As much as we might wish otherwise, break-ups remain an inevitable part of life, with almost everyone experiencing heartbreak at some point in their romantic relationships. Whether you’ve spent days, weeks, months, or years with your significant other, the prospect of saying goodbye to our romantic counterpart is never easy, evoking all kinds of turbulent emotional responses.
As hard as it is to bid farewell to that special person we hold near and dear to our hearts, break-ups don’t exactly equal the end of life itself. In some cases, something potentially positive can come from the end of a relationship, be it a chance to pursue a long-standing creative goal or a happier, healthier relationship with a more suitable partner. While dealing with a break-up is always a struggle, these romantic comedies make the ordeal all the more bearable, helping viewers come to terms with their conflicting emotions in a poignant and relatable way.
It doesn’t matter how much advice you receive from others: navigating life following a debilitating break-up is a lonely road, typically taking you through every stage of grief as you process the end of your relationship. Dramatizing this process in a heartrending and accurate manner, (500) Days of Summer takes viewers on an emotional journey through a cathartic young romance. As humorous as it is thoughtful, (500) Days of Summer asks us to look at every facet of our past relationships, equally reflecting on the good moments along with the bad.
Perhaps the finest illustration of a romantic entanglement in cinematic history, Annie Hall shows the evolution of a relationship from the couples’ awkward first flirtations up to their final farewells together. Throughout it all, Annie Hall underscores the fundamental growth we experience thanks to our partners, influencing our larger outlooks on life in ways we never could have imagined possible.
As most people will readily admit, getting randomly dumped by your longtime partner is unlike any other feeling in the world, second only to the loss of a relative or having a beloved family pet suddenly run away. As hard as it is to grapple with the abrupt dissolution of a relationship, Forgetting Sarah Marshall teaches us that it is indeed possible to move on from said heartbreak. Whether taking a spontaneous trip to Hawaii or finally sitting down to write a Dracula-themed puppet rock opera, life always manages to roll forward, putting us one step closer to the next true love in our lives.
As we contend with the overwhelming wave of emotions that come with a break-up, there’s a decent chance that most people might wish to erase the memory of the other person from their mind completely. As tempting as that idea might seem, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind shows how horrific a mistake such a procedure would actually be. Yes, life might seem depressing following the end of a relationship, but Eternal Sunshine asks viewers to savor every little memory they’ve formed with their lover, good and bad alike.
Not every break-up has to involve a dramatic blowout, concluding with both sides of the couple screaming at one another until they’re red in the face. In the case of a movie like La La Land, for instance, a break-up can be a far more emotional affair, with each individual agreeing to end the relationship for their mutual benefit. Though a bitter pill for some people to swallow, films like La La Land emphasize the profound importance a partner holds in our lives, even after they’ve said goodbye and gone their separate ways.
A classic from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Casablanca teaches us all to enjoy the little moments of a relationship–especially those doomed to failure. In any other place at any other point in time, Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa could have lived out an ideal life together, settling down in the opulence of a war-free Paris. As it is, time and their individual circumstances simply weren’t on their side, but as Rick fondly tells Ilsa by means, “We’ll always have Paris,” encouraging us all to look back at the positive memories of a romance rather than lamenting the loss of a loved one.
