Winter is always a great time to cuddle up by the fire to watch a few movies.  Whether you’re recently engaged, a newlywed, or the parent of a bride-to-be, there’s something for everyone in our hot movie picks for couples!

From romantic comedies to murder mysteries, we’ve chosen movies from all genres with themes ranging from marriage and honeymoons to love triangles and infidelity.  So cuddle up with a loved one (and perhaps a box of Kleenex) for some hot movies to warm your ….!  

Wedding Themes: 

• My Big Fat Greek Wedding – 2002 - A quirky and hilarious romantic comedy about the marriage of  two thirty-somethings and the meddlesome Greek family of the bride-to-be. 
• Runaway Bride – 1999 - Julia Roberts and Richard Gere play well off each other in this top-notch romantic comedy.  A woman gets cold feet about marrying, repeatedly.
• Muriel’s Wedding – 1994 – Offbeat hit about a woman who fantasizes about the perfect wedding to the backdrop of ABBA songs.  Excellent fun.
• The Wedding Singer - 1998 – A fun romantic comedy set in the 80’s about a wedding singer who falls for a waitress at a wedding where his band is playing.  Stars Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.
• My Best Friend’s Wedding – 1997 - A big hit and quite successful at the box office but personally not one of my favorites.  A woman watches the man she loves marry another in this movie without a fairytale ending.  Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney star.
• The Wedding Planner – 2001 - What happens when a wedding planner (Jennifer Lopez) falls in love with her client (Mathew McConaughey)?  Some amusing scenes but an unrealistic picture of a wedding planner.
• Four Weddings & A Funeral – 1994 –  This British hit movie stars Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant as a couple who fall in love at Four Weddings and a Funeral. 
• Monsoon Wedding – 2001 – A romantic comedy about an Indian wedding and arranged marriage.  This Foreign film won a Golden Lion Award.
• Betsy’s Wedding – 1990 – What happens when parents clash with the bride and groom-to-be over the size and style of the wedding?  This sometimes funny comedy features an all-star cast with Alan Alda, the late Madeline Kahn, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy and Joe Pesci. 
• Father of the Bride – 1991 - The Father of the Bride is not exactly thrilled about his daughter’s upcoming and expensive wedding.  Underrated comedy starring Steve Martin as The Father of the Bride.
• The Housesitter – 1992 - A man (Steve Martin) builds a dream house for his girlfriend as a wedding proposal and gets turned down.  In steps a waitress, played by Goldie Hawn, who takes up residence in the dream house by pretending to be the man’s wife. 
• Forces of Nature – 1999 - A groom-to-be meets another woman a few days before his wedding.   Dark anti-marriage humor and a half-baked, unrealistic ending but some funny performances from Sandra Bullock and Ben Affleck.
• Bachelor Party – 1984 - The Bachelor Party is a raunchy comedy starring Tom Hanks in one of his earlier roles, not necessarily his best.. 
• The Bachelor – 1999 - A man must marry before his thirtieth birthday (24 hours away) or he loses out on his inheritance.  So-so comedy starring Chris O’Donnell and Renee Zellweger.
• The Best Man – 1999 –Written and directed by Spike Lee’s cousin, a best man is about to attend his friend’s wedding.  Only problem, the best man once had an affair with the bride-to-be and he writes about it in a fiction book that’s about to be published. 
• Green Card – A marriage of convenience (to get a green card) turns to love in this romantic comedy starring Gerard Depardieu and Andy MacDowell.
• Bride for Sale – 1949 – A woman tries to find the “perfect” husband by searching through tax records at an accounting firm.  Stars Claudette Colbert, Robert Young and George Brent.
• Fools Rush In – 1997 - Contrived romance about a man who marries a woman who gets pregnant after a one-night stand.  Stars Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry.
• Double Wedding – 1937 – Classic wedding-themed comedy featuring the stars of The Thin Man crime movies Myrna Loy and William Powell.
• Coming To America -  1988 - Eddie Murphy stars in this comedy about a Prince who comes to America in search of a bride. 
• Royal Wedding  - 1951 – Fred Astaire and Jane Powell star in this wedding-themed musical at Windsor Castle.  Contains the famous scene with Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling. 
• We’re Not Married – 1952 – What would happen if the license of a justice-of-the-peace turned out to be invalid?  Well, many couples wouldn’t be legally married and that’s the premise of this comedy starring Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe and many others stars from the fifties. 
• Love Actually – 2003 - The love lives of various couples brought together for a wedding interweave in this Robert Altman drama.

Newlyweds:

• Barefoot in the Park – 1967 - Robert Redford and Jane Fonda star as newlyweds in this Neil Simon classic. 
• Rosemary’s Baby – 1968 - These newlyweds are trying to have a baby…the only question is whose?  A fantastic supernatural thriller directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow.  

 In-Laws

• Meet the Parents – 2000 – In this highly rewatchable comedy starring Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller everything that can go wrong does when a groom-to-be meets his future in-laws.
• The In-Laws – 1979 – Although recently remade in 2003 with Michael Douglas the original just can’t be beat with hilarious performances from Alan Arkin & Peter Falk.
• Son-In-Law – 1993 – So-so comedy, guys generally rate this film higher than women.  Basic premise, a college student gets a guy to pose as her fiancé so a hometown guy won’t hit on her.  

  Infidelity & Affairs

• Fatal Attraction – A thriller that will stand the test of time and a stark and frightening testimonial on the pitfalls of infidelity.  A must-see for all couples. 
• The Bridges of Madison County – In contrast to Fatal Attraction, The Bridges of Madison County offers a sad and bittersweet portrayal of infidelity.  Still a great film with stunning photography and great performances by Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.
• Dressed to Kill – 1980 -  A wife with a boring sex life cheats on her husband.  What follows is an eerie chiller from director Brian DePalma starring Angie Dickinson, Michael Caine and a young Dennis Franz as one of the detectives. 
• The Graduate – 1969 - Mike Nichols cult classic features one of the best-known wedding scenes of all-time.  A quirky classic about a college graduate who has an affair with an older woman only to discover he’s in love with the woman’s daughter.  Stars Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft and Katherine Ross.  One of the best films of all time with outstanding performances and a stellar soundtrack by Simon & Garfunkel.
• Micki & Maude – 1984 – Amusing comedy about a man married to two wives.  Both wives are expecting babies due on the same day.   Stars Dudley Moore & Amy Irving.
• The Good Girl – 2002 – Jennifer Anniston stars in this comedy about a married woman who has an affair with a younger co-worker. 
• First Wives Club – 1996 – Visions of blackmail dance in their heads as three women plot revenge on their ex-husbands in this comedy starring Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler.
• Like Water for Chocolate - 1993 -  Based on a best-selling novel of the same name, a woman is in love with her sister's husband.  
• She-Devil – 1989 -  A frumpy housewife, played by Roseanne Barr, plots revenge on her cheating husband (Ed Begley).  Meryl Streep plays the other woman. 
• Black Widow – 1987 – Underrated thriller with surprise twists about a woman who marries millionaires that all end up dead.  Debra Winger and Theresa Russell star in this well-done suspense thriller.
• Something to Talk About – 1995 - A comedic look at what happens when a wife discovers her husband’s cheating heart.  Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid star.

Love, Marriage,  Murder & Spouses from Hell

 Dysfunctional, Strange or Alternative Relationships 

• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice – 1969 - Married friends experiment with free love in this film which won the Academy Award for Best Screenwriting.  A classic starring Robert Culp, Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon, who won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.
• In & Out – 1997 - Engaged to be married, a groom-to-be may actually, and to his surprise, be gay .  Stars Joan Cusack and Kevin Kline
• Peggy Sue Got Married – 1986 - Ever wonder what it would be like if you had married someone else?  Zapped into a time warp back to high school, Peggy Sue gets to choose all over again.  Fun comedy starring Kathleen Turner & Nicolas Cage.
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith – 1941 - The movie starts off with a husband telling his wife that if he had to do it all over again he wouldn’t have married.  Funny thing is, he isn’t really legally married after all and what ensues is a dated comedy full of stereotypes but worth a look.  This comedy, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, stars Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery.  
• New Leaf – 1971 - Walter Mathau and Elaine May star in this quirky romance.  A man marries an eccentric, and very wealthy, wallflower and plans to murder her for the money. 
• Harold & Maude – 1971 - A teenager falls in love with a woman of considerable age – say 79.  This May-December romance is a quirky cult classic featuring a Cat Stevens soundtrack. 
• The Out-of-Towners – 1970 - A married couple heads to New York where the husband has a job interview.  Everything goes wrong in this Neil Simon comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy  Dennis.  Remade in 1999 with Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin, the original is far better. 
• Cactus Flower – 1969 - A middle-aged dentist (Walter Mathau) is having a thing with a young woman (Goldie Hawn).  To prevent her from putting pressure on him to marry, the dentist asks his assistant (Ingrid Bergman) to pose as his wife.  A fun romantic comedy. 
• Days of Wine & Roses – 1962 – Starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, the performances are stellar and believable as a young married couple struggles with alcoholism. 
• About Schmidt – 2002 - A man travels cross-country to break up his daughter’s wedding.  Dark, disturbing and highly dysfunctional.  Kathy Bates and Jack Nicholson star.

Oldies but Goodies:

• Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – 1967 - What happens when a liberal couple discovers their daughter is engaged to an African American?  Thankfully we don’t live in the sixties anymore but back then the film was considered controversial.  Stars Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier.
• How to Marry a Millionaire – 1953 – Three women pretend to be wealthy in order to snare wealthy husbands.  A comedy classic starring Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable.
• The Apartment – 1960 - The themes of love, marriage and infidelity abound in this classic black and white comedy about a man who vacates his apartment so the married men at his office can have some on the side.   This classic starring Jack Lemmon and a very young Shirley MacLaine won 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture.  

Husbands, Wives & The Battle of the Sexes: 

• A Guide for the Married Man – 1967 – A happily married man is urged to cheat on his wife in this comedy starring Walter Mathau and Inger Stevens.  
• The Marrying Man – 1991 – Neil Simon comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger who fell in love on the set of the film.
• A Letter to 3 Wives – 1949 – Three friends are about to leave on a trip together.  All three wives receive a letter from a friend named Addie who claims she is going to run off with her husband.  This film won two Oscars and was redone as a made-for-TV movie in 1985. 
• What Women Want – 2000 – A womanizing ad exec suddenly finds himself able to hear what women are thinking.  Fun, romantic comedy with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.
• Pillow Talk – 1959 – Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall star in this dated but well-done battle of the sexes comedy.  Ironically, Rock Hudson, one of the biggest heartthrobs of the fifties, was of an alternate persuasion in real life.
• Adam’s Rib – 1949 - Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy play a husband and wife attorney team who must defend a woman accused of murdering her husband.  Ahead of its time for portraying a woman working as a lawyer.  Great classic romantic comedy.
• Mr. Mom – 1983 - The stereotyped roles of husband and wife are reversed in this comedy where Michael Keaton becomes a househusband after being fired.  His wife, played by Teri Garr, becomes the breadwinner.  Commonplace today, this was a pretty novel idea 20 years ago.  Still funny but dated. 
• Dream Wife – 1953 – Worth a look for its outdated stereotypes.  A man wants to marry an “old-fashioned” girl who will cater to his every whim.  Yeah, who wouldn’t want one of those.  Stars Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. 
• The Stepford Wives – 1975 – Speaking of dream wives…The Stepford Wives is a top-notch supernatural thriller.  A couple moves to suburbia where all the women live to serve their man without a thought of their own.  
• I Married a Witch – 1942 - The TV series Bewitched was derived from this movie starting Veronica Lake.
• My Favorite Wife – 1940 – A woman who was believed dead returns home after being deserted on an island only to find her husband married to another woman.  Stars Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.  This movie was remade in 1963 as Move Over Darling with Doris Day and James Garner.  The plot is also similar to Castaway starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt. 

Honeymoons: 

Top Romantic Picks:

•  Gone With the Wind -  1939 – Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh star in this bittersweet Cival War romance.  Perhaps the best romantic film of all time along with Casablanca. With its 4-hour run-time and the Ashley rantings, don’t expect your man to be able to sit through it.  Give him extra sensitivity points if he can.

• Casablanca – 1942 - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid star in a love-triangle set amid the backdrop of WWII.  Many film critics consider Casablanca to be the best film ever made.  

• West Side Story – 1961 – An updated version of Romeo & Juliet set in New York City.  Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer and Rita Moreno star in this bittersweet love story.

• When Harry Met Sally – 1989 - Best friends fall in love amidst the dysfunctional relationships of their past and present.  Top-notch romantic comedy even without the lunch scene.   Director Rob Reiner gets an A+ for truly hitting the mark!

• Ghost – 1990 – Don’t sit down to watch this without a box of Kleenex.  The story revolves around Molly and Sam, a couple whose lives are shattered when Sam is killed by a mugger.  Sam’s love for Molly continues beyond the grave in this top-notch, supernatural, romantic thriller.  

• An Affair to Remember –  1957 - A couple falls in love on a cruise but both are engaged to other people.  If they still feel the same way about each other after 6 months they plan to dump their fiancées and meet at the top of the Empire State Building.  This classic, starring Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr, was actually a remake of a 1939 film titled Love Affair.  It also spawned the remakes Sleepless in Seattle and 1994’s Love Affair with Annette Benning and Warren Beatty.

• Sleepless in Seattle – 1993 - Even though the film is a knock-off of the classic An Affair To Remember, this updated version is excellent with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. 

• Chocolat - 2000- Johnny Depp & Juliette Binoche star in this romantic drama that revolves around Chocolate.   

• The Philadelphia Story – 1940 - A complicated love-square.  Katherine Hepburn plays a divorced woman engaged to be married.  Her ex-husband tries to foil her wedding plans only to find out that there’s also another man (besides the fiancé) who’s interested in his ex-wife.  Does it really take 4 to Tango?  Who ends up with the bride-to-be?  Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and John Howard star in this classic comedy romance.  

• The Way We Were – 1973 - This bittersweet love story starring Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand won an Academy Award for Best Song.  The performances weren’t bad either.  Pass the Kleenex. 

• Love Story – 1970 – Another tear-jerker, Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw star as college students who fall madly in love.  Their bliss is short-lived when one of them is diagnosed with a fatal illness. 

• Crossing Delancey – 1988 - A grandmother hires a matchmaker to find a mate for her thirty-something granddaughter.  Who does the matchmaker find?  A pickle salesman from the lower East side.   Well done romantic comedy starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert. 

Romantic Comedies

• Moonstruck – 1987 – Wedding themes abound in this top-notch romantic comedy starring Cher, Nicolas Cage and Danny Aiello.  The term “feel-good movie” may even have originated with this film. 

• You’ve Got Mail – 1998 - Sparks fly between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in this romantic comedy based on an old movie called The Shop Around The Corner and updated for this film by writer Nora Ephron.

• Serendipity – 2001 - What happens when you keep running into the same person…is it just odd coincidence or fate?  Fun and interesting premise for this romantic comedy starring John Cusack.

• While You Were Sleeping – 1995 – A woman is mistaken as the fiancée of a comatose man.  She then falls in love with the man’s brother.  Fun comedy with Sandra Bullock and Peter Gallagher.

• One Fine Day – 1996 - So-so comedy starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer as divorced single parents who meet, fight and fall in love.  

Fantasy Relationships

• The Princess Bride – 1987 - Rob Reiner directed this fantasy story in which a princess is rescued from evil so she can be with her true love.  

• LadyHawke – 1985 - Michelle Pfeiffer & Rutger Hauer play star-crossed lovers in medieval times.  They are cursed into becoming animals - one is a wolf by night, the other a hawk by day and the lovers can only meet briefly each day as humans at dawn or dusk. 

• Solaris – 2002 - A man (George Clooney) on a space station finds his dead wife has been brought back to life. 

• Chances Are – 1989 – A woman’s dead husband returns to life with his soul in a new body.  Only problem, he’s now the love interest of her daughter.  Complicated but fun romantic comedy starring Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey, Jr. and Ryan O'Neal

• Kate & Leopold – 2001 - A portal in time opens up a romance between a modern day woman and a Duke from 1867.  Stars Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman.  

• Shrek – 2001 - Fairy tales do come true in this love story for all ages. 

• Prelude to a Kiss – 1992 - A young couple gets married.  At the wedding, a well-wisher kisses the bride and his soul enters the body of the bride.  The bride’s soul winds up in the body of the well-wisher, an old man who doesn’t have long to live.  Fun romantic comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan.

Three’s a Crowd

• Dead Calm – 1989 - Often shown on late night TV, an excellent thriller worth taping.  Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill star as a couple terrorized by a man they rescue while out at sea.

• Unlawful Entry – After a couple’s house is burglarized, the policeman who investigated the burglary becomes obsessed with the wife.  Kurt Russell and Madeline Stowe play the couple and Ray Liotta delivers a truly scary performance.

• Indecent Proposal – 1993 – A happily married couple is offered $1 million dollars for one night with a man’s wife.  Stars Robert Redford, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson.