4 Romantic Movies That Don't Fit The Mold

I love love. I love romance...and I love romantic movies.

What I don't love is when I watch a romantic movie and I have the entire storyline figured out by the end of the opening credits.

Or when a dog dies. That also sucks.

I much prefer the kind of love story that slowly unfolds and you don't realize it's happening until the very end. I like being caught off guard, much like my own love story with my husband caught me off guard.

It's nice to be surprised. 

When I think of romance movies, my favorites are never the Hollywood blockbuster films that people go running to the theaters to see. In fact, I haven't seen a truly wonderful romance in ages. So I watch the same ones over and over again.

For instance, I love Reality Bites.

Give me Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder, a Sylvia Plath reference and the two best friends with sexual tension so palpable that you can cut it with a knife who finally realize that they love each other...and I'm a happy girl.

That's my idea of a romance. Why? Because I can see this happening.

I love Singles.

Everything about Singles is just so perfect I can't even begin to explain why I love it so much. It just feels real - the guy doesn't appreciate his girlfriend, she grows tired of it and moves on, but then right at the end when you've given up: WHAM! We catch a glimmer of hope.

Perfection.

I love Splendor in the Grass.

Splendor in the Grass was the first love story I watched that showed a woman actually losing her mind over a man. I couldn't believe it - and unlike most romantic movies, she didn't get him back in the end. No, he'd moved on and much like in the real world, he was happy with someone else.

She may not have found her happily ever after, but he did. I can't think of another love story so unapologetic-ally realistic!

I love 500 Days of Summer.

I won't lie, I cried my eyes out in this movie. He loved her so much. They seemed perfect together.

But as often happens in the real world, she just didn't feel it. She moved on and found happiness somewhere else.

And he was devastated. I felt that pain, I sympathized with him and I hated her.

But that's life. I much prefer a movie that shows the sad side of love - the rejection, the pain, the heartbreak - because we don't live in a fairy tale. These things happen to us in our lives, they have happened to me, and I feel comfort in seeing it happen on the big screen.

It makes me feel less alone in my sadness.

And just as one door closes, another opens; as he's finally getting over Summer, he meets Autumn.

And that, my friends, is a wonderful story!