13 Best Sad Romance Movies You Need To Watch Next

This article contains discussions of addiction and sexual assault.

Sometimes, you want to watch a movie where a couple has a meet-cute, overcomes obstacles that present in the third act, and end up happily ever after. Sometimes, that's the last thing you want. Whether you're a romantic cynic, going through a breakup, or simply interested in seeing a different kind of story, there are actually a lot of sad romance movies out there; for every "When Harry Met Sally" or "Pretty Woman," there's a heart-wrenching story of a couple who just couldn't make it work (or worse, a couple split apart for reasons beyond their control).

It does seem unfair, though, to distill the movies on this list — which are not ranked but presented in no particular order — down to "sad romances," because each and every one of them is a careful and thoughtful examination of human emotion and the way that, despite one's best efforts, it can be particularly heartbreaking when people in love can't be together. If you need a good cry, here are 13 sad romance movies to check out — and where you can stream them.

Derek Cianfrance's dark romance film "Blue Valentine" came out in 2010, and pretty quickly, audiences realized it's not a standard romantic comedy by literally any metric. The film is told in a non-linear style and splits its narrative between two plotlines, contrasting the happier start of the relationship between Dean Pereira (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy Heller Pereira (Michelle Williams) with their troubled marriage and difficulty parenting their five-year-old daughter Frankie. Right away, we realize that Dean is struggling with an alcohol addiction, and Cindy, in response, is desperately trying to work as a nurse and hold the small family together; what we witness between the couple, though, is extremely bitter and frankly, outright difficult to watch. (Plus, when we realize that the origin of Dean and Cindy's relationship isn't actually all that happy, it paints everything in a new light.)

As Cindy and Dean battle it out over their marriage, the responsibilities that come along with that and their daughter, and how they're both handling it, Gosling and Williams deliver powerful and explosive performances that rank among some of the very best in their careers. "Blue Valentine" is a gut-wrenching watch, but it's an incredibly made (and well-acted) film.

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Rating: R
Runtime: 112 minutes
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock

None of the versions of "A Star is Born" have a happy ending, but all things considered, the 2018 version with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga might be the biggest tearjerker of the bunch. Cooper — who pulls double duty as the film's director and its co-lead, country rock musician Jackson Maine — cast Lady Gaga after hearing her sing "La Vie en Rose" at an event, which he ultimately even added to the movie's soundtrack, and she helps his directorial debut shine as Ally, an aspiring singer-songwriter who catches Jackson's attention after he hears her sing that very song at a drag bar. When she attends one of his concerts, Jackson brings Ally onstage with him to sing her original song "Shallow," and the rest is history.

Cooper and Lady Gaga are electric together — to say nothing of their sexually charged performance of "Shallow" at the Academy Awards in 2019 — and as the movie reaches its foregone conclusion as Jackson sinks further into resentment and addiction, your heart breaks for Ally, who ascends higher and higher as a musician only to lose the man she loves forever. Come for the great music, stay for the heartbreaking and tragic love story.

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott
Director: Bradley Cooper
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
Where to watch: Max

There's still a dearth of queer love stories onscreen — at least, if you compare them to their heteronormative counterparts — but in 2019, French director Céline Sciamma created a very worthy addition to the canon with "Portrait of a Lady on Fire." When we first meet painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant), she's teaching an art class when one of her students inquires about one of her works called, in its original French, "Portrait de la jeune fille en feu" (which is also the movie's title, for non-French speakers). Years beforehand, she was commissioned to paint a portrait of a young woman named Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), a stubborn noblewoman who's set to marry a titled man from Milan.

As Marianne paints Héloïse, the two form an unexpected bond — despite Héloïse's initial refusal to even engage with the artist — and begin a passionate love affair, but because this film is set in France in the 18th century, they can't end up together. The last shot of the movie is too good to spoil here, but if longing glances are what you're after, you'll want to queue up "Portrait of a Lady on Fire."

Cast: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel
Director: Céline Sciamma
Rating: R
Runtime: 120 minutes
Where to watch: Hulu

Unless you're very lucky, you've probably thought about a person that you once knew — and maybe even loved — at a different time and wondered what your reality would look like had that relationship worked out. This is the central conflict of Celine Song's stunning and introspective directorial debut "Past Lives," which introduces us to two South Korean kids — Na Young and Hae Sung, played as children by Seung Ah Moon and Seung Min Yim — who live together in Seoul and develop unexpected feelings for each other. When Na Young moves to Canada, she changes her name to the Anglicized Nora Moon, and she and Hae Sung fall out of touch, only to reconnect years later.

As adults, Nora and Hae Sung meet again in New York City, but this isn't a love story ... because in the decade that they spent apart, Nora fell in love with and married fellow writer Arthur Zaturansky (John Magaro). When Nora and Hae Sung reunite, it reintroduces all sorts of confusing and conflicting emotions for both of them, and in the film's final moments, you'll fall apart as Nora does on-screen.

Cast: Greta Lee, John Magaro, Teo Yoo
Director: Celine Song
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 106 minutes
Where to watch: Paramount+

"If Beale Street Could Talk" — based on James Baldwin's novel — came out in 2018, telling the story of two young lovers in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem in the 1970s named Clementine "Tish" Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo "Fonny" Hunt (Stephan James) who struggle to find a place to live amidst segregation in New York City. Things take a truly horrible turn, though, when Fonny is accused of a violent sexual assault against a woman named Victoria Rogers (Emily Rios), who mistakenly identifies him in a police line-up despite the fact that Fonny couldn't have logistically committed the crime (though Tish has an alibi for him, she's not taken seriously). 

As Tish seeks help from her mother Sharon (Regina King), she and Fonny grapple with the fact that, as she realizes she's pregnant with Fonny's child, she may have to be a single parent while her child's father is unfairly incarcerated. A stunning indictment of the American justice system and the institutionalized racism found within it, "If Beale Street Could Talk" is a must-watch for King's Oscar-winning performance alone.

Cast: KiKi Layne, Stephan Jones, Regina King
Director: Barry Jenkins
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Where to watch: Hulu

Have you ever experienced such a bad breakup that you wish you could erase your ex from your mind all together? That's the conundrum faced by Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) in the surreal heartbreak story "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a spectacular film helmed by Michel Gondry and written by Charlie Kaufman. After a whirlwind relationship with Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), Joel just wants to forget everything ... and when he realizes he can do just that with the help of a scientific center called Lacuna, he submits himself to their mercy.

Here's the problem: once Joel begins the procedure, he realizes he doesn't want to forget Clementine after all, leading to a bizarre game of cat-and-mouse within his own mind; in waking life, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson) tries to perform his work on Joel while dealing with the fact that he put his own employee, Mary Svevo (Kirsten Dunst), through this procedure so she would forget their extramarital affair. (Also, Elijah Wood's creepy technician Patrick Wertz is taking advantage of this whole situation to ... date Clementine.) "Eternal Sunshine" is a movie that shows how powerful love can be and exactly how it can break you all at once, and it's frankly magnificent.

Cast: Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, Kirsten Dunst
Director: Michel Gondry
Rating: R
Runtime: 106 minutes
Where to watch: MGM+

One of the best-ever films to miss out on winning Best Picture at the Oscars, "Brokeback Mountain" is so much more than "the gay cowboy movie." Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, Ang Lee's film introduces us to cowboys Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who spend a summer herding sheep together on the titular Brokeback Mountain ... and ultimately fall in love. Even though Ennis is resitant to their connection at first (largely due to internalized homophobia), Jack is much more emotional and expressive about his love for Ennis, even as they both marry women (Ennis weds Michelle Williams' Alma Beers while Jack marries Anne Hathaway's Lureen Newsome).

Throughout the years, Jack pursues Ennis doggedly, particularly after Ennis and Alma split (when she sees the two men together), but when tragedy strikes, Ennis is left alone. Certainly, "Brokeback Mountain" is more heartbreaking in the wake of Ledger's tragic death, but it's also one of the saddest love stories ever told.

Cast: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway
Director: Ang Lee
Rating: R
Runtime: 134 minutes
Where to watch: Paramount+

"Marriage Story" is so much more than just that one fighting scene (that's been memed to death to boot). Based on director Noah Baumbach's real-life split from actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film tells the (marriage) story of actress Nicole Barber (Scarlett Johansson) and theater director Charlie Barber (Adam Driver), who have been together for ten years and are experiencing strife in their marriage and intertwined professional lives. When Nicole learns that Charlie had an affair with his stage manager — while she's in Los Angeles to film a new project — the two end up experiencing a bicoastal divorce as they try and co-parent their sensitive young son Henry (Azhy Robertson).

Anyone who's ever fought with a partner — or perhaps realized a relationship is no longer viable — will unfortunately relate to "Marriage Story," and Driver and Johansson are at their bitter best here ... to say nothing of Laura Dern's explosive, Oscar-winning supporting turn. "Marriage Story" is a gutting watch, despite being a story that's familiar to many.

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern
Director: Noah Baumbach
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Where to watch: Netflix

Based on the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan, "Atonement" seems, at first, like it's telling a straightforward (if fraught) love story. Through the loose point of view of young Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), we watch as Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley) falls for her wealthy family's housekeeper's son Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), complicated by the fact that Briony has a crush on Robbie as well. As she quietly watches them interact, Briony repeatedly gets the wrong idea about Robbie and Cecilia's courtship, and when she catches the pair in a compromising position in the Tallis' library, Briony believes that Robbie is sexually deviant and accuses him of sexually assaulting a young girl. In the horrible aftermath, Robbie goes to prison and is only released to fight in World War II.

When we catch up with an older Briony, played by Vanessa Redgrave, we learn some devastating truths about what really happened to Cecilia and Robbie throughout the years ... and nothing is as it seems. A sad romance with a huge twist, "Atonement" is a beautifully constructed film that will break your heart.

Cast: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan
Director: Joe Wright
Rating: R
Runtime: 123 minutes
Where to watch: Buy or rent on major platforms

A film inspired by one Taylor Swift song ("Clean" from "1989") that eventually inspired a second Swift tune ("Death by a Thousand Cuts" from Lover), Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's ode to personal growth and friendship, "Someone Great," is largely a funny, frothy film ... with a gut-twisting breakup at its center. When Jenny Young (Gina Rodriguez) gets offered her dream job — writing for Rolling Stone in San Francisco — her longterm boyfriend Nate (LaKeith Stanfield) ends their relationship in anticipation of her big move. Flanked by her best friends Blair Helms (Brittany Snow) and Erin Kennedy (DeWanda Wise), Jenny decides to have one "last great night" before she moves from Manhattan to California, and the three girls set off on an adventure together.

The most gutting thing about "Someone Great" is, strangely, watching Jenny realize that she might actually be fine without Nate, no matter how bad the breakup feels at first. Ending a relationship can be devastating, and even though "Someone Great" never shies away from that fact, it also shows that if you have great friends and faith in yourself, you might just be okay.

Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, LaKeith Stanfield
Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Rating: R
Runtime: 92 minutes
Where to watch: Netflix

"Titanic" contains multitudes. Not only is James Cameron's massive film an epic action spectacle that, thanks to the filmmaker's research and commitment, pretty faithfully chronicles the very real sinking of the "unsinkable" oceanliner called the Titanic, but it's also a tragic love story between Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio). Rose boards the luxury ship in first class while Jack is down in steerage, but despite that — and despite Rose's odious fiancé Cal Hockley (Billy Zane) — they end up meeting and are immediately drawn to one another. They plan to leave the Titanic together when it docks in New York, but when tragedy strikes in the form of a massive iceberg, they end up fighting for their lives.

Sure, "Titanic" is a spectacle from beginning to end, but as Rose and Jack, Winslet and DiCaprio are the beating heart of the film, and watching them love — and lose — one another is simply devastating. (Also, let's settle this once and for all: Jack could not fit on the door.)

Cast: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane
Director: James Cameron
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 195 minutes
Where to watch: Hulu, Paramount+

Sometimes, two people in the same relationship can have radically different perspectives on how it's going, which is basically the main conflict in "(500) Days of Summer." Over the titular 500 days, greeting card writer Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) attempts to push his ideal relationship onto the highly independent Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), despite the fact that she repeatedly tells him that she isn't looking for a serious commitment. As their relationship ebbs and flows, Tom continues projecting his own desires onto Summer, much to her chagrin — and when the two split, Tom, devastated by the fact that he misjudged their relationship, is left to pick up the pieces.

People have misunderstood "(500) Days of Summer" ever since its release, and the truth here is that Tom just doesn't listen, causing his own heartbreak in the process. If you're ready to watch a doomed relationship crash and burn, check this one out ... but maybe don't watch it with your partner.

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
Director: Marc Webb
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 95 minutes
Where to watch: Hulu, Disney+

Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor are two of the most acclaimed and beloved actors in the entire industry, and they might just be at their very best in Baz Luhrmann's wild jukebox musical "Moulin Rouge!" As a young writer who wants to experience love and moves to live in the bohemian district of Montmartre in Paris in 1899, McGregor's wide-eyed, romantic Christian is overwhelmed when he first sees Satine (Kidman), a courtesan and dancer at the Moulin Rouge, performing one night. When she mistakes him for a wealthy benefactor and seduces him, Christian confesses his real identity, but it's a little too late ... because the two have already fallen in love. As they dodge Satine's boss and the Moulin Rouge's proprietor Harold Zidler (Jim Broadbent) and the real wealthy benefactor The Duke (Richard Roxburgh), their bond deepends, but Christian is unaware of one thing: Satine is dying of consumption.

A retelling of "La bohème" — the opera by Giacomo Puccini — set to songs by Madonna and The Police, "Moulin Rouge!" is, without question, a "spectacular spectacular" ... and it's also a devastating love story. Come for the costumes and spectacle and stay for Satine and Christian's doomed but beautiful love story.

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 128 minutes
Where to watch: Hulu, Disney+

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).