Are you looking for a romantic movie to watch while you snuggle up beside your spouse or significant other this Valentine’s Day?
Thing is, that can be easier said than done—the romance genre isn’t always the most reliable when it comes to providing films with relatively few content worries. Which is a real shame, because when held in its proper, God-given place, there are few emotions quite as powerful as romantic love.
Fortunately, not all romantic movies are scuttled by content problems. There are still some good ones out there. You’ll want to read our full reviews of these loving tales before watching, but we think these are good picks for Mom and Dad to enjoy once the kiddos are asleep. Here are seven films you can feel good about watching for date night this February and beyond.
Let’s start with a new one! Solo Mio released just last week, so if you’re looking for a date night option at the theater, this Angel feature might be your ticket.
After his bride-to-be skips out on their destination wedding in Rome, Matt glumly decides to go on his (non-refundable) honeymoon alone. But sometimes disappointment can lead to unexpected joy. And Matt soon strikes up a romance with a kind café manager named Gia.
Solo Mio does comes with a small smattering of content concerns, particularly its use of alcohol for comedic purposes. But as Paul Asay noted in his review of the film, “For a 21st-century romcom, Solo Mio feels delightfully old-fashioned … it’s probably cleaner than 98% of the romcoms you’ll see today.”
If you’re looking for a throwback, you could do a lot worse than the classic Sound of Music, full of sweeping music and cinematography, and centered around a sweet love story. Maria, a novice nun, becomes a governess for a large family of children, transforming them—and their stern, widower father—with her godly love and gentle grace.
There’s some drinking and light peril in this story (it’s set in 1938 Austria, just before the country was annexed by Nazi Germany), but overall, there’s very little negative content. Bob Hoose said in his review, “The movie brilliantly balances its various cinematic and musical elements: Every one of the Rodgers and Hammerstein-penned tunes is a joyously uplifting winner. The character development, charming humor and story transitions are all perfectly pitched.”
If you’re looking for a romantic film based on a 19th-century English novel as an alternative to the recently released (and oversexualized) Wuthering Heights, this adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic work might fit the bill.
Persuasion follows Anne Elliot, a young Englishwoman who gets a second chance at love and marriage with a man whom she had previously broken off an engagement. Couples who choose to watch Persuasion “will find that it’s about as squeaky clean as the book was … a period-piece drama that’s as counterculturally good as almost anything you’ll find at the theater today,” writes Emily Tsiao in her review.
The Princess Bride might be a story centered around love, but that’s not all it has going for it. This exceedingly charming fairy tale is packed with delightful characters, clever humor and swashbuckling adventure. Still, its heart is found in the quest for true love. Westley and Buttercup keep that commitment to true love even when countless obstacles (from devious princes to shrieking eels to rodents of unusual size) try to tear them apart.
The film does contain some violence, though much of that violence leans toward the slapstick and comedic. There are sparse moments of profanity and coarse conversation. However, Jackson Greer points out in his review, “There’s a reason why The Princess Bride has become such a classic … we’re reminded that perfect people don’t find perfect love. Instead, it is more common for imperfect people to make imperfect relationships where lasting love and friendship are found.”
Netflix’s Ruth & Boaz is a modern retelling of the biblical story. And while it’s not an exact recap of Scripture, the film is strongly rooted in Christian themes. After tragedy strikes, Ruth Moably leaves a promising music career behind and heads to Pegram, Tennessee. There, she meets Bo Azra, and an unexpected relationship begins to blossom.
Ruth & Boaz contains a bit of foul language and a few flirtatious conversations that add a slight edge to this story. But as Emily Tsiao says in her review, Ruth & Boaz proves to be “a lovely story that shows just how important love is. Love is patient and kind. It doesn’t envy or boast. And it never, ever gives up—just as 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 tells us.”
Jirô Horikoshi wants to design airplanes, “beautiful dreams” as he sees them. Unfortunately, those his dreams would soon be used for nightmarish purposes at the hands of the Japanese military in World War II. That’s the framework for The Wind Rises, but it’s not the centerpiece—that would be Jirô’s love and marriage to Nahoko. Though the couple’s romance is sweet, their circumstances are not: Nahoko is stricken with tuberculosis before their wedding. Still, Jirô marries her so they can spend whatever time she has left together.
When Paul Asay reviewed the film, he said, “Winds are often forces of destruction … a metaphor for Jirô’s own choppy life … Nahoko’s sickness is a horrific personal gale, but [Jirô and Nohoko] cling to each other and try to live, gleaning what happiness they can along the way.” Just be sure to have some tissues handy for this one.
Here’s another adaptation of a 19th-century novel, though this one may come as a bit of a surprise. After all, Little Women revolves around the love between four sisters more than romantic love, right? That’s true, but there’s still plenty of romance here to make it a good date-night pick. As the March sisters grow up, each with her own distinct personality, most of them fall in love and marry—marriages, we’d note, that are portrayed as positive and loving relationships.
There’s something to be said for seeing how the shared love of siblings adapts over time as they grow, leave home, fall in love and start their own families. That love is still present but recontextualized from the new stages and experiences of life. In her review, Emily Tsiao says the March sisters “bicker and tease and overreact and hurt one another. But they also forgive and support and trust and love one another, too.” And we see that love expand from their childhood home to include others, including their eventual spouses, as well.
