Most romantic scene in cinema…or the creepiest?

“You Hurt the One You Love”: Toxic Ideas in Romantic Movies

We love romances for their fateful meet-cutes, awkward family situations, and epic confessions of love. The more implausible a plot, the more we adore it. We, too, wonder if we could find true love at a coffee shop or unlock our true selves in a relationship.

And yet, romances, especially romantic comedies, rely upon conventions and archetypes that reflect a very harmful ideal. Consider, for example, the classic romantic moments of cinema:

• In The Princess Bride, Wesley has been away from Buttercup for years, and when he sees her again, makes her fear for her safety before finally uttering the words “as you wish” as he tumbles down the hill.
• In Notting Hill, Anna strings William along for months before finally telling him she’s just a girl asking him to love her.
• In Forrest Gump, Jenny swings from one extreme to the other in how she treats Forrest.
• In Bridget Jones’ Diary, Mark regularly mocks and ignores Bridget before coming to her house, finding her diary, and storming out, only to let on after she panics that he simply walked out without a word to buy her a new diary. Rude.
• Meanwhile, teen vampire dramas such as Buffy and Twilight feature relationships that are portrayed as cosmically ordained and “true” between…