Movies to feel the passion or the heartbreak

Whether you’re hanging with your gal-pals, cursing your ex-boy/girlfriends or spending the evening with that special someone, films have the power to evoke emotions within you that you maybe didn’t know existed.

Lovebirds and anti-Valentiners have been crying over romantic movies for decades either because their heart is broken or bursting at the seams.

Grab the tissues, the chocolate and (maybe) the wine.

‘Roman Holiday’ (1953)

A classic knight-in-shining-armor-saves-the-princess story.

A reporter, Joe Bradley, is stuck in a job he dislikes. On the verge of getting fired and as a last resort to save his job, he is set up to interview Princess Ann, but sleeps in and misses it.

As a stroke of dumb luck, the Princess just happens to be on his couch on the morning of the interview. He had brought her home the night before to save her from being arrested for vagrancy.

It turns out, Princess Ann is tired of her structured life and seizes her opportunity for a little unbound freedom.

Joe takes this opportunity into his own hands by conducting an exclusive interview with Ann without her knowing.

The more time they spend together, the more they fall in love.

Despite their love, their responsibilities win over and they’re left with what could have been.

‘The Notebook’ (2004)

A romance in which love conquers all.

When poor Noah falls for the wealthy Allie, her family would do anything to keep them apart, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

Even when they are apart, they are somehow together. When Allie goes away to college, Noah writes to her every day, but Allie’s mother keeps the letters from her.

As a last resort, and before Allie marries another man, Noah fixes up her dream home in hopes that she will return to him.

In time, she does.

The film goes back and forth between the beginning of their love story in the 1940s and to the present where Allie is suffering from dementia.

She doesn’t recognize the children they had together, and Noah chooses to stay with her every day and read her their love story that she had written down when she originally found out about her disease.

‘Dirty Dancing’ (1987)

Another circumstance in which life should keep them apart, but their love draws them together.

Frances “Baby” Houseman has expectations from her family that she is expected to live up to, but she ends up falling for her dance instructor, Johnny Castle.

When Baby’s father finds out who she’s been involved with, he bans her from “those people.”

In a choice that is all her own, she disobeys her father and sneaks out to be with Johnny.

In one of the most iconic scenes in film history, the movie concludes with Johnny and Baby dancing to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” and the approval from her father.

‘Sleepless in Seattle’ (1993)

After the death of his wife, Sam Baldwin and his son Jonah move to Seattle.

Though they are both grieving, Jonah wants his dad to be happy.

On Christmas Eve, Sam pours his heart out on a radio talk show, capturing the hearts of many women. Among them is Annie Reed, a journalist from Baltimore who is stuck in a dead-end relationship.

These women write letters to Sam, and Jonah is particularly excited about the one from Annie that suggests the two meet at the top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day.

Despite the attention, Sam wants to meet a woman the traditional way and soon becomes infatuated with a woman he runs into a few times in Seattle.

Will fate bring the two together?

In a series of coincidences, the unknown woman in which Sam is crushing on just so happens to be Annie.

When his father doesn’t jump at the chance, Jonah takes matters into his own hands and makes his way to New York to meet Annie. His father finds out and follows him.

As fate would have it, the two meet at the top of the Empire State Building and the rest was history.

Romantic movies can leave us wanting, and we can only hope that our lives are as exciting as these movies.