Film

What's Love Got to Do with It?

Other titles called What's Love Got to Do with It?: the 1993 film.

A romantic comedy about two London-based childhood friends—one white British, one Pakistani—navigating tradition, expectation, and unspoken feelings when he agrees to an arranged marriage. It's warm and funny, occasionally clumsy with its cultural commentary, aimed at anyone who's enjoyed a meet-cute wrapped in real emotional stakes. Emma Thompson steals every scene she's in.

TMDb rating3.1

If you liked this

Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011

A genuinely smart romantic comedy about messy adults, unexpected attractions, and the gap between how we think relationships work and how they actually do. It earns its sentiment.

But The ensemble nature means some characters feel thin, and the tonal shifts between comedy and sincerity don't always land smoothly.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. poster

One Day2011

Follows two people across decades, checking in annually on whether they'll finally admit what they mean to each other. Achingly romantic and genuinely moving without being saccharine.

But It's melancholic in ways a rom-com usually isn't. Long stretches lack laughs, and the ending divides people sharply.

One Day poster

Notting Hill1999

A rom-com interested in actual personality: the man is bumbling but kind, the woman is real beneath the fame, and the supporting cast (especially Hugh Bonneville) gives it genuine warmth and humor.

But It's a nineties film with a nineties sensibility—slower paced than modern comedies, and some of the gender dynamics haven't aged perfectly.

Notting Hill poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from What's Love Got to Do with It?

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Indian Matchmaking2020

Both interrogate arranged marriage from the inside—not as tradition to reject or accept wholesale, but as a real system with real human stakes. This just does it with actual footage instead of actors.

A documentary series following a matchmaker arranging marriages for wealthy Indians and Indian-Americans. It's endlessly absorbing—funny, awkward, and genuinely interested in how people navigate desire, family, and expectation in real time.

But Some participants are difficult to root for, and it occasionally feels exploitative. You'll watch people be rejected repeatedly, which takes a toll.

Indian Matchmaking poster
More like this (8)

Bend It Like Beckham2002

Navigates cultural expectations with real affection for both the strictness and the love behind it. Funny, energetic, and genuinely interested in what it means to be caught between two worlds.

But The plot occasionally leans on contrivance, and some of the jokes about immigrant parents will feel dated depending on your tolerance.

Bend It Like Beckham poster

About a Boy2002

Smartly structured around the idea that growing up means letting other people matter. It's funny and touching in equal measure, with excellent chemistry between the leads.

But The child actor carries significant screen time, and the tonal balance between comedy and sincerity can feel uncertain.

About a Boy poster

Ticket to Paradise2022

Two exes team up to stop their daughter's wedding. It's pure charm—unpretentious, well-cast, and genuinely funny about how people actually behave in romantic situations.

But It's deliberately light and unambitious. If you want emotional depth or stakes that matter, you won't find it here.

Ticket to Paradise poster

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge1995

The Bollywood masterpiece that essentially invented the modern arranged-marriage rom-com. Gorgeously shot, endlessly quotable, and it understands both romance and family obligation from the inside.

But It's three-and-a-half hours long, and the subtitles require attention. The gender politics are of its era, which some will find dated.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge poster

Four Rooms1995

A British rom-com about loneliness and connection in the gig economy, smart and surprisingly affecting. It has real things to say about modern dating without preaching.

But It's indie and deliberately small-scale, which means it lacks the polish and pace of studio rom-coms. Some will find it slow.

Four Rooms poster

Love in the Villa2022

Two people booked the same Italian villa by mistake and must share it. It's formulaic but genuinely pleasant—competent charm without pretension, which is harder than it sounds.

But It hits every expected beat exactly when you expect it. If you want surprise or originality, this isn't it.

Love in the Villa poster

The Trouble with Being Born2020

Both films ask what it means to want something you can't have, and what obligation we owe to other people's versions of us. One's a romantic comedy; this is its philosophical opposite. Worth seeing them together.

An austere, formally precise Austrian film about a man and the android woman he's built to resemble his dead daughter. It's philosophically rigorous and genuinely eerie—difficult, but extraordinary.

But It's slow, cold, and deeply weird. There are long stretches with minimal dialogue. It will not comfort you or give easy answers about love, family, or desire.

The Trouble with Being Born poster

Aftersun2022

Both are built on the gap between what people say and what they actually feel, but where this film is a rom-com that acknowledges complexity, Aftersun is a tragedy that refuses to simplify grief into a clear shape.

A father and daughter on holiday in Turkey. It's a small film told in fragments—intimate, heartbreaking, and visually gorgeous. About how we fail the people we love most, and how little we ever truly know anyone.

But It's deliberately oblique. You piece together meaning rather than being handed it. It's also devastatingly sad in ways that have nothing to do with romance.

Aftersun poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

A Christmas Winter Song