Film

The Lovers

Name: The Lovers
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Romance
Released: 2015
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Bipasha Basu, Tamsin Egerton, James Mackay, Alice Englert

Other titles called The Lovers: the 1958 film, the 1994 film, the 2023 series (Now).

A time-travel romance that splits its heart between an 18th-century British officer and an Indian woman during the Anglo-Maratha Wars, and a modern marine biologist couple whose relationship mirrors theirs across centuries. Epic in ambition, deeply sincere about love as destiny. For viewers who want spectacle with emotional weight and don't mind their romance earning its scope.

TMDb rating

2.4

If you liked this

The Time Traveler's Wife2009

A love story structured around time as the central obstacle, asking what you'd sacrifice to be with someone when the laws of physics work against you. Genuinely moving beneath the premise.

But The time-jumping logic can feel arbitrary, and the film struggles to match the book's emotional depth. Some find it frustratingly sentimental.

Outlander2014

A British soldier transported to 18th-century Scotland falls for a Highland woman; enormous production values, genuine chemistry, and the colonial-era romance angle shares The Lovers' DNA.

But Seasons run long and repetitive—kidnappings, separations, rinse, repeat. The newer seasons lose focus. Commit to at least season two before deciding.

The Fountain2006

Darren Aronofsky's delirious meditation on love across three time periods and reincarnation. Visually stunning, thematically ambitious, swinging for the fences on what romance cinema can do.

But Deliberately abstract and demanding. The narrative leaps may feel obscure rather than moving. Not for viewers who need clarity before emotion.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Lovers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Devdas2002

Both grapple with romance across strict social hierarchies in colonial or semi-colonial settings, and both believe that love's magnitude should be matched by the scale on which you film it.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's lavish adaptation of a classic Indian tale: forbidden love between a wealthy man and a courtesan, shot with operatic visual excess. Bollywood romance at its most ornate and emotionally devastating.

But Nearly three hours. If you find melodrama exhausting rather than cathartic, this will test your patience. Bhansali doesn't do restraint.

A Passage to India1984

David Lean's masterpiece about an English woman and an Indian doctor in colonial India; explores forbidden connection with intelligence and cinematic grandeur. The era and setting directly echo The Lovers.

But Nearly three hours, deliberately paced. An older sensibility to how it unfolds. Some find Lean's romanticism dated.

Midnight in Paris2011

A present-day man transported nightly into 1920s Paris falls for a woman there; whimsical but sincere about how we romanticize other eras and whether that matters if the love is real.

But Woody Allen's trademark self-indulgence is on full display. The magical realism feels slight compared to the emotional stakes it's reaching for.

Mr. Malcolm's List2019

A Regency-era romance with genuine wit and chemistry, gorgeously shot. If you want the period-romance satisfaction without time travel complications, this delivers it warmly.

But Small-scale and modest. If you're watching for spectacle and world-spanning narrative, this is intimate in a way that might feel too contained.

The Age of Innocence1993

Martin Scorsese brings formal beauty and tragic inevitability to a forbidden romance in Gilded Age New York. Lush, intelligent, genuinely heartbreaking about the cost of choosing duty over love.

But Scorsese's mannered visual style can feel cold. The pacing is deliberate. This is for people who want their romance tinged with regret.

About Time2013

A man with time-travel ability uses it not for adventure but to fix his relationship with his father and his wife. Manages genuine sentiment without becoming mawkish. Surprisingly moving.

But The time-travel logic is introduced casually and then mostly forgotten. Shifts tone from romantic comedy to family drama. Some find that jarring.

Waterloo Bridge1940

A doomed wartime romance between a soldier and a ballerina; black-and-white elegance, real chemistry, a movie about impossible timing and whether memory is enough to sustain love.

But A 1940 film with 1940 attitudes. The resolution is dated. If you need a happy ending, this will wound you.

Arrival2016

Both films suggest that profound love can alter your relationship to time itself—that the right person doesn't fit into your existing timeline, they reshape it. Both treat this not as plot but as philosophy.

A linguist makes contact with aliens and discovers that learning their language rewires how she experiences time itself. Science-fiction romance that's genuinely inventive: the meeting changes her understanding of cause and effect forever.

But If you want aliens-as-action-setpieces, this is cerebral and quiet. The central relationship is understated. Some find the pacing glacial.