The 20 greatest movies about relationship drama

Cate Blanchett has given many great performances in her long, storied career, but Carol Aird may be one of her finest and most emotionally nuanced creations. Todd Haynes’ lush and evocative melodrama–based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith–is a wrenching story of sapphic love in a deeply homophobic world. Though many of Haynes’ other works are seen as being a bit cold or distant at times, thanks to Blanchett’s performance, as well as that of her co-star Rooney Mara, this film will break one’s heart and put it back together again.

Based on the novel of the same name by Maggie Farrell, Hamnet focuses on Jessie Buckley’s Agnes, the wife of William Shakespeare. Though it pays particular attention to her grief over their son’s death, it’s also a film that’s very much about how relationships work, and how they don’t. It’s one of Buckley’s finest and most emotionally raw performances, and she allows the audience to feel with Agnes as she moves through the various stages of her life. It’s impossible not to be moved by this film and its emotional power.

Even if Baz Luhrmann had never directed another film other than Moulin Rouge,  he would have solidified his reputation as one of the most remarkable cinematic stylists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Set in Paris during the last year of the 19th century, it stars Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman as a musician and a cabaret actress who find themselves in a doomed and tragic romance. It’s a story filled with drama and high emotions, bolstered by dizzying cinematography and a gorgeous soundtrack. It’s no wonder that the film has remained so enduringly popular.

Josh O’Connor delivered his breakthrough performance in God’s Own Country, where he portrays a gloomy, often frustrated sheep farmer who finds unexpected love with a migrant Romanian farmworker. The film is often viewed as the British Brokeback Mountain, and it’s easy to see why, since it’s all about two men finding love in an inhospitable landscape. Fortunately, this film has a much happier ending, though the two men have to go through quite a bit of relationship drama before they find their happily ever after.

At its heart, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice  is all about romantic drama. After all, few relationships are more dramatic than the one between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, and Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen bring these two immortal characters to remarkable life, each making their mark. Though it may not be quite as beloved as the iconic TV series, it still manages to be one of the better adaptations of Jane Austen’s perpetually beloved novel.

The Four Seasons is one of those films that has it all. It has a terrific cast, including heavy hitters like Alan Alda (who also wrote and directed it), Carol Burnett, and Rita Moreno, a great script, and a delicate balance of drama, comedy, and romance. The film grapples with the issues that beset anyone facing middle age, including encroaching mortality, grief, and love. The film would later inspire the very successful Netflix dramedy of the same name.

Wong Kar-wai is a filmmaker with a remarkable eye, and his films often explore the fraught territory of human desire. In his film Happy Together , he shines a light on a gay couple, Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai , as they figure out whether they really want to build a life together or whether they are forever fated to be separated. Like so many of the director’s other features, it has a lush visual palette and a pulsing, beating emotional heart you can't ignore. 

Directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in some of their finest performances, Brokeback Mountain focuses on the wrenching and doomed love of cowboys Jack and Ennis. It’s one of those films that deserves all of its accolades, and once seen, it is never forgotten. It remains a landmark in LGBTQ+ cinema and, at its heart, it’s about the complicated forms queer relationships take when confronted with the unfortunate realities of a deeply homophobic world and society, forces that are often destructively internalized.

Director Douglas Sirk was well known for directing lush 1950s melodramas that used Technicolor, melodramatic stories, and sweeping scores to offer ironic commentary on midcentury bourgeois life. His film All That Heaven Allows focuses on an older widow who pursues a relationship with a younger man, much to the consternation of her community and her children. It might seem dated to some, but it still has a power all its own, highlighting how stifling 1950s America could be.

Todd Haynes is rightly regarded as one of the most meticulous craftsmen working in Hollywood. Many of his films are lushly produced, often evoking the melodramas of the 1950s. This is particularly true of Far from Heaven,  arguably one of his greatest films. Julianne Moore stars as a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair with a man, after which she begins a relationship with an African American man. Like its melodramatic predecessors, this film holds up a mirror to contemporary society, showing its flaws and hypocrisies. 

Based on the novel by Ian McEwan, Atonement  follows the tragic love of James McAvoy’s Robbie Turner and Keira Knightley’s Cecilia Tallis, which is blighted by the false testimony of Cecilia’s younger sister, Briony (Saoirse Ronan). This is a film that’s equal parts swoony and heartbreaking, particularly the conclusion, which is arguably one of the most devastating of 21st-century cinema. Thanks to the indelible performances of the central cast–as well as a last-minute scene-stealing moment from Vanessa Redgrave– Atonement deserved its abundant critical acclaim.

The films of Paul Thomas Anderson are always adventures in finely wrought craft and human psychology. This is particularly true of Phantom Thread, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a dressmaker who develops a deep yet twisted relationship with a young waitress. The film has an intensity that’s familiar to anyone who enjoys Anderson’s films, and both Day-Lewis and his co-star Vicky Krieps give startlingly fierce performances. It shows the dark and sometimes sinister depths of human desire and the shapes such desire can take in human relationships.

Classic relationship drama movies don’t get much more complicated than the beloved Casablanca. Even now, many decades after it first appeared, it still has the power to move. The central romance between Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa Lund is one for the ages, since they don’t end up being together despite their intense feelings. This is the kind of film that sweeps viewers up in heightened emotion, and it remains a highlight of classic Hollywood.

Written and directed by Spike Jonze and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, Her is one of those films that only becomes more relevant and resonant with each passing year. After all, it is a story about a man who falls in love with his artificial intelligence assistant. It’s a film that’s surprisingly poignant, since it dares to ask some pressing and pointed questions about human relationships and what it means to become attached to an entity that isn’t truly human.

Relationships don’t get much more dramatic than in Gaslight. After all, this is the film in which a woman’s husband plays a dangerous mind game with her, in the hopes that driving her mad will give him control of her wealth. It’s a film that’s all about paranoia and a growing sense of dread, with more than a little bit of noir. It’s also about the way that the all-consuming greed for wealth can lead to tragedy, cruelty, and destruction.

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story  stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson as a couple going through a divorce and trying to figure out custody. It’s a film that cuts right to the core of a fraught and deeply emotional human story. Fortunately, Marriage Story avoids easy answers and clichés, letting the viewer see both sides of a complicated issue. Moreover, both Johansson and Driver deliver terrific performances, and it’s safe to say they’re at the top of their game.

Based on the novel by Colleen Hoover–who also wrote the screenplay–Reminders of Him focuses on the love story between Kenna, an ex-con, and Ledger, her late fiancée’s best friend. Adding to the complexity and drama of their relationship is the fact that Kenna has spent time in prison for vehicular homicide and wants to reunite with her daughter. The film is pure melodrama, but that’s what makes it so appealing. What’s more, it does show how it is possible to heal and build a life, even after unspeakable loss. 

The film A Star Is Born has been made several times, most recently in 2018, starring  Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Though the film is about the rise of a young female singer’s fame as her older lover and mentor goes into decline, it’s also at heart a story all about a deeply fraught relationship. Lady Gaga gives one of her best performances as Ally Maine, who attempts to build her own career while also contending with her husband’s fading fame and struggles with addiction. It’s the type of film that breaks one’s heart, filled with beauty and pathos.

Anora became a sensation when it won the Oscar for Best Picture, beating out several other high-profile films. It’s easy to see why it ended up being so beloved, given that it grapples with the messy–and ultimately toxic–relationship between lap dancer Anora "Ani" Mikheeva and the son of a Russian oligarch. Mikey Madison delivers a fully embodied, fully realized performance as Ani, and it’s easy to see why she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

Based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same name, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  focuses on the fraught and dysfunctional marriage between Paul Newman’s Brick and Elizabeth Taylor’s Maggie. It’s a story all about thwarted desire and Southern decadence, and both Newman and Taylor give terrific performances. Though it stripped out many of the LGBT elements from the original play, there’s still enough of them there for those who know what to look for, and the film remains an intense drama of human feeling.