Nearly every rom-com or romantic drama features some kind of breakup, but there's something intriguing about movies that are specifically about a breakup - meaning almost the entire plot hinges on a breakup that usually happens at the beginning of the film, or we know it's coming. There are plenty of films that can be categorized as the best breakup movies of all time, but some are more noteworthy than others.
Sometimes, the couples stay broken up, but occasionally they reconcile - for better or for worse. Whether it's a cheating incident, narcissistic behavior, or simply drifting apart from a partner, you can't help but sob alongside the characters and get deeply invested in their lives, loves, makeups, and move-ons.
Between films like The Break-Up, Someone Great, and Midsommar, here are the best breakup movies of all time ranked by broken-hearted fans. Get those tissues ready.
- 140 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
Premise: Let's take it back to 1969 when four graduating college friends promise to stay in each other's lives. Of course, that doesn't usually work out in reality as people move toward their respective lives and away from each other. Decades later, Annie, Brenda, and Elise reconnect at their friend Cynthia's funeral. Each woman is having relationship/breakup issues that we explore during the film. These women are out for blood, though. They spend the rest of the movie concocting schemes to get justice.
Why Do They Break Up?: Despite Cynthia's rich family ensuring her husband's success, he leaves her for a younger woman once he doesn't need her anymore. Tragically, Cynthia dies by suicide following a bad divorce, writing letters to the women that would eventually reconnect them. Annie and her husband are separated, though she wants to reunite and even goes to therapy to work things out. Meanwhile, Elise, a renowned actress, struggles with alcoholism and plastic surgery addiction while she's divorcing her husband. Brenda was divorced pre-movie, and despite her ex-husband's success, she's not doing so hot in the finance department. It's not difficult to see why they want to ruin their exes after being major contributors to their success and walking away with nothing.
- 223 VOTESPhoto: Universal Pictures
Premise: After a five-year relationship, actress Sarah breaks up with composer Peter. A depressed Peter decides to take a vacation to Oahu to attempt to get over her. While he's there, he falls for resort worker Rachel, but their budding connection gets interrupted when Sarah and her new rockstar boyfriend show up at the very same resort.
Why Do They Break Up?: Peter finds out that Sarah has been cheating with her “new” boyfriend for years. Sarah is incredibly selfish and never really respected Peter. Of course, when she sees Peter moving on, she gets jealous and tries to hook up with him, though he stops it mid-way. Rachel isn't impressed. Now, Peter has to work on winning back the girl he loves.
- 326 VOTESPhoto: Netflix
Premise: Charlie and Nicole both have successful careers in opposite sides of the entertainment industry: Charlie owns a theater company and Nicole is an actress. The pair begins to grow apart, bailing on couple's therapy and failing to communicate. When Nicole lands an important Hollywood-based role, the distance causes a contentious custody battle as Charlie has to stay in New York for his play's upcoming Broadway run. Things get ugly when the pair's respective vicious lawyers get involved.
Why Do They Break Up?: Both Charlie and Nicole have clearly been growing apart for a while, and she later discovers that he was having an affair. Meanwhile, Charlie takes a shot at Nicole's drinking. While one minute they're viciously attacking each other, the next they're comforting each other, proving that there is still some care there - which leads them to ditch the lawyers and have a more amicable and civil split. They both continue to have success while they move on and learn how to communicate better for the sake of their son while they figure out custody.
- 414 VOTESPhoto: Searchlight Pictures
Premise: The film is set in 1923 during the Irish Civil War. It chronicles the devolving friendship of an older man named Colm and his friend Pádraic. Colm is more interested in composing than their friendship and decides that his long-time friend is too boring to keep in his life. Both men go through periods of wanting to make up, but ultimately do outrageous things to get back at each other during this endless feud.
Why Do They Break Up?: Colm basically ghosts Pádraic for being boring, which is pretty ridiculous considering how long they've been friends. He completely cuts him out of his life as if it's not possible to remain friends with someone as a casual, infrequent drinking buddy. Things get completely out of hand when Colm starts cutting off his fingers to throw at Pádraic's house. Meanwhile, Pádraic seeks revenge for his donkey's death-by-amputated-finger-choking. As most rational people would do, he tries to kill Colm by burning his house down.
- 532 VOTESPhoto: Netflix
Premise: What is with the universe always trying to even the score any time something great happens? In Something Great, Jenny snags her dream job at Rolling Stone, then her boyfriend Nate promptly breaks up with her. She doesn't exactly take it well. While her friends are going through their own relationship drama and breakups, they distract Jenny with a concert. It doesn't work. But friends will always be there even when relationships don't last - something Jenny discovers by the end of the movie.
Why Do They Break Up?: Not all breakups happen because either party wants it. In the case of Nate and Jenny, they'd been dating for nine years during the formative period in a young adult's life. They're all they know. And sometimes you have to break up to figure out who you are without the other person. So, it doesn't help that Jenny is moving away, but it probably would have happened regardless. Jenny goes into a period of depression, dreaming that they make up when she sits on a bench they carved their names on. Eventually, she writes a letter to him about wanting “one more” time to finally get closure (or not). She really doesn't want to let him go, but she realizes she has to before saying goodbye.
- Photo: Focus Features
Premise: What do normal people do after a breakup? They get their minds screwed with to entirely forget the person they broke up with. That's what Clementine does after her breakup with Patrick. He follows suit, but in the process, they both have messy relationships. The lab employees are conducting some shady manipulations of the process while Clementine and Patrick try to find their way back together.
Why Do They Break Up?: Both Clementine and Patrick are guilty of making bad decisions. Clementine even gets drunk and crashes a car. Ultimately, their relationship just devolves and they drift apart. Clearly, they both have trouble taking accountability and dealing with the tough stuff when they decide to alter their brains instead of dealing with the fallout of their relationship or even trying to work things out. That ends up happening anyway, and we're left with a reconnection that will either repeat the first go-around or give them a clean, healthier start.
- 726 VOTES
Premise: The best way to figure out how to be successful in future relationships is to conduct a post-mortem of your exes. That's what Rob does after his breakup with Laura. He's not ready to move on, though. Rob (badly) works on himself to figure why he's so skittish and noncommital in the relationship department. He's determined to win Laura back.
Why Do They Break Up?: Rob can't commit even when he does. He always has one foot out of the door and doesn't do much to fight for the relationship. He constantly fantasizes about other women and goes as far as making one a mix-tape even when he's back with Laura. Honestly, it seems like Laura is settling when they get back together, accepting Rob's low-level attempts to be committed to her and to make her happy. It seems like he's going through the motions rather than genuinely becoming a better person and partner.
- 822 VOTES
Premise: During a contentious divorce, successful writer Frances Myers is having some major writer's block. So, what's the cure for miserable divorce proceedings? A trip to Italy, obviously. It's usually not a great idea to make huge life choices after a trauma, but for Frances, buying a Tuscan villa is precisely what she needs. The movie is more about Frances rediscovering herself than a new love interest, but the ending offers an air of possibility on that front.
Why Do They Break Up?: The guy cheated. What more is there to say? Not only did he completely mooch off his wife, but the younger woman he's having an affair with is pregnant. It's clear that he was holding Frances back, and their divorce is the best possible thing for her in the next chapter of her life. Of course, despite their affair, that doesn't stop him from claiming half of their house.
- 934 VOTESPhoto: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Premise: Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl doesn't like boy as much. They date anyway. It goes badly. When Tom meets Summer at a greeting card company job, he's immediately enamored. She isn't really looking for a serious relationship, but he is. Enter a tumultuous relationship where he has expectations that defy the boundaries he agreed to at the start.
Why Do They Break Up?: Given that Tom gives off some mild incel vibes in the form of “I'm a nice guy and I deserve to have my feelings reciprocated," this one was inevitable. Summer tells him upfront exactly what she's looking for, but he seems to think that she'll magically change her mind the more they see each other - and he doesn't take it well when she doesn't. After a rocky breakup, Tom is furious to find her engaged a while later, wondering why, if she was capable of commitment, she didn't want it with him. Eventually he realizes that they are incompatible after a spiral of depression.
- 1025 VOTESPhoto: Universal Pictures
Premise: It's probably not a good idea to stay in the same condo as your ex, but that's what Brooke and Gary end up doing. Post-breakup, the central couple both refuse to move out, leading to a pretty awkward living situation. Naturally, their arrangement devolves in petty one-upmanship to win the breakup and torture each other. Obviously, it doesn't go well.
Why Do They Break Up?: Nothing kills a relationship more than a guy's immaturity (except for cheating). The pair constantly argue. Brooke is fed up with Gary's inability to take things seriously, while he's tired of her trying to control everything. But frankly, with their petty vendetta against each other, they're both acting pretty immaturely. They clearly both love each other, but they're never on the same page. Both try to win the other back at different points, but it's too little too late.
- 1133 VOTESPhoto: A24
Premise: College student Dani has a pretty rough go of things when her sister kills their parents and then dies by suicide, leaving Dani all alone. Well, not fully alone. She has her boyfriend Christian (but not really). Said boyfriend begrudgingly invites her to a nine-day midsommar festival in Sweden where things get strange. Between ritualized suicide, hallucinogens, and a horrifying sex ritual to impregnate a 15 year-old, the festival has gone off the rails.
Why Do They Break Up?: It all starts with the fact that Christian is a jerk to his girlfriend when he can't handle the fact that she's grieving after brutally losing her entire family. Things are on the rocks from that point and they're just going through the motions. After Dani gets crowned the May Queen, things only get worse. It's one thing to break up and it's another thing to ritualistically sacrifice your boyfriend. Yet that's what Dani does when she's given the chance to sacrifice a member of the commune (cult) or Christian. Clearly, they have a new recruit. No one is really crying for Christian, though, because he's pretty terrible throughout the film.
- Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Premise: Following Harley Quinn's breakup with the Joker, she has to figure out how to survive on her own. Everyone loves comic book Harley, who's a girl's girl. She even has a loving relationship with Poison Ivy. The movie is the first time we get to see the threads that lead to that Harley - the one free of the Joker's control. Here, she teams up with a group of women while she saves Cassandra after a kidnapping. And she does it on roller skates no less.
Why Do They Break Up?: Even though the Joker breaks up with her, good riddance to him. Joker is domineering and controlling over Harley, treating her more like a possession than an equal. He constantly talks down to her and even abuses her. Joker does Harley a favor by ending things. She finally gets to shine and figure out that she's a pretty cool and independent person without him dragging her down.
- 1312 VOTESPhoto: Universal Pictures
Premise: Breakups are even worse when you lose your best friend on top of your wife. Looking for a change from his previously dull life, Cal moves on from his ex-wife Emily by turning into a womanizer. The divorced pair see each other at a parent-teacher conference led by one of Cal's flings - who unceremoniously reveals the hook-up to Emily. Enter a weird lost child revelation and Cal's cringe attempts to win back his wife.
Why Do They Break Up?: Infidelity almost always kills a relationship. Emily is honest about her affair, and she opts to ask for a divorce rather than work on the relationship. Ironically enough, Emily has the audacity to judge Cal for sleeping with nine women as a single guy when she cheated on him for being boring, and was responsible for Cal getting estranged from his friend and is now dating the guy she had an affair with. Clearly, Emily is selfish and hypocritical.
- 1415 VOTES
Celeste and Jesse Forever
Photo: Sony Pictures ClassicsPremise: Childhood sweetheart relationships don't usually end well. For Celeste and Jesse, it works out for a while - until it doesn't. While Celeste has a successful media company, Jesse isn't about the grind, coasting on Celeste's success as he struggles as an artist. They get married (and divorced) young. Navigating divorce is tough for the pair given how important they were to each other during those formidable years. They have to navigate single life and move on, but of course, they have more than a few bumps along the way.
Why Do They Break Up?: Simply put? They got married too young. And frankly, they got divorced too young. Neither of them was willing to fight for their relationship, leaving them with a ton of regret and backsliding. Perhaps if they didn't get married so young, or even if they took some time away from each other to figure themselves out, they may have lasted.
Eventually, they come to an amicable divorce. Celeste struggles to move on while Jesse has to figure out how to step up and be a good partner and parent when his girlfriend gets pregnant. Though their breakup could have been prevented for a happy marriage, they learn to accept their choices and reach a place of happiness in their lives.
- 1510 VOTESPhoto: Warner Bros.
Premise: Though the movie was released in 1938, it's set back even further in 1852 New Orleans. Southern belle Julie is engaged to a man named Preston, but she doesn't exactly follow the demure feminine expectations of the time. That's the very reason Preston breaks up with her. Despite her strong-willed personality, the ending of their relationship breaks her. A year later, Julie finds out that Preston is married to someone who isn't her. But she still holds a torch.
Why Do They Break Up?: It may seem like a simple thing in modern times, but Julie's rebellion of wearing a red dress to a ball instead of the expected virginal white is what undoes her relationship with Preston. He leaves her right then and there. The breakup not only devastates her, but it prompts her to change herself into someone whose existence revolves around a man, tampering down her strong-willed personality. When Preston comes down with yellow fever, Julie, not his wife, is the one who accompanies him to a leper colony to nurse him through the illness.
- 167 VOTESPhoto: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Premise: Eloise is so devastated by her abrupt breakup with her boyfriend Teddy that she bails on being maid of honor to avoid being at the alter alongside her ex. It's no surprise that Eloise gets seated at the “misfit” table after forgoing her role as the maid of honor. Most of the movie takes place during the wedding as Eloise works through some of her emotions about the breakup. She bonds with her group at Table 19, getting close to a dying woman named Jo.
Why Do They Break Up?: There's nothing like a text breakup to end a two-year relationship. What's worse? Teddy breaks up with Eloise because she told him that she's pregnant. He says that they would be “ridiculous” parents. Sorry to break it to you Tommy, but breaking up with someone doesn't prevent the baby from coming. Though he treated her horrendously, Tommy and Eloise get back together and welcome a son. They name him Joe.
