There are plenty of heartbreaking romance movies like The Notebook for when audiences need a good cry. The Notebook is the love between a man and a woman in the 1940s, as told by an elderly man in a nursing home in the present day who turns out to be crucial to the story. Based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, The Notebook is an iconic 2000s movie that launched Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling to the top of the A-list. It’s notable for its heartbreaking romantic plot, but it’s not the only romance movie that tugs at audiences’ heartstrings.
Although it received mixed reviews from critics upon its release, The Notebook struck a chord with audiences and remains a beloved classic to this day. For viewers who want to have their hearts broken by a deeply moving romantic narrative, The Notebook makes for a perfect movie night. The romance genre is full of devastating movies that serve the same tear-jerking purpose. From the doomed love story of Brokeback Mountain to the historical heartbreak of Titanic to the star-crossed romance of A Star is Born, there are many great movies like The Notebook to get the waterworks flowing.
10 Blue Valentine (2010)
A Devastating Look At A Relationship From Beginning To End
Blue Valentine
Release Date December 29, 2010
Runtime 112 Minutes
Director Derek Cianfrance
Writers Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne
The Notebook isn’t the only heart-wrenching romance that Ryan Gosling has starred in throughout his storied career. The actor paired up with Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, a two-handed character study about the changing dynamics of a failing marriage. Blue Valentine follows two very different story timelines that contrast the couple’s early courtship with the dissolution of their marriage years later. Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her poignant performance in this emotionally draining masterpiece from director Derek Cianfrance.
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The scenes of watching Gosling and Williams falling in love do have a similar feel to the charming early romance scenes between The Notebook's Noah and Allie, with a bit more of an indie vibe. However, while it is an emotionally wrenching movie, similar to The Notebook, it may actually be too much for some audiences to take. While The Notebook is a bittersweet story of love, Blue Valentine shows the harsh realities of relationships.
9 The Vow (2012)
Rachel McAdams Returns To The Emotional Romance Genre
The Vow
Release Date February 5, 2012
Runtime 104 minutes
Director Michael Sucsy
Writers Jason Katims, Abby Kohn, Stuart Sender, Marc Silverstein, Michael Sucsy
Producers Gary Barber, J. Miles Dale, Jonathan Glickman, Paul Taublieb, Roger Birnbaum, Susan Cooper
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Jessica Lange
Bill Thornton
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Like her Notebook co-star, Rachel McAdams has returned to the romantic tragedy genre, which she did as she starred opposite Channing Tatum in The Vow. The Vow isn’t just a movie like The Notebook; it’s nearly identical. It has a very similar plot about memories of love. A woman awakens from a coma with memory loss and her husband tries to remind her who he is. There’s a sweet sincerity to the film’s melodramatic storytelling and is a tribute to undying love.
Unlike Blue Valentine, which is painful, devastating, and existential, The Vow is a quintessential date movie about the power of human affection. The Notebook's various timelines in telling this love story is done more effectively than in The Vow, however, both movies succeed in their goals of a mix between heartbreaking and uplifting. Tatum makes for an endearing, determined romantic lead, and McAdams is able to bring something new to her role despite the similarities to The Notebook.
8 Atonement (2007)
Star-Crossed Lovers Are Torn Apart During World War II
Atonement
Release Date September 7, 2007
Runtime 123 Minutes
Director Joe Wright
Writers Ian McEwan, Christopher Hampton
Starring a well-matched Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, Atonement is based on the Ian McEwan novel of the same name about the heiress of a wealthy family and the son of their housekeeper defying the odds to be together. Their secret passion for each other is undone with a malicious lie that forces them apart and threatens any future they might have had together.
Atonement manages to earn the love from awards that The Notebook never received, with seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Atonement manages to earn the love from awards that The Notebook never received, with seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Like The Notebook, this movie has a nonlinear narrative that covers decades of a couple’s love story, including a World War II subplot, culminating in Atonement's tearjerking ending. Given their historical setting, the male leads of both The Notebook and Atonement are sent to fight in the Second World War, and it naturally takes a toll on their relationships.
7 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Heath Ledger And Jake Gyllenhaal Hide Their Secret Love
Brokeback Mountain
10/10
Release Date December 9, 2005
Runtime 134 minutes
Director Ang Lee
Writers Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal gave mesmerizing performances in Brokeback Mountain, and share a heartwarming dynamic as two cowboys who engage in a forbidden love affair across two decades in the American West. The Notebook touches on how the time period in which Allie and Noah begin their romance offers societal hurdles for them as they come from two different social spheres. Brokeback Mountain deals with this issue in a more powerful way, telling the story of two men who spend their entire romance unable to live in love together.
Brokeback Mountain is another tragic romance storyline like The Notebook, with a huge relationship timeline fraught with passion and heartache. Ang Lee’s neo-western gem controversially lost the Academy Award for Best Picture to Crash, arguably the weaker film of the two. But, Best Picture winner or not, Brokeback Mountain holds up a lot better than Crash today.
6 Marriage Story (2019)
The Oscar-Winning Dramedy About The End Of A Relationship
Marriage Story
9/10
Release Date December 6, 2019
Runtime 136 minutes
Director Noah Baumbach
Writers Noah Baumbach
Noah Baumbach’s Netflix dramedy Marriage Story is a deeply personal film about how to end a relationship on good terms (or, at the very least, try). Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson were both nominated for Oscars for their powerful performances as a couple on the brink of divorce. While they attempt to handle the end of their marriage amicably, they find themselves getting dragged into the bitter and contentious divorce proceedings that further poison their once-happy relationship.
Much like in The Notebook, the love in Marriage Story is expressed in written form, also as a way of reminding this couple of the love they once shared. At the behest of their marriage counselor, Charlie and Nicole write each other a letter listing all the things they love about each other. It also bookends the movie with these letters coming back into play in a beautiful way. While The Notebook is responsible for one of the most popular movie romances of all time, Marriage Story shows how there can be love in a relationship that ends poorly.
5 Carol (2015)
A Forbidden Period Romance Between Two Women
Carol
8/10
Release Date November 20, 2015
Runtime 119 minutes
Writers Phyllis Nagy, Patricia Highsmith
Cast
Though it's somewhat different from Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt, Carol, the book's film adaptation, tells the 1950s-set love story of a wealthy socialite in the midst of a bitter divorce and a shopgirl who dreams of becoming a photographer. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara anchor the movie with palpable on-screen chemistry as infatuated lovers who can’t be together.
Much like The Notebook, Carol evokes its period setting beautifully, thanks to Todd Haynes’ steady-handed direction. The romance is doomed from the start, but it’s an engaging journey nonetheless. It is another movie that deals with how society's need to control how people love each other can destroy the potential happiness for others. Unlike The Notebook, the romance in Carol also deals with an age gap which allows the audience to see the different perspectives of such a romance at different stages of a person's life.
4 The Fault In Our Stars (2014)
A Young Adult Romance With A Tragic Twist
The Fault in Our Stars
8/10
Release Date June 5, 2014
Runtime 126minutes
Director Josh Boone
Writers Josh Boone
As with many movies like The Notebook (and The Notebook itself), The Fault in Our Stars turns a tear-jerking novel into an equally tear-jerking film. Based on the John Green book of the same name, The Fault in Our Stars revolves around two teenage cancer patients, played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, falling in love. These two lovebirds face even more tragic circumstances than The Notebook’s Noah and Allie.
Like McAdams and Gosling, Woodley and Elgort anchor The Fault in Our Stars with impeccable on-screen chemistry. They play a younger couple which makes what they have to endure all the more tragic compared to the older couple at the end of The Notebook. However, like The Notebook, The Fault in Our Stars has become a pivotal movie for young audiences with a story of love helping people cope with anything.
3 Titanic (1997)
James Cameron's Romantic Epic Aboard The Doomed Ship
James Cameron scored one of the biggest critical hits of his career and one of the biggest box office hits of all time with Titanic. Starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as a wealthy woman stuck in an unhappy relationship and the less economically privileged man who wins her heart, Titanic is a riff on Romeo and Juliet’s star-crossed love story set aboard the ill-fated RMS Titanic.
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Like The Notebook, Titanic walks the line between romance and historical drama. It takes a real-life tragedy and puts a fictionalized spin on it for the sake of movie magic. The class divide between the two lovers is a larger part of the story than it is in The Notebook, and while Rose and Allie both find themselves married to a man they don't truly love, Rose's husband, Cal, is a much more villainous character than Allie's noble suitor, Lon. Ultimately, they are both stories about a love that is able to overcome tragedy and last for decades.
2 Moonlight (2016)
A Man Struggles With His Sexuality At Different Ages
Moonlight
9/10
Release Date October 21, 2016
Runtime 111 Minutes
Director Barry Jenkins
Writers Barry Jenkins
Moonlight might have etched itself in many people's minds when its Best Picture Oscar was nearly given to La La Land by mistake. However, it is also deservedly acknowledged as one of the best movies of the 21st century and a true modern masterpiece. Told in three acts, Moonlight charts the childhood, adolescence, and early adult life of its compelling protagonist, Chiron. Adapted from Tarell Alvin McCraney’s previously unpublished play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Moonlight is a complex exploration of themes like sexuality and masculinity.
Just like The Notebook, Moonlight explores the sad parts of romance in as much depth as the happy parts. However, unlike The Notebook, it is more of a story through a single character's perspective. The evolution of Chiron's coming-of-age story shows how he explores his feelings towards another boy, is robbed of happiness by others, and finally comes to terms with who he really is.
1 A Star Is Born (2018)
Bradley Cooper And Lady Gaga Play Music Stars In Love
Out of the four different versions of A Star is Born, the 2018 remake – which marked Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut – feels like the rawest and most honest. Cooper plays a country rock star with alcoholism opposite a revelatory Lady Gaga as the up-and-coming singer-songwriter he falls for. Their relationship faces trials and tribulations as Ally becomes more famous and Jack’s addiction worsens.
Much like The Notebook, this is a deeply moving romance movie that sets out to make its audience cry, especially in its final act when the story takes a bleak turn.
Much like The Notebook, this is a deeply moving romance movie that sets out to make its audience cry, especially in its final act when the story takes a bleak turn. It is a story about a love between two people that is so strong and can withstand so much, making each other better people in the process. However, the conclusion of the story hits that heartbreak even harder than The Notebook and proves that it is a tragic love story that continues to captivate audiences.
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