13 Best Movies To Watch After a Breakup
by John Santana
Break-ups suck, plain and simple.
Navigating life without that special someone is like shooting in the dark, except you don’t even know how to use the gun. And you have a broken heart. And you’ve been out of the dating scene so long you wouldn’t even know where to find it.
But, at the very least, break-ups offer up some awesome breakup movies. Hollywood offers us up some of the greatest in the business and asks us only that we cry, scream, sing, and laugh along. (A quick shoutout here to Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, New Line Cinema, Columbia Pictures, Focus Features, and the likes for giving us the content we need to ugly cry in peace.)
So have a go at it!
Grab your best friend, your favorite snacks and pick one (or two or three – heartache has no time limit) of this list of the best break-up movies.
13 Best Movies You Can Watch After Your Breakup (2023 Update)
1. My Best Friend’s Wedding
Julia Roberts and Michael O’Neal star in one of Sony pictures’ classic breakup movies from the 90s!
Two friends make a promise that if, when they turn 28, they aren’t married yet, they’ll marry each other. Cusping on her 28th birthday, Robert’s character is floored when O’Neal proposes to a dangerously young Cameron Dias.
Thinking classic revenge flick? Not quite.
Everything changes when Cameron asks Julia to be her maid of honor. So what if you do then, at your best friend’s wedding, when all you want is for it to be yours?
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Who wouldn’t want to run away to magical Hawaii to escape a nasty break-up?
Only to then meet your ex and her crazy hot rock star new boyfriend (Russell Brand) at the same resort. And then listen to their nosy sex in the next room. Just Peachy.
This is the journey we go on with Jason Seigel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A movie about a messy break-up situation, hitting rock bottom, getting back up, and laughing at yourself after a bad break-up.
Plus, Jason Seigel’s full frontal nudity within the first 5 minutes is an instant mood lifter! This is why we love Forgetting Sarah Marshall for a breakup movie.
3. Legally Blonde
Reece Witherspoon plays Elle Woods in this girl power film. After her boyfriend leaves her, Elle Woods decides to join Harvard Law school to try to win him back.
Instead, we see a coming-of-age story about a young girl breaking down stereotypes and finding herself (and her dream job) along the way and beating all the boys in her class.
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Focus Features knocked this love story out of the park.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is almost Sci-fi in its plot and is exceptionally well cast.
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet ask us if we really want to forget everything after breaking up. Would you never have known the person really cured the post-breakup blues? And, what would happen if we’d met the person we love under completely different circumstances?
This one is going to have you ugly crying for sure and probably doing some journaling, so come prepared.
5. First Wives Club
This film reminds us that we don’t get mad. We get even.
Three scorned women (Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler – Could it get any better?) meet at a friend’s funeral and begin a scheme to get back at their cheating husbands.
First wives club is a film about badass women and the dangers of lying to your spouse. This one will have you revving your engine and ready for war!
6. Bridget Jones’s Diary
In Bridget Jones’s diary, Universal Pictures gives us a cult classic with Rene Zellweger.
Unendingly witty and charming, the character of Bridget Jones is one we can all relate to.
We follow 32-year-old Bridget Jones as she tries to find love after a failed affair with her former boss, lose weight and quit drinking in London. Possibly the best aspect of this movie is that it gives us a heroine that we might find in real life. A blubbering mess of a woman who would rather die than kiss the man of her dreams in granny panties.
And that’s more of what we need in this world.
Part Christmas movie, part break-up movie, all awesome.
7. 500 days of Summer
Have you ever romanticized failed relationships and convinced yourself that your entire life is over without your ex?
Doing it right now with your own break-up?
Watch this movie!
Fox Searchlight Pictures offers 500 days of Summer as a non-linear love story about loss, telling yourself the truth, and seeing things for how they really are.
8. Wedding Singer
No break-up is truly complete until you have cry laughed at the hilarious antics of Adam Sandler in the classic Wedding Singer.
The Wedding Singer follows the life of Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) and Julia Sullivan (Drew Barrymore) as they navigate their respective engagements.
You can expect to cry-sing along to Robbie’s incredibly funny songs throughout the film and cringe in a way that only Adam Sandler can make us. We see a great many break-ups and make-up moments in this film, with a truly lovely happy ending to round it off.
If nothing else, watch it to see the bad guy lose the good girl and to get yourself a new break-up soundtrack.
9. John Tucker Must Die.
Did anyone say revenge movie?
Alongside Brittany Snow, Jesse Metcalfe plays John Tucker; a serial cheater found out by his four (yes, FOUR) girlfriends. But who wouldn’t want Jesse forever?
But, if the first wives club taught us anything, it’s this; when we find out someone has been cheating on us, we do not mope. We do not cry in the corner. WE GET MAD.
And in John Tucker must die, we see very clearly what happens when girls get together and then get mad at a lousy guy.
10. Crazy Stupid Love
In this sweet movie, Steve Carel, Emma Stone, and Ryan Gosling star about finding your feet in the dating world again after 20 years in a marriage. Talk about a messy breakup situation.
In this film, we see a few different relationships transpire and follow each one closely as they intertwine throughout the movie. This one comes with one heck of a happy ending, though, which may or may not be good for your broken heart.
Please don’t say we didn’t warn you.
11. Eat Pray Love
Julia Roberts serves up a heaped spoonful of self-discovery in Eat pray love.
This film is about learning to love yourself before trying to love someone else. It also tells us that there is no appropriate age to go on a trip to find yourself, have a fresh start, have crazy flings with beautiful people, and eat the gelato.
This one goes out to all of us stuck in a place we no longer belong. It invites us to open the sliding doors of our life instead of sitting behind the same mesh curtains we’ve had up for 20 years.
This movie book is based on memoirs of the same name.
12. Marriage Story
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson deliver a heartbreaking movie about the difficulties of divorce.
While most movies on our list offer up some element of whimsy, Marriage Story follows the life of a couple moving through the legal proceedings of getting divorced. This is a heartfelt film about the challenges of divorce and about making hard decisions now that will benefit everyone in the future.
13. Blue Valentine
Are you feeling an urge to cry desperately for 112 minutes?
You’re in luck because Blue Valentine will help you do just that.
Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams give us a break-up movie with no massive saga, no betrayal, or boyfriend cheating catastrophes. Instead, they offer up a gently devastating film about love under pressure and the creation of a toxic relationship.
Conclusion
There you have it! Our list of the best break-up movies that you need post-break-up. Remember to love yourself, give yourself the time you need, and then get back out there when you’re ready!
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