’s single ladies looking to put a ring on it.It’s the late 19th century in England, and Mr. and Mrs.
Bennet are looking to marry their five daughters to socially appropriate and financially secure suitors. One of them, Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), is initially drawn to Jane and can’t stand Elizabeth.
But as time passes and each daughter finds a husband, Elizabeth and Darcy realize their mutual hatred for one another hides a dormant desire that proves impossible to ignore. Can they find their happily ever after? Or will their stubbornness ruin what could be a long and lasting love affair?‘Notting Hill’ (1999)Will Thacker (Hugh Grant) doesn’t have much, but what he does have makes him happy: a successful travel bookstore in London’s trendy Notting Hill district; friends who helped him nurse a broken heart after his wife left him for another man; and a great head of hair that could make any woman swoon. But when the incognito movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his life one day, Will realizes his life lacks one crucial thing: her.
Fortunately for Will, Anna thinks the same way about him, but will her fame — and his reluctance to be in the spotlight — get in the way of a picture-perfect romance?Released at the height of Roberts’ ‘90s fame, Notting Hill is a textbook example of a rom-com done right. The two leads are massively appealing, and the supporting cast is populated with an eclectic group of then-unknown English actors like Rhys Ifans and Hugh Bonneville, who provide some welcome comedic relief. Notting Hill is the equivalent of a warm, fuzzy blanket — it may be a little worn out, but it still provides just enough comfort and satisfaction.
‘Lonely Planet’ (2024)Eat Pray Love, eat your heart out! In Lonely Planet, yet another older woman travels abroad and finds unexpected romance. In this movie, that woman is Katherine Lowe (Laura Dern), who ventures to a beautiful Moroccan resort for a writer’s retreat. Once there, she bonds with Owen (Liam Hemsworth), a finance bro who is there with his novelist girlfriend, Lily (Diana Silvers).
As their connection deepens, Katherine and Owen’s friendship turns into something more, but can they overcome their differences to allow a romance to blossom?Lonely Planet isn’t all that original, but it makes up for it by casting Dern and Hemsworth in the lead roles. Dern isn’t your typical rom-com star, and she gives her character a nice edge that makes Katherine more interesting to watch. Hemsworth is pretty to look at, and he convincingly showcases Owen’s softer side that could pull in a woman like Katherine.
‘Two Weeks Notice’ (2002)It wouldn’t be a best rom-com list without Sandra Bullock. The actress first made her mark in the genre with 1995’s While You Were Sleeping, but Two Weeks Notice is probably her best one. She stars as Lucy Kelson, a brilliant lawyer who is fed up working for her boss, selfish real estate tycoon George Wade (Hugh Grant).
She gives her two weeks' notice, but when faced with a life that doesn’t include Lucy, George realizes his feelings for her go beyond the professional.No one can play a cad quite like Grant, and he’s particularly exasperating and charming as the narcissistic George. But he makes you see why Lucy likes him, and Bullock convinces you her liberal lawyer could fall for someone like him.
It’s a classic love/hate relationship that makes Two Weeks Notice worth watching.‘How to Be Single’ (2016)Fresh off a bad breakup, Alice (Dakota Johnson) moves to New York City to live with her doctor sister, Meg (Leslie Mann). She begins her new single life by befriending wild Australian party girl Robin (Rebel Wilson) and womanizing bartender Tom (Anders Holm).
Together, they navigate the occasional highs and frequent lows of modern dating in a big city.When it was released in 2016, How to Be Single was dismissed by some as a shallow Sex and the City clone, but time’s been kinder to it. Johnson is great as the indecisive Alice, and Mann has one of her best roles as the older sister who isn’t as wise as Alice thinks she is.
Wilson provides the Bridesmaids-style laughs, while all of the NYC locations will make you want to move there. ‘Definitely, Maybe’ (2008)Now known as Deadpool and/or Blake Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds in 2008 was just another actor looking for rom-com gold. He found it in Definitely, Maybe, a movie that’s better than it has any right to be.
Reynolds is Will Hayes, a successful advertising exec who is going through a divorce. His 10-year-old daughter Maya (Amber Breslin) wants to know how her parents met, and Will proceeds to tell her about not one, not two, but three special women in his life: Summer (Rachel Weisz), Emily (Elizabeth Banks) and April (Isla Fisher).Who is Sarah’s mother? And which one is Will still smitten with? Definitely, Maybe keeps you guessing, and it’s a genuine surprise to find out who is who.
Reynolds pulls off the difficult task of having great chemistry with all three female leads, and he’s a surprisingly convincing dad, too. (He was still in his Van Wilder era in ‘08.) The movie wins you over honestly, and it’s a keeper.
‘About Time’ (2013)Rom-coms about time travel are more prevalent than you might think, but About Time is possibly the only one whose plot hinges on someone’s obsession with supermodel Kate Moss. Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) inherited the gift of time travel from his father and tries to improve his love life by fixing his romantic errors. When he meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), he thinks he’s hit the jackpot and travels back in time to meet her at the right moment.
But time travel has consequences, and Tim eventually discovers that he can’t fix everything by having one foot in the past.About Time takes its elevated sci-fi premise and commits to it, never bothering to explain the how and why of Tim’s time travels. The movie gets surprisingly deep in the third act and becomes just as much a father/son story as it is a romance between Tim and Mary.
Gleeson and McAdams are excellent as the young lovers, and Bill Nighy just might break your heart a bit as Tim’s dad, James.‘The Half of It’ (2020)Cyrano de Bergerac gets a modern update in The Half of It, the rare teen rom-com that eschews cheap humor and plays it relatively straight. (Well, sort of.
) Bookish Ellie (Leah Lewis) likes the beautiful Aster (Alexxis Lemire) but is too shy to do anything about it. Inarticulate jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) likes Aster too, and convinces Ellie to write love letters and texts for him to send to Aster. Love connections are made, but not in the way any of them imagined, and a complicated love triangle soon becomes something messier and meaningful as each teen learns hard lessons about growing up.
The Half of It doesn’t star anyone you’d know, and maybe that’s why it feels so authentic. There have been riffs on this kind of story before, but few have been this affecting. The unlikely friendship between Ellie and Paul is given as much space and depth as the romance between Ellie and Aster, making The Half of It a memorable rom-com about the power of love and friendship.
Most of the time, you need both in life, and the movie argues that you can find them with the people you’d least expect..
