Sit back, relax and watch some movies and shows to celebrate the day of love. (Source: Getty/Thinkstock)
On Valentine’s Day you are presented with two options: celebrate it with your significant other or ignore and go about normally with your day. This year, however, you can find a middle ground. If you are not in the mood to participate in anything elaborate, but still want to celebrate the spirit of the day, here are some movies and shows that you can binge-watch with or without your significant other. Remember, it is all about feeling the love.
The Notebook (2004)
Since it is the ‘day of love’, this movie has to feature on the list. If you are looking to shed some precious tears, Noah Calhoun and Allison Hamilton’s love story is just the right one for you. They meet, they fall in love, get separated, and reunited years later, only to last a lifetime and (spoiler alert) die in each other’s embrace. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams’ crackling chemistry and old-school romance will instantly put you in a happy mood. Don’t forget to keep some tissues with you, for when those ugly tears come knocking.
Playing It Cool (2014)
A stark contrast to The Notebook, Playing It Cool, released almost a decade later, has a more playful take on love. A non-committal writer meets an intense woman, who is already engaged to someone. He pursues her, but she remains evasive. Chris Evans and Michelle Monaghan star in this engaging love story that is funnily anecdotal and simultaneously relatable. Let’s just say with its modern take on love, this movie will leave you in splits.
The Vow (2012)
Another tearjerker, The Vow starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams is testimony to true love. Based on the story of a real-life couple that meets with an accident, the movie depicts that love is truly unconditional. It goes back and forth between past and present as the couple starts anew and begins to slowly pick the pieces of their life wrecked in the accident. This movie will leave you feeling hopeful and positive, everything you want to feel on Valentine’s Day.
Before We Go (2015)
Chris Evans’ directorial debut starring him and Alice Eve is a beautifully-simple story of two strangers who meet at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City one night, and forge an unlikely friendship. One misadventure follows another and they end up baring their souls and exposing their vulnerabilities to each other. While the movie under-performed at the box office and did not get the intended numbers, it leaves you craving for a chapter two, given the heartbreaking cliffhanger at the end.
The Fault In Our Stars (2014)
Warning: unlike the aforementioned movies that do end on a high note, The Fault In Our Stars crushes you with so much intensity, that you may want to call it day after you are done. Two terminally ill patients become friends, and then lovers, and embark on their own little adventure, with a book acting as a thread of commonality between them. You know from the very beginning that Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are star-crossed lovers, but you are so invested in their story that you are mentally ready to snort and weep.
Shows:
Sex and the City
If you want the best of both love and friendship, this show is for you.
What could be better than watching four best friends discover love and the joys of life (we mean fashion) together in the city of dreams New York? Sex and the City clicks, and has clicked for years now, because it shows the hopes, passions, dreams, highs and lows of women, told from their perspective. Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte are vulnerable and fearless and they will stop at nothing to build the life of their dreams. If you want the best of both love and friendship, this show is for you. You cannot finish is all in a day, of course, but you can always begin watching it. Also, the two SATC movies are a bonus.
Jane the Virgin
Besides love, strong female relationships form the core of the show. (Source: Instagram @cwjanethevirgin)
Jane loves Michael. No, she loves Rafael. But, wait, who is the villain? Utterly whimsical, conversational, dramatic, relevant and funny, Jane the Virgin is the telenovela of your dreams. Jane is a 20-something aspiring writer, who gets accidentally impregnated and finds herself in a complicated love triangle. The twist being, she is a virgin and had intended to stay that way till marriage. Five seasons long, this show will leave a sweet, lingering aftertaste long after it is over.
And if this list confuses you, you always have the classic F.R.I.E.N.D.S to fall back to, because regardless of whether you have a paramour on Valentine’s Day, you can always count on Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe and Joey to be there for you.