Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures
(500) Days of Summer
At first glance, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) seem like the perfect pair. They both love The Smiths and Bruce Springsteen, share an indie sensibility and are content wandering IKEA. The problem? Tom's a hopelessly romantic greeting card writer, and Summer is a relationship cynic who wants anything but to end up like her divorced parents. As Tom's much younger, much wiser sister points out, "Just because she likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate."
From the start, audiences are warned this film is not a love story, but it's hard to tear ourselves away from the 500-day roller coaster that is Tom and Summer's relationship. As Tom realizes loving Summer can't make her love him back, Summer learns it's possible to share a life with someone else—even if it's not Mr. Right Now.
This is the breakup film for anyone who's given more than they've gotten—and picked themselves up once they realize it's possible to move on.
Photo: CBS Entertainment Production
Better Off Dead
If any occasion warrants total hysteria, it's a breakup—especially in a 1980s teen flick. Lane Meyer (a baby-faced John Cusack) is devastated when his girlfriend leaves him for the popular captain of the ski team. When he's not making half-hearted suicide attempts (like jumping off a not-so-high bridge into a truck carrying fluffy garbage bags), he's working in a fast food joint and imagining rock concerts starring Claymation hamburgers. His eventual salvation comes in the form of a French exchange student and the ultimate ski-off.
The delightfully dramatic teen angst keeps you laughing as you walk down your own memory lane—and has you thanking your lucky stars you'll never have to suffer a high school split again.
Bridget Jones's Diary
Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince—which isn't too traumatizing if the frog is Hugh Grant and your prince is Colin Firth.
Renée Zellweger plays lovable everywoman Bridget Jones, who occasionally overindulges in cigarettes, food, alcohol and spewing words into her diary while on a journey to find true love. Just when she thinks she's found a keeper in her charming boss, Daniel Cleaver (Grant), she catches him with an attractive, younger, thinner woman. As Bridget picks up the pieces, she begins to see a family friend—stuffy human-rights lawyer Mark Darcy (Firth)—in a new light. When Daniel reenters the picture, his rivalry with Mark culminates in a hilariously knock-down, drag-out fight for Bridget's love. In the end, Bridget ends up with the right man—one who loves her exactly as she is, quirks and all.
Photo: Universal Pictures
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
It's bad enough to be dumped. It's even worse to be dumped for a rock star. Still worse? Your television star ex-girlfriend and her rocker boyfriend are coincidentally staying in the room next to yours during a Hawaiian getaway.
While his ex seems to be in paradise with her new beau, a heartbroken Peter (Jason Segel) strikes up a friendship with sympathetic hotel employee Rachel (Mila Kunis). When Peter and Rachel start to click, Sarah (Kristen Bell) gets jealous and decides to restake her claim. Just when Peter thinks Sarah could be the right girl for him after all, he sees her for who she really is and realizes his perfect match has been by his side the whole time.
Photo: Touchstone Pictures
High Fidelity
Based on Nick Hornby's novel, High Fidelity takes breakup mix tapes to a new level. To win back his girlfriend, record shop owner Rob (John Cusack) must reflect on the soundtrack of his past relationships. An obsessive list-maker, Rob sorts through the details of his top 5 breakups. In the end, he realizes that repeating the mistakes of relationships past will never allow a future with the only woman he's truly loved.
Sliding Doors
If you've ever wondered "what if" about a past relationship, Sliding Doors may help your realize everything happens for a reason.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays Helen Quilley, a woman who's just been fired from her job. From this point, the movie splits into two parallel universes. In one, Helen makes her train and catches her boyfriend in bed with his ex-girlfriend, which puts her on the road to real love and fulfillment with someone new. In the other timeline, she misses her train, which gives her cheating boyfriend enough time to send his ex away. Helen obliviously continues in the relationship—until she finds out the other woman is pregnant with her boyfriend's child. Shortly after, Helen's knocked unconscious and sees flashes of what a life with her true love could be. When she wakes up in the hospital, she tells her cheating boyfriend to get lost. Ready for a fresh start, she steps onto the elevator to leave the hospital where she finally meets the man of her dreams.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
In the aftermath of a breakup, it's easy to toss out the CDs, sweatshirts and trinkets of your former love. But if you think it's possible to completely erase an ex from your life, think again.
In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Joel (Jim Carrey) hires a company to erase every memory of his ex Clementine (Kate Winslet) after he discovers she had the procedure done first. As his memories disappear one by one, Joel struggles to hold on to good times. As his last memory is wiped, the Clementine in his mind says, "Meet me in Montauk."
Days later, Joel finds himself on the train to Montauk and inexplicably drawn to a woman. Her name is Clementine. As they rekindle their relationship without memory of their past, these star-crossed lovers prove it's impossible to forget someone who's stirred your soul.
Swingers
After surviving a breakup, there's no better feeling than discovering you're totally money—and didn't even know it.
Mike (Jon Favreau) is a comic who left his life—and girlfriend—in New York City for a fresh start in Los Angeles. As he wades deeper into his new life—and the Hollywood dating scene—he finds himself unable to let go of his ex. Once Mike learns to be himself in a town full of aspiring actresses, he makes a real connection (with Heather Graham, no less) and takes flight in the City of Angels.
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
War of the Roses
Attorney Gavin D'Amato (Danny DeVito) says every divorcing couple face two crucial questions: "How do you hold onto someone who won't stay?" and "How do you get rid of someone who won't go?"
It's the central question of
The War of the Roses . This dark comedy shows us just how nasty divorce can get—and how entertaining it can be to watch when it's not happening to you. As Oliver (Michael Douglas) and Barbara's (Kathleen Turner) picture-perfect marriage unravels, these grown adults are reduced to behaving like children. Furniture is destroyed, animals are (accidentally) killed, cruel jokes are played—all in the name of getting even. It's not until too late that the couple remembers why they fell in love in the first place.
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