The best Valentine’s Day movies to watch on Stan

Liam Maguren combs through the extensive Valentine’s Day offerings streaming on Stan – perfect for all you hopeless romantics looking for a good movie night.

We all know how much work goes into a good Valentine’s Day. Whether you’re spending up large or keeping it humble, planning is essential. And planning takes time. So let’s cut down some of the unnecessary busy work.

Here, you’ll find a tried-and-true legacy list of Valentine’s Day-approved movies ready to stream on Stan. The films below feature more than one appearance from Julia Roberts, Ryan Gosling, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams, Richard Gere, Rachel Griffiths, ABBA, and author Nicholas Sparks.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

A couple of years before her career-topping triple-threat of massive film releases—1999’s Notting Hill, 2000’s Erin Brockovich, 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven—Julia Roberts shined in this rom-com playing a woman who comes to a horrible realisation (she’s in love with a long-time friend who’s about to get married) and chooses a more horrible plan of action (break off the wedding and confess her love to him). A box office sensation back in 1997, this seemingly fluffy feature is perhaps best remembered for its willingness to subvert certain expectations.

Bridget Jones’s Diary

In a career-defining role, Renée Zellweger encapsulates author Helen Fielding’s titular character—a woman on a path of self-improvement paved by the personal diary she’s started writing in. Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are perfectly cast as two different sides of the gentlemanly British coin vying for her affection, a rivalry that culminates to one of cinema’s greatest wuss-fights. Perfect viewing ahead of the fourth film’s cinema release, Mad About the Boy.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Five years before they danced during the Golden Hour in La La Land (more on that later), Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone hooked up in this 2011 rom-com that took audiences off guard. Gosling plays a pick-up artist training a recently divorced loser (Steve Carell) in the art of the game, with Stone playing a woman ready to call this good-looking douche out on his “lifestyle.” Entering a genre plagued with rubbish films at the time, Crazy, Stupid, Love showed how a rom-com didn’t have to be crazy or stupid for people to fall in love with it.

Eat Pray Love

Like Crazy, Stupid, Love, this biographical romance from TV mogul Ryan Murphy kicks off with a divorce and finds its way back to love. Julia Roberts plays author Elizabeth “Liz” Gilbert, freshly single and ready to find herself again by doing some tourism therapy. It’s light. It’s breezy. It’s basically like going on a two-hour OE. Except you’re never going to find a man as smooth as Javier Bardem who can drop honey-sweet lines like: “You don’t need a man, Liz. You need a champion.”

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Following her Academy Award-nominated turn in Almost Famous, Kate Hudson capitalised on her star power in this blockbuster rom-com as a writer who, in order to advance her career, agrees to pen a superficial piece titled—you guessed it—How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. The target: Matthew McConaughey’s advertising executive who has a hidden agenda of his own, a bet that he can “sell himself” to any woman in just 10 days. It’s a classic case of clashing egos, with both actors leaning heavily and humorously into their characters’ worst tendencies. That is, until that pesky little thing called “love” steps in and ruins their gameplans.

La La Land

The film that won Best Picture for two minutes at the 2017 Academy Awards made singing, dancing lovebirds out of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (the latter of whom took home her first Oscar for this role). The pair play artists on separate career paths who passionately collide into one another, sparking a high-flying romance ignited by stirring camerawork from Linus Sandgren and unforgettable tunes by Justin Hurwitz. While writer-director Damien Chazelle indulges in the fantasy of making it big in Los Angeles with a plethora of musical numbers, he also gives the story strong footing with a grounded message about how some dreams—like movies—must come to an end.

Mamma Mia!

The ABBA-powered Broadway hit became a blockbuster force of nature in 2008, starring Amanda Seyfried as an almost newlywed who still doesn’t know her father’s identity. Her mother (Meryl Streep) has narrowed the possibilities down to three suitors (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård & Colin Firth) but time’s running out to figure out which of these Super Troupers will walk this Dancing Queen down the aisle. Dishing out all the ABBA bangers with a big, frothy heart, Mamma Mia! is a sing-along sensation that still sees cinema screenings to this day.

Muriel’s Wedding

“The surprise hit of the year,” as the American narrator for the film’s trailer puts it, 1994’s Muriel’s Wedding is a rare breed of true-blue Australian cinema that successfully infiltrated the US market. It could also be credited for skyrocketing the career of the great Toni Collette who plays the titular Muriel—an ABBA fan, a hopeless romantic, and a woman sick of her small-town existence. The solution: steal some of mum and dad’s money, go on a massive vacay, and maybe score that wedding of her dreams.

The Notebook

2004 was a good year for Kleenex. This era-defining tear-jerker told a love story for the ages, adapting the novel from Nicholas Sparks that centres on an elderly man looking back on a past romance. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams play the hopeless romantics in the flashbacks, divided by class but united in their desire for one another, culminating to a rain-soaked scene that would win the pair Best Kiss at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards.

Pretty Woman

Julia Roberts, in her second Oscar-nominated performance, leads this romantic classic as a sex worker alongside Richard Gere as the rich entrepreneur she’s accompanying. The purely transactional nature of her work reaches turbulent waters when he falls in love with her, generating a push-n-pull tension as these two people from different worlds figure out this relationship that might be more than business. Roberts and Gere are simply iconic in the roles, guided by the assured direction of the late great Garry Marshall. It’s no coincidence that Anora, one of this year’s Best Picture Oscar-nominees, is constantly referred to as a modern-day Pretty Woman.

P.S. I Love You

One of the more bittersweet films on the list, this 2007 post-love story centres on a widow (Hilary Swank) who discovers messages left by her late husband (Gerard Butler). Caught in the eye of the grief storm, these messages might just help her find a way out and onto a new life. At the time, Swank was freshly minted with her second Oscar for Million Dollar Baby while Butler was riding high from the fame of 300. Here, they combined their powers for something gentler—a story that wholeheartedly believes in the idea of love after death.

Shall We Dance?

Richard Gere leads this 2004 film as an overworked family man drained of life and energy. That is, until he finds a new love. No, not Jennifer Lopez, but the thing her character’s teaching—ballroom dancing. This unexpected hobby reignites a passion within him, which starts to reinvigorate other parts of his crusty life from his career to his relationship with his wife (Susan Sarandon). Come for the lively story, stay for Stanley Tucci ripping up the dancefloor in a bad wig.

The Vow

You could easily mistake this one for another Nicholas Sparks adaptation, given it concerns itself with memory loss and stars both Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. Take that as a compliment: The Vow pushes all the right buttons and pulls every heartstring with its story of a husband trying to win his wife’s heart again when a car accident causes her to forget their entire life together.

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