Netflix is overflowing with romance content. From comedies to dramas and stories from all around the world, it’s impossible to wade through all of what Netflix has to offer. Especially considering that the quality can certainly vary. Whether you’re checking in for Valentine’s Day or just in the mood for love, these three Netflix romances are some of my favorites.
Favorite doesn’t mean they’re all prestigious quality. Sometimes, the most fun we can have watching something is when we’re taking it the least seriously. Or, perhaps you’re looking for a historical romance. Or a modern episodic romance. One way or the other, we’ve got you covered.
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
Forgotten Love (Znachor)
Drop everything you’re doing, log on to Netflix, and watch Forgotten Love (Znachor) right now. Directed by Michal Gazda, this Polish Netflix Original movie is based on a novel by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, and it truly has everything. Leszek Lichota stars as Professor Rafal Wilczur, a renowned brain surgeon with a jealous rival in Dr. Jerzy Dobraniecki (Miroslaw Haniszewski), a wife who can no longer stand him, and daughter Marysia (Maria Kowalska), who he loves with every fiber of his being.
She is torn away from him when her mother runs away to her lover far away from the city. Wilczur is badly beaten shortly after and loses his memory. When Wilczur, now going by Antoni Kosib, and Marysia cross paths again 15 years later, neither remembers the other, but something is clearly clicking beneath the surface for them both as they fall in love with Zoska (Anna Szymanczyk) and Count Leszek Czynski (Ignacy Liss) respectively.
Despite how its premise may sound on paper, Forgotten Love (Znachor) was one of 2023’s best romances by a landslide. The four main characters are each deeply realized, and the various types of relationships at hand are all elevated by one another at every turn. The amnesiac doctor of it all, who can’t help but keep trying to help people, just makes everything all the more charming.
Maestro
The sophomore directorial project of Bradley Cooper, Maestro, is a masterful demonstration of prioritizing visual storytelling over plot to make a film about who two characters are more so than what they did or didn’t accomplish. It neither possesses the lionizing or triumphant nature of a traditional biopic nor the fully structured plot of an average romantic drama.
Rather, Maestro is an audio-visual powerhouse of performances by Bradly Cooper as Leonard Bernstein and Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre Cohn designed to show you exactly who these two people were, who they were to each other, and what effect their confluence had on themselves.
Maestro is an immaculate portrayal of two immensely complicated figures. By deeming the plot of the movie secondary to the evolution of their relationship, we’re treated to one of the most nuanced explorations of power, parity, and autonomy in a non-heterosexual relationship. Who gets to choose how they want to live and love within a complicated relationship is rarely explored so delicately and passionately. Come to Maestro for the indelible performances and use of music, stay for the masterclass in editing and the unknowable power of love and attraction.
One Day (2024)
Nearly every year on July 15th, Emma (Ambika Mod) and Dexter (Leo Woodall) spend it together in the Netflix Original series One Day (2024) created by Nicole Taylor and based on the book of the same name by David Nicholls. They meet at their college graduation and have a whirlwind of a one-night fling. Sort of. For the next 20 years, we watch Dex and Emma’s ups and downs—their friendship, love, and their lives, together and apart.
Despite what most popular depictions of love would have you believe, love takes time. Sometimes decades. It can, and will, go through so many different phases and highs and lows. By the end, you might forget some of the details. But One Day (2024) is nearly perfect at depicting all of them. With utterly charming main characters who you cannot help but root for together and independently the whole way through, One Day (2024) is a fantastic watch for lovers of romance. As long as you bring a box of tissues along.
Still Time (Era Ora)
Still Time (Era Ora) is an Italian-language Netflix Original movie directed by Alessandro Aronadio and written by Aronaido and Renato Sannio that begs us to wonder whether we can ever really change as Dante (Edoardo Leo) gets stuck living only his birthday every year.
Dante’s the kind of guy who lives his life with the confidence that nothing is wrong and everything he does is the unquestionably right choice. He works hard and makes decisions without a second thought. So when he goes to sleep after what he thinks is a wonderful 40th birthday party but perhaps his partner Alice (Francesca Cavallin) might quietly beg to differ, he hasn’t a worry on his mind.
Until he wakes up and it’s his birthday again, only one year later. The next 100 minutes or so will see Dante repeating this same loop again and again for many years to come, living only through his birthday with no clue what happened in the year since.
Still Time is a really great allegory for how bad we all are at living in the present and how hard but necessary it is to change ourselves before it’s too late.
Surviving Summer
Surviving Summer is a Netflix Original YA series created by Josh Mapleston and Joanna Werner. Summer Torres (Sky Katz) is a problem child with a fraught relationship with her mother. So when she’s kicked out of school, again, she’s sent to go live in a small town on Australia’s surfing coast with her mother’s childhood best friend (Natalie Bond) for six weeks until she returns from a work assignment.
The show is decidedly melodramatic, and the plot is somewhat of an afterthought at times. But as a whole, it’s a very fun entry in the annals of Netflix romances.
Squared Love (Milosc Do Kwadratu)
The Squared Love (Milosc Do Kwadratu) trilogy of Polish rom-coms follows Monika (Adrianna Chlebicka) and Enzo (Mateusz Banasiuk) as they lead double lives as teacher and model, and model and nice guy respectively. These films range in quality but there’s something wholly satisfying about returning to the same troubled but lovable couple over and over again through increasingly absurd rom-com tropes. Watch all three. Watch any single movie. They’re all a messy good time.
A Tourist’s Guide to Love
A Tourist’s Guide to Love, directed by Steven K. Tsuchida and written by Eirene Donohue, is a Netflix Original rom-com starring Rachael Leigh Cook as Amanda Riley, a travel company executive whose boyfriend of five years, John (Ben Feldman), asks for a “hiatus” instead of a marriage proposal, leading he to take the trip of a lifetime to Vietnam as a secret shopper for her company, which is considering buying the tour company in Vietnam.
A Tourist’s Guide To Love makes you feel like the magic of a vacation could maybe last forever. It’s predictable, sure, but predictable isn’t a bad word when it comes to Netflix romances. There’s a comfort in knowing what the genre’s trappings will bring to bear, even when the movie’s well-explored theme of pushing comfort zones makes that statement a tad ironic. The romance at the movie’s heart didn’t always burn as hot as it could have benefited from, but Amanda’s journey on its own is worth it enough, and all of the characters around them are quite endearing too.
Netflix is overflowing with romances. They cover a swath of genres and countries of origin, as well as quality. But these seven Netflix Romances are sure to be a good time, whether with a partner or for a little self-love movie night.
All excerpts are adapted from previous reviews written by the author.
