7 underrated romance movies that you should watch

Great romantic dramas don’t always arrive with blockbuster buzz. Tucked behind big superhero films are smaller movies that explore vulnerability, coincidence, and commitment with quiet strength. Their modest budgets encourage creative storytelling, letting performers go beyond typical studio roles.

When you crave characters who talk, stumble, and risk heartbreak without explosive action, these underrated romance movies offer ideal company. They twist classic love stories by mixing in road trips, visa issues, or even psychic links.

The seven titles below span train stations, desert highways, and post-war islands, but they share a common focus on realistic endings. Watch them for truth told in late-night trumpet solos, cramped airport gates, or whispered jokes between almost ex-spouses, and discover why small-scale romance often feels the biggest.

Disclaimer: This article contains the writer's opinion.

7 must-watch underrated romance movies

1) Before We Go

A still from Before We Go (Image via Netflix)

Chris Evans directs and stars in this Manhattan two-hander that begins after midnight in Grand Central Terminal. In Before We Go, Nick, a trumpet-playing busker, helps Brooke after she misses a train to Boston, and their walk through dim streets into morning sparks honest talks about careers and marriage.

What resonates is Evans’s chemistry with Alice Eve and the screenplay’s choice to avoid fairy-tale endings. Their brief bond proves life-changing without promising forever, echoed through gentle trumpet motifs that highlight missed chances.

This makes it one of those essential underrated romance movies that values a powerful moment over a simple happily-ever-after.

Where to watch: Netflix

2) Like Crazy

A still from Like Crazy (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Director Drake Doremus’s Sundance winner, Like Crazy, charts Anna, a British journalism student, and Jacob, a Los Angeles furniture designer, whose graduation fling collapses when an overstayed visa triggers a travel ban.

Handheld cameras and improvised dialogue mirror their unsteady situation as months, then years, pass in non-linear cuts. The broken structure captures the uneven pace of long-distance love where every airport embrace feels temporary and every silence feels vast.

Actors Felicity Jones and Anton Yelchin deliver strong performances, pouring raw joy, petty arguments, and exhausted tears into each reunion. Grainy cinematography and a minimal score heighten realism.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

3) The Spectacular Now

A still from The Spectacular Now (Image via Apple TV+)

In The Spectacular Now, actor Miles Teller’s charismatic yet adrift Sutter Keely lives firmly in the present, flask in hand and future plans ignored.

After waking on a stranger’s lawn, he meets science-whiz Aimee Finecky, whose quiet resilience suggests a different future. Director James Ponsoldt balances teen urgency with approaching adulthood, showing first love as a fragile support rather than a quick fix for self-destructive habits.

Teller and co-star Shailene Woodley share small, honest gestures, including a walk on a pre-dawn paper route, a shy prom invite, that carry real weight. The screenplay treats alcoholism, dependency, and family neglect with direct honesty.

Where to watch: Apple TV+

4) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

A still from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Image via Netflix)

In post-war London, author Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a Guernsey pig farmer who owns a book once stamped with her name.

This letter in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society leads the witty writer to Channel Island, where she meets a book club formed during the resistance and shaped by literature and loss.

Period costumes and scenic cliffs delight the eye, yet the film’s warmth comes from letters, pressed flowers, and silent boat rides that draw Juliet toward Dawsey Adams’s reserved heart. Actor Lily James mixes modern charisma with 1940s speech.

Where to watch: Netflix

5) In Your Eyes

A still from In Your Eyes (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

Screenwriter Joss Whedon’s micro-budget script links Rebecca, a lonely doctor’s wife in cold New Hampshire, with Dylan, an ex-con in sunny New Mexico. Without warning, they see, hear, and feel through each other’s senses, sharing bruises, sunsets, and skipped heartbeats across two thousand miles.

The unusual premise of In Your Eyes grounds it as one of the most creative underrated romance movies of its kind. Actors Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David ground the unusual premise with shy humor and real wonder, turning telepathy into a look at deep connection.

Playful scenes such as tasting the same meal and finishing half-formed sentences keep the magic lively.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

6) The One I Love

A still from The One I Love (Image via Amazon Prime Video)

A therapist sends quarreling couple Ethan and Sophie to a picturesque retreat, promising rekindled sparks. In The One I Love, they instead find idealized doubles of each other living in the guesthouse, duplicates who appear in the guesthouse under puzzling rules the film keeps ambiguous.

The confusing rules turn a weekend getaway into a puzzle of trust, desire, and self-reflection presented as marital therapy. Each revelation raises fresh suspicion. Actor Mark Duplass and co-star Elisabeth Moss juggle dual roles as flawed originals and polished copies, critiquing our craving for better partners.

It’s a brilliant setup for one of the sharpest underrated romance movies about relationships. Rapid-fire banter mixes with eerie quiet, blending comedy and tension in one location.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video

7) Celeste and Jesse Forever

A still from Celeste and Jesse Forever (Image via Netflix)

Co-writer and star Rashida Jones and co-star Andy Samberg open this anti-rom-com already separated yet behaving like inseparable best friends. In Celeste and Jesse Forever, Celeste, a driven trend forecaster, tells slacker artist Jesse he must move out of her backyard studio and, essentially, her past.

Paperwork looms, but nostalgia, jealousy, and uneven confidence keep pulling them back toward inside jokes and easy comfort despite well-meaning friends urging boundaries. These complex feelings make it a standout among underrated romance movies.

Jones’s sharp script reframes happily-ever-after as mutual growth rather than forced reunion, while Samberg shows real vulnerability behind his comedic timing. Los Angeles murals and candle-lit weddings provide a glossy backdrop that never softens the film’s honesty.

Where to watch: Netflix

From chance city strolls to supernatural vision, each of these underrated romance movies shows romance can thrive outside formulas. Their common thread is emotional honesty, whether whispered at 3 am in a station or shouted at a mirror image in a guesthouse.