Film

The Love Hypothesis

The Love Hypothesis is a fake-dating rom-com in a lab coat: a jittery PhD student and a famously terrifying professor stage a relationship to solve separate problems, then have to control for the one variable neither expected — real feeling. Reinhart and Bateman carry it on pure banter and chemistry. Cosy, funny, and unashamedly soft-hearted, this is comfort viewing for anyone who wants a crush of a film, not a challenge.

TMDb rating8.4

If you liked this

Set It Up2018

Two overworked assistants stage a fake relationship for their bosses that spirals into a real one of their own — same slow-burn scheme, same banter that keeps almost becoming a kiss.

But Purely comedic and much lower stakes; no academic setting or nerdy specificity if that's what hooked you.

Set It Up poster

The Proposal2009no page yet

A terrifying boss and her long-suffering assistant fake an engagement to dodge deportation, and Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds turn workplace antagonism into something genuinely tender by the end.

But Broader and more slapstick than The Love Hypothesis, with a bigger, sillier supporting cast doing bigger, sillier things.

10 Things I Hate About You1999

A bet instead of a fake relationship, but the same premise: two people forced together by an arrangement discover the feelings are annoyingly, inconveniently real.

But Teenage rather than academic, and its late-90s high-school stylings might feel dated next to a glossier romance.

10 Things I Hate About You poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Bringing Up Baby1938

Same engine — a buttoned-up academic man undone by a woman who won't let him stay buttoned-up, argued at top speed instead of over lab benches.

Before rom-coms had rules, this had a strait-laced paleontologist and a chaotic heiress crashing into each other over a runaway leopard — the fastest, most breathless opposites-attract ever filmed.

But Black-and-white and relentlessly fast-talking; its screwball rhythms take some adjusting to for modern ears.

Bringing Up Baby poster
More like this (8)

Legally Blonde2001

Olive Smith fans should adore Elle Woods: a smart woman written off by a male-dominated institution who proves everyone wrong while never once dimming her own personality to do it.

But No fake-dating plot at all — the connection is tone and underdog academia, not romantic mechanics.

Legally Blonde poster

Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011no page yet

A starry ensemble rom-com with the same conviction that love can be studied, gamed, and still ambush you anyway — Ryan Gosling's seduction-coach subplot is basically Adam Carlsen's arc in reverse.

But Juggles several couples instead of one, so it never lingers on a single relationship as long as this does.

Isn't It Romantic2019no page yet

A rom-com that knows exactly which tropes it's using and has fun poking at them from inside — good company if you enjoy this genre with a wink attached.

But Broadly parodic where The Love Hypothesis plays it straight; if you want sincerity over irony this may grate.

Palm Springs2020

Swaps the lab for a time loop but keeps the same premise — two smart, guarded people locked into repeated proximity until affection wins out over self-protection.

But A genuinely strange sci-fi conceit sits under the romance; it's a stranger, sadder film than you might expect.

Palm Springs poster

When Harry Met Sally...1989

The reigning classic of two people who overthink love into a theory, argue about it for years, and then discover the theory was wrong the whole time.

But No fake relationship, and its late-80s New York rhythms are gentler and slower than a modern rom-com.

When Harry Met Sally... poster

About Time2013

Less banter, more tenderness — a time-travel romance for people who liked the earnest, science-adjacent framing of love as something with rules that can still be broken.

But Whimsical and often quietly devastating rather than sharply funny — expect a very different, softer emotional register throughout.

About Time poster

Fleabag2016

Both hinge on a woman calculating her way around a feeling she didn't plan for — Fleabag just refuses to let the joke resolve into comfort.

A half-hour tragicomedy about a woman performing wit and control while love sneaks in through the gaps she can't quite seal — funnier and far darker than any rom-com.

But This is comedy with real wreckage underneath; don't expect the reliably soft landing a rom-com promises.

Fleabag poster

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004

Same premise pushed to its logical, heartbreaking end — what happens when the hypothesis about love turns out unprovable, or worse, wrong.

The idea that love can be studied, hypothesised, even erased — taken to its saddest, strangest extreme. A gorgeous, aching film about what's left when you strip theory away from feeling.

But A melancholy sci-fi drama, not a comedy; it will not leave you warm and fuzzy the way this does.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production