7 Movies To Watch For When You Want To Heal From A Break-Up
Someone Great
When Jenny, a New York music journalist, lands her dream job for Rolling Stone in San Francisco, her boyfriend of nine years (a red flag in itself – where’s the ring?) Nate breaks up with her. Devastated, Jenny turns to her two friends who are having relationship problems of their own to have one last “hurrah” in New York City and take the day off work. During this day with her friends, she revisits the convoluted journey of her relationship and heartbreak, from its tender beginnings to its escalating conflicts. Someone Great is a poignant break-up film that documents the evasiveness and complexity of closure, reminding us that sometimes in a break-up, you have to celebrate the love that was once there as well as mourn of what never came to be. It is a powerfully tragic, beautiful, and funny film, perfect for when you want a cathartic cry sesh when all your emotions are still bottled up, but best to hold off on watching if you’re looking for a more feel-good movie, like some of the others recommended on this list.
Legally Blonde
There’s a running joke that women who go through a break-up often start three businesses, buy two homes, and graduate from Harvard shortly after. What, like it’s hard? But seriously, there’s no one more determined than a woman who is catapulted into victory and channels her experiences into her success after heartbreak, and Legally Blonde is the best level up movie to watch when you’re down in the dumps about your break-up. Watching Reese Witherspoon’s character Elle Woods rise to the top of her Harvard class after being broken up with for not being deemed “smart” enough by her obnoxious ex-boyfriend is so healing. After realizing her boyfriend isn’t worthy of her attempts to get him back, she puts her energy solely into her studies and realizes she’s a lot more intelligent and determined than people gave her credit for. This journey brings her to connect with her true gifts as a future lawyer and fashion designer, her real friends, and a much better partner. We’ll also never forget one of the most poignant pieces of wisdom she left us with: “Exercise releases endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands! They just don’t!” Right on.
The First Wives Club
This classic movie starring the iconic trio Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton is the blueprint for all “good for her” break-up movies. Three best friends from college, Annie, Brenda, and Elise are shaken by the suicide of another friend, Cynthia, who ended her life due to her husband leaving her for another woman. This departed friend leaves them a letter that causes the friends to reunite and commiserate about their own philandering husbands and plot a clever scheme against all three husbands to get justice on their own terms. Goldie Hawn stars as Elise, an actress who helped her film producer husband Bill rise to the top but is abandoned for a younger woman. Brenda is also facing divorce and possible financial disaster, and Annie is trying to work through potential separation with her husband who is having an affair with their therapist all while navigating co-parenting. The First Wives Club is a sassy take on sisterhood and moving forward that will help you heal from your break-up.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Frances Mayes is living a seemingly ideal life: she is a writer in San Francisco married to a loving husband – except she discovers that husband has been cheating on her this whole time, all while relying on Frances’ income. Unfortunately for Frances, the divorce results in the loss of her house and she watches her husband ride off to the sunset with her house and a younger, pregnant new girlfriend. When a friend encourages Frances to vacation in Italy, she becomes the owner of a villa in Tuscany and begins a new life, while inviting new love in. Under the Tuscan Sun is a beautifully mesmerizing and hopeful “good for her” film that encourages women to lean into new beginnings and heal their own hearts in powerful ways.
How To Be Single
Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson star in this hilarious comedy about what it feels like to be freshly single after a break-up in New York City with your girlfriends. Alice decides to pursue her career in New York, leaving her boyfriend Josh behind to explore what it’s like to be on her own for the first time as she never got a chance to do so, leaping straight from college to her four-year relationship. What follows is a salaciously delicious movie about wild nights with her newfound friend Robin, fun flings, and immeasurable self-discovery. How to Be Single turns every rom-com trope upside on its head with its irreverently brilliant writing and is ultimately a celebration of sisterhood and singlehood. You won’t be able to stop laughing, which is so much better than crying over your toxic ex.
He’s Just Not That Into You
If you’re looking for a break-up movie that gives you a firm reality check when romanticizing the red flags, this one’s for you. He’s Just Not That Into You provides disturbing illustrations of characters who are in the throes of toxic love with emotionally unavailable men. Whether it’s Gigi who overestimates the romantic interest of her dates, or Janine who forced her husband Ben to marry her through an ultimatum (while Ben is cheating on Janine with yoga instructor Anna), or Beth who tries to persuade her boyfriend Neil to marry her, these are the extremes of toxic relationships where women suffer the consequences of continually choosing the man who do not choose them. In the end, these women must choose themselves as they move forward on their journey to true self-love and romance. This movie serves a powerful reminder that you won’t need to give ultimatums or second chances to people who deserve you. If you’re going to spend precious years of your life doing anything, do so investing in yourself.
The Other Woman
Women who conspire against the same cheating man together thrive together! Or at least that feels like the spirit of the movie, The Other Woman, starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Upton, and Leslie Mann. When New York attorney Carly Whitten begins dating Mark King, a charming and handsome businessman, she has no idea he secretly has a wife, Kate. Rather than wallow in this betrayal and inevitable ending of their respective relationships, however, Kate and Carly conspire to follow Mark and catch Mark with another mistress in the Hamptons, Amber (Kate Upton) who he is also exploiting to cover up fraud in one of his business dealings. What ensues is the hilarity of all three women holding Mark accountable by pulling a number of shenanigans to sabotage Mark and later confronting him together, and then moving forward into their dream lives after gaining closure. Talk about girl power and a group break-up for the ages! The Other Woman illuminates the manipulation of pathological liars in a light-hearted, empowering comedy about women joining together to take down the same toxic person and leveling up after a break-up.