Romance movies get a bad rap. But every so often one comes along that’s so heartbreakingly good, you can’t help but cry harder than when you first tried birth control. If you’re looking for a love story to take you on an emotional roller coaster ride, opt for any one of these classics that will make you sob like you’re on the pill. Get those tissues ready!
The Notebook
The Notebook succeeds at creating a depiction of love so earnest, you’ll find yourself weeping harder than your first month on low-dose birth control. Wondering if this star-crossed couple will ever find happiness together brings to mind the weeks you feared you’d never feel anything good again, until you realized it was your medication and not a natural defect within your brain. The famous kiss in the rain after Allie learns about the 365 love letters from Noah she never received will move you so much you’ll think, “Wow! This movie is definitely more powerful than all the estrogen I pumped into my body!”
Fried Green Tomatoes
Unlike your birth control-induced mood swings, the romance between Idgie and Ruth in this movie is subtle. But after watching these two women survive their abusive husbands and terminal illnesses together, then finally admit they’re in love with each, you’ll have fewer tears left than when you upped your dose of contraceptives. So this is some strong shit! Before pressing play on your DVR, prepare yourself to feel an alarming number of feelings at once, from anger to sadness and back again, all within the span of an hour. That’s what the power of cinema, and hormones, can do!
Up
This animated movie made everyone in the theater sob when it first came out, kind of like when you sobbed at the commercials for no other reason than being on 35 micrograms of estrogen. This story takes you on a journey through Carl and Ellie’s childhoods, many years of happy marriage and then finally to Ellie’s deathbed – a turbulent emotional landscape you already feel too familiar with. But unlike what your doctor told you about birth control, the side effects of this Pixar film are supposed to make you cry.
The English Patient
When this couple shares their final kiss in the firelit Saharan cave together, you’ll find yourself in a scene you recognize very well from your own life on birth control: Sitting in bed, tears streaming down your face as your blow your nose and try to eat five pounds of Entenmann’s cakes at once. This must be one hell of a romantic movie.
In The Mood For Love
This classic of Hong Kong cinema will release a flood of unwanted emotion. Think about whether you really want that or not. If not, try another movie like Chungking Express, which gets the job done but doesn’t toy with your brain or your body so much.
Stay up tonight and watch one of these aggressively sentimental films, so you can do to your heart what birth control did to your emotional stability, but at least effects are temporary in both cases.
