20 Best Movies to Watch After a Breakup

After a break up, you don’t want to do anything. You want to relax at home and forget about all of your troubles. It takes time to get over a long relationship, so give yourself space, grab some tissue and pull up your favorite ice cream. While you are recovering, these are some of the best movies to watch after a breakup. You won’t feel as good as new after them, but you will feel a bit better to realize that just about everyone has gone through the same emotional trauma.

1. Silver Linings Playbook

We absolutely love this movie. It stars the lovely Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. In the film, Cooper is unable to get over his divorce. He has moved back into his parents house as he grapples with his mental demons. Meanwhile, Lawrence’s character has some demons of her own because of the death of her husband. Will these two misfits be able to come together and find the silver lining in life?

2. Under the Tuscan Sun

Basically, this movie is premised on a woman running away to Italy just to get away from the thoughts and physical presence of her ex. Once there, she ends up buying a villa and making a new home for herself. You will empathize with the break up aspect of the film, and the ending will leave you hopeful that life really will work out. This is a wonderful movie if you want to cry your eyes out as you try to understand how even a marriage can end in disaster. This is certainly one of the best movies to watch after a breakup.

3. Amelie

At first glance, this movie does not seem like it should be on the list. After all, this French film does not even include a romance in it, right? Wrong. We think that this would still be a wonderful movie to watch after a breakup. Basically, the girl, Amelie, is completely alone in her life. She watches the people around her and tries to make the world a little better. If you don’t understand the difference between being alone and actually being lonely, this movie will show you what it means.

4. Legally Blonde

This is certainly one of the top breakup movies of all time. Elle is a sorority girl and has a boyfriend who is about to go to Harvard Law School. Suddenly, the boyfriend dumps her because he wants to have a wife who is more Jackie Kennedy-like than Elle is. Enraged, she decides to follow him to Harvard Law School. She amazingly gets in to the school, but is instantly bogged down by the work. She struggles through the years in law school to outshine everyone and discover that she does not need him after all. She was a better, smarter person than he ever was!

5. (500) Days of Summer

This is a great movie to watch at any time. If you are going through a break up, it will really help you out. You will easily empathize with Summer or Tom if you were convinced that you and your ex will meant to be. The movie is a good reminder that you can get through the rough times in life if you want to. It just takes time to heal and move on, but it will happen. It might seem difficult at first, but it will start to get easier.

6. High Fidelity

Out of all John Cusack’s movies about love and breakups, this is probably our favorite. In the film, Rob Gordon has already gone through many, many breakups. He wants to know why none of his relationships ever seem to work out. Watching this movie is a great way to get perspective on your own life. At the very least, you will get a few moments to be with a character who really understands the pain that you are going through.

7. Wuthering Heights

This is a movie that is based on a classic novel. In Wuthering Heights, you run into two characters who are just as miserable as you are. If you love books or movies like Pride & Prejudice, this is a good option to go with.

8. Diary of a Mad Black Woman

This romantic comedy stars Tyler Perry. It starts with a couple who have a seemingly happy marriage. Unknown to the wife, the husband is contemplating divorce. While this is certainly a comedy at times, it also has a darker, grittier side to it. Whatever the case, it certainly imbues you with a sense of strength and fortitude as you are going through your own breakup.

9. Notting Hill

After a bad breakup, it is easy to convince yourself that it is impossible to find true love. No matter what you do, nothing will ever work out. This entire movie is about a movie star and her life as a celebrity. Her high-profile suddenly changes when she ends up falling in love with a simple bookstore owner in Notting Hill. It stars two of our favorite romance stars, Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The story is beautiful to watch, and it will make you forget about your own break up for a little while.

10. First Wives Club

Sometimes, you want to watch a romance where the characters have an ugly break up that tears them apart. It makes you feel better about your own life, and it gives you a vicarious sense of revenge. If you want a film about ex-wives getting their own revenge, then check out the First Wives Club. Basically, the plot line focuses on women who were the first wives of their ex-husbands. Before long, their husbands trade them in for younger, prettier models. Rather than sit back and wait for an alimony check, they decide to join together, take action and get the revenge that they so richly deserve.

11. All the Real Girls

If you fell in love with Zooey Deschanel in the hit show, New Girl, then you are going to love All the Real Girls. This romance film is all about breakups. It is one of the only independent films on this list, and it follows a classic story of a young man with a certain type of reputation. Set in a small town, this is a great movie to watch after a breakup.

12. The Holiday

This is an incredibly breakup movie to watch. It features two excellent actresses as well as a great plot line. The story essentially revolves around a house swap between Los Angeles and the United Kingdom. If you needed to distract yourself from constantly texting your ex, this movie might be interesting enough to do the trick.

13. Annie Hall

This might be one of the older movies on this list, but we think that it would still be a great choice. The ending is worth watching all on its own, but we don’t want to remove the entire plot line by revealing too much, too soon. Just watch it and find out for yourself!

14. Pride and Prejudice

If you are a Jane Austen fan, then this is the film to watch, This is a movie based on one of Jane Austen’s most famous novels, Pride and Prejudice. Set in rural England, it looks like a family wit ha bunch of daughters. Their mother is scurrying about with the goal of finding each of them a husband, but missteps and disasters keep happening along the way. We love the movie version with Keira Knightley playing Elizabeth Bennet. While the happy ending may hurt a bit when you are going through a break up, the movie will leave you hopeful for the future. Before long, you will want to find your own Darcy!

15. She-Devil

You gave everything to the relationship than he (or she) leaves you in the dust. It is time to get your revenge. In this movie, the husband leaves for a younger woman. Rather than wait around and grow old alone, she decides to get revenge for herself by ruining his life. If even a part of you wishes that you could get revenge, this will be a very gratifying film for you to watch.

16. Bridge Jones’ Diary

This is by far one of our favorite romantic comedies on this list. Released in 2001, this story follows the tale of 32-year-old Bridget. She has decided that her life needs to take a turn for the better. She starts keeping a diary and decides to lose the extra 10 to 20 pounds of weight. Plus, it is time to find the right guy to partner up with. Before long, she is torn between two guys: a roguish playboy and a upper-class gentleman. It is hard for her to choose which one is the right guy, which is one of the reasons that there are actually two sequels to this movie. If you want to sit down, veg out and watch Bridget’s struggles with romance, invest in all three.

17. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Your breakup could be worse. You could have spent your relationship with a celebrity only to be dumped for someone richer, more famous and more attractive. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happens in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Peter Bretter is a struggling musician. Most people only recognize him as the boyfriend of the television celebrity, Sarah Marshall (played by Kirsten Bell). She dumps him and moves on, but he feels alone and heartbroken. He decides to finally try to get over the breakup by going to Hawaii, but Sarah has unfortunately planned a vacation with her new boyfriend at the exact same hotel.

This is a good movie to watch after a breakup. It is especially good if your ex-partner cheated on you because Sarah certainly gets paid back for her sins at the end of the book. The main character is adorable and sympathetic, which makes this a funny, heart-touching film to watch.

18. The Break-Up

This movie stars Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, so you know that it is a great choice. Brooke is an arts dealer. Gary works s a tour-bus driver. After the relationship stops working for them, they decide to breakup. While they both agree that a breakup is necessary, neither of them wants to move out of the condo that they bought together. With the help of friends, they sneakily try to manipulate the other partner into leaving. Ultimately, they end up becoming unhappy, hostile roommates instead.

There are romances that make you cry and feel a great deal of sympathy. There are other romance films that leave you laughing and thankful that your life is so much simpler. This is the second type. You will laugh until you cry, and the film will give you an entirely new perspective on relationships in general.

19. Jerry Maguire

This is a classic breakup movie that is worth watching. It stars Jerry Maguire. He works as a sports agent, and he finally manages to find someone who believes in him. At least, he thought he did, but then he screwed everything up. This is a great movie to watch if you have ever been broken up with and want someone to sympathize with.

20. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This might be a romance, but there is no way that you could expect everything that happens in this movie. Basically, this movie will make you question your own view of reality, and it has a tendency to make people leave feeling depressed. It does show the value in remembering things. No matter how much you want to forget your ex-partner, there are times when you have to remember. You just have to learn from your mistakes, come to terms with the past and gradually move on. As this movie shows, doing anything else can lead to dire consequences. If you are tired of rom-coms, then this is a good movie option to go with instead.