'Wuthering Heights' and 4 Other Romantic Movies With No Happy Ending, Ranked by RT
These films demonstrate that love can be destructive and that happiness can be unattainable.
From the inability to be together to the cooling of feelings, clashing personalities, and painful quarrels, the world of cinema is full of love stories with sad finales.
Romantic movies with a touch of sadness have been popular with viewers in various eras. After all, it's the tragic ending that makes a story memorable and causes us to reflect on the nature of love, which doesn't always triumph.
5. 'Wuthering Heights', 2026
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 57%
Wuthering Heights is a loose adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel about the destructive love between Catherine Earnshaw, the daughter of a fallen noble family, and her half-brother, Heathcliff.
To solve the financial difficulties at her family estate, the girl decides to marry a wealthy neighbor. Afterward, Heathcliff disappears, and her father, a drunkard and gambler, is completely ruined.
Catherine feels no love for her new husband and resumes seeing her childhood friend, though she can't fully commit to the relationship. She soon realizes that their connection is more akin to a dark obsession.
4. 'La Notte', 1961
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
Giovanni is a famous writer who finds literature more tormenting than inspiring. After learning of a friend's impending death, he and his wife, Lidia, leave town for a social event to relax and take their minds off the pain.
There, Giovanni meets Valentina, a young woman who also struggles to find happiness in the world of bohemian glamour. He grows close to her, but their feelings bear little resemblance to love.
3. 'Submarine', 2010
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
Oliver Tate is a nonconformist British teenager who adores Salinger's works and Nietzsche's philosophy. He keeps a diary and is unaware that he is straddling the line between childhood and puberty.
One day, his drab life is interrupted by Jordana, a schoolgirl in a red raincoat. She kisses him, takes a Polaroid photo of him, and forces him to write a romantic essay about her.
Tate instantly falls in love, but Jordana disappears as suddenly as she appeared.
2. 'In the Mood for Love', 2000
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
The plot centers on Su, an elegant woman, and Chow, a meticulous man, who live with their families in a cramped communal apartment. One day, they discover that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. Their shared longing brings them closer and offers them the opportunity to start a new relationship.
Unfortunately, it's clear from the very beginning that they will never be together. There's no room for impulsive actions, attempts at divorce, starting over, or a "till death do us part" union.
No matter how close the characters are, the distance between them never disappears.
1. 'Hiroshima Mon Amour', 1959
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
A French actress meets a Japanese architect in Hiroshima. When filming of her anti-war movie ends, she must return home, but a strange, timid feeling lingers within her.
They each have their own families, memories, traumas, and pains, which allow them to bond physically and psychologically.
Over time, Alain Resnais' monochromatic drama disintegrates into fragments of the couple's memories. He remembers Hiroshima, and she recalls her hometown of Nevers, where she was exiled for her affair with a German soldier during World War II.
