Fresh from a breakup? Or are you having a hard time moving on from your ex of ages ago? There, there, CGs. Whip out that gallon of cookie dough ice cream and binge-watch these Hollywood flicks guaranteed to make you believe in life after The Ex.
1. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
A young man falls for an offbeat, quirky girl who doesn’t believe in true love (at least not yet). She breaks his heart into a million pieces, and he tries to get over it with the advice of his more mature little sister, Rachel (Chloë Grace Moretz). Whether you relate more to Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) or Summer (Zooey Deschanel), this movie will help you empathize with both the heartbreaker and the heartbroken.
2. Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)
Are you acting like you’re over your ex when in reality, you’re still madly in love with him/her and you want to get back together? Celeste (played by Rashida Jones) finds herself in the same predicament. Now cry and laugh throughout this 1.5-hour movie and pull yourself back together.
3. Legally Blonde (2001)
More than learning how to “bend… and snap!” to get a guy’s attention, Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) will show you that when your high school sweetheart dumps you for a seemingly more intelligent brunette, all you have to do is join them in law school and prove that blondes do it better.
4. Her (2013)
A lonely, newly dumped writer (Joaquin Phoenix) forms an unlikely relationship with his smart phone’s operating system. It helps that the OS is voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Now if this were real life and Siri had the voice of say, Chris Hemsworth, then we’d probably have an affair with our iPhones, too.
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The moral of this story: Try as you may to forget your past—or even go as far as getting a procedure to have specific memories deleted from your brain—the heart never forgets. The best way to deal is to face the truth, go through the pain, and depending on how you interpret the movie’s ending—either move on or repeat the same mistakes for the sake of true love.
6. The Holiday (2006)
Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Iris (Kate Winslet) swap homes in each other’s countries in an attempt to forget about their guy problems. You may end up booking that backpacking Euro trip after watching this movie because the two girls indeed find love in opposite countries.
7. He’s Just Not That Into You (2009)
It’s a movie adaptation of the bestselling book that you should also read if you want a no-nonsense guide to understanding guys. The film shows interconnected stories of different types of women who go through the challenges of understanding—and misunderstanding—a guy’s behaviors.
8. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Pat (Bradley Coooper) is fresh out of the mental institution and thinks that the only way to get his life together is to win back his ex-wife. In the midst of looking for people to understand his bipolar disorder, he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who may be the only one who gets him because she, too, is battling mental health issues of her own.
9. My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
Julianne (played by Julia Roberts) realized she’s in love with her best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney), who doesn’t see her that way and is set to marry a younger Kimberly (Cameron Diaz). Julianne tries everything to win his heart days before the wedding, but realizes that once you’ve been friendzoned, you need to accept your fate and tell yourself, “Well, at least I have a hot gay BFF who gets me.”
10. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Jason Segel’s character Peter will show you that even if you get cheated on and dumped by a hot celebrity for a cooler and more famous rockstar, things will be eventually be okay and you will find someone so much better.
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