MY 20 FAVORITE ROMCOM MOVIES

MY 20 FAVORITE ROMCOM MOVIES

The romcom genre is defined by storylines where there is a humorous/lighthearted tone as the main characters pursue romance, and there is a happy ending.

As with any favorites list, this one is subject to change, but this is where things rate with me right now.

1. DAN IN REAL LIFE (2007) - A grieving widower's life centers on his three daughters and the advice column he writes for the local newspaper, until he crosses paths with a woman and they both feel an immediate connection, but when she appears at the family's annual reunion, he discovers that she is his brother's new girlfriend.
2. BLAST FROM THE PAST (1999) - A man who was born in a bomb shelter after his parents thought that there was a nuclear war emerges for the first time when he's 30 with instructions to buy supplies and find a nice girl to bring back down with him.
3. SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993) - A widower and his son move from Chicago to Seattle where they start a new life, but things take a strange turn when his son calls into a radio talk show where the main theme is hope and love.
4. YOU'VE GOT MAIL (1998) - The owner of a children's bookstore in NYC doesn't know if her business can survive the opening of a new discount bookstore just around the corner.  Then, possible hope arrives in the form of an anonymous friend online who gives here encouragement and advice.
5. RETURN TO ME (2000) - A man loses his wife in an automobile accident, and her heart is used to save the life of another woman.  Later, the man and the woman who has his wife's heart met and start to fall in love.
6. ELIZABETHTOWN (2005) - A young man whose promising career has just tanked has to go to his father's small hometown to take care of the funeral arrangements.  While there, he meets a wide assortment of his father's family and friends, and a highly unusual flight attendant.
7. JUST LIKE HEAVEN (2005) - A young, ambitious doctor has an automobile accident and is in a coma.  In the meantime, the only person who can see her is the man who is now renting her apartment until the family decides what to do.
8. JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO (1990) - A hypochondriac with a terrible job and a diagnosis of a terminal condition accepts an offer from a rich tycoon to travel to the south seas and jump into a volcano in a tiny island in exchange for a wealthy lifestyle until that happens.  Everything seems to be going to plan until he meets the tycoon's two daughters. Meg Ryan plays three roles! 
9. NEW IN TOWN (2009) - A high powered Miami executive travels to Minnesota to first implement changes to a factory there, and then to close it down. In the meantime, she and the local head of the union start to get to know each other.
10. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING (1995) - A lonely NYC subway token taker dreams of love with the dream man who comes through her station every day.  Then, one day, he's mugged and falls onto the tracks.  She jumps down there and saves him, but he's in a coma.  She's mistaken for his fiance and things get complicated.
11.  FREE GUY (2021) - A non-player character in a popular video game dreams of love, but has reconciled himself to the fact that it will never happen, until he spots a first-person player and feels like he must talk to her.
12. 50 FIRST DATES (2004) - The swinging vet at a Hawaiian marine animal park vows that he will never fall for a local girl, but one day he crosses paths with a woman that he finds enchanting, only to learn that she has short-term memory loss, so he has to try to make her fall in love with him every day.
13. RAISING HELEN (2004) - A free-spirited career woman is named guardian of her sister's children when her sister and her husband die tragically.  She doesn't know the first thing about rearing children, but with the help of her other sister and a handsome pastor, she starts to figure things out.
14. GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) - A self-centered weatherman finds himself trapped in a time loop and he relives the same day, Groundhog Day, over and over and over again.  Along the way, he learns to look outward and to develop himself, and to start to plan and dream of a life with his producer.
15. THE PROPOSAL (2009) - The executive assistant to a powerful book editor finds himself in a tough spot when his Canadian editor learns that her visa is expired and she will have to leave the USA, unless she marries a citizen, so she makes a proposal to him.  Things go sideways when he takes her home, to Alaska, to meet his family.
16. SWEET HOME ALABAMA (2002) - A local girl who made it big in NYC comes home to finalize the divorce from her first husband so she can marry her new love, the NYC mayor's son.  Once back home, however, she stirs things up until her husband will sign.
17. HOUSESITTER (1992) - A very unusual and free-spirited woman ends up living in a house that an architect built for another woman, but who rejected him.  When the local townsfolk and his family are led to believe that they are engaged, things get extremely interesting.
18. FLY ME TO THE MOON (2024) - The work-obsessed launch director at Cape Canaveral is thrown off of his game when a beautiful woman and her assistant are hired to sell upcoming mission to the moon to the American people.
19. ROXANNE (1987) - The chief of a small mountain town's volunteer fire department dreams of love, but he believes that his oversized nose makes this a hopeless hope, and then the beautiful Roxanne comes to town for the summer.
20. MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING (2002) - An orthodox Greek woman dreams of a life outside of her parents' restaurant.  Then she gets permission to take night classes, and goes to work in her aunt's travel agency where she meets a handsome non-Greek man.  Sparks fly.