Some genres can be “psychological” by literally having that word placed before them. Like, Halloween is a regular horror movie, but then Don’t Look Now counts as a psychological horror movie because it explores certain emotions – and the headspace of its character – more intensely. And the same happens with dramas versus psychological dramas, and thrillers versus psychological thrillers.
If a movie explores the inner workings of one’s mind, or a bunch of people’s minds, then that kind of makes it “psychological.” You also don’t often hear the term “psychological romance,” because such films are a bit rarer than psychological horror, thriller, or drama movies, but they do still exist, sometimes when those aforementioned genres also explore love or relationships in some way. And the following movies will hopefully demonstrate this, since they can all be deemed psychological romance ones.
10
‘Lars and the Real Girl’ (2007)
Also counting as something of a psychological comedy movie, Lars and the Real Girl can best be summarized – and remembered as – “that movie where Ryan Gosling dates a life-size plastic woman,” but also, it’s not Barbie. She’s not alive at all, but his character, Lars, seems to think she is, and also, he’s quite fragile emotionally, so the other people in his life kind of go along with the whole unconventional relationship.
There is a good degree of humor that comes from such a premise, but then at other times, Lars and the Real Girl is more somber, meaning it ends up working as a bit of a dramedy. And in its own strange way, it does feel like it’s unpacking modern love and relationships, being an unconventional romance movie, and also a pretty underrated one, all things considered.
9
‘Spellbound’ (1945)
If you’re talking about psychological thrillers or drama movies that also unpack romance to some extent, you’re going to come across a fair few Alfred Hitchcock films, with Spellbound being one of the best in this regard. It’s about a man with amnesia posing as a doctor, and then revealing to a psychoanalyst that he’s worried he might’ve committed a murder, and the pair end up working together to get to the bottom of the whole mess.
Spellbound is one of the more underappreciated Hitchcock films, but that’s inevitably going to happen, since there are so many, and a large number are genuinely great.
And then they also fall in love, or at least seem headed toward some kind of romance, even though they’re involved with a chaotic mystery that doesn’t seem like it would be conducive to love, but life’s weird sometimes. Spellbound is one of the more underappreciated Hitchcock films, but that’s inevitably going to happen, since there are so many, and a large number are genuinely great. But still, it shouldn’t be overlooked if you’ve already rounded up and watched the usual suspects.
8
‘Vanilla Sky’ (2001)
Vanilla Sky is, like Spellbound, a movie that’s pretty heavy on mystery, and then it’s also a sci-fi movie, a psychological drama, and a romance film. It’s a lot of things at once, but it does all come together pretty well, owing to the (usually) solid direction of Cameron Crowe and a typically committed performance from Tom Cruise, who plays a man whose life is upturned when he gets into a near-fatal car accident.
From there, sci-fi elements start to make things weird, and then whatever line there may be between fantasy and reality starts to collapse, and Vanilla Sky seems to have fun getting trippy. It’s a film better felt than strictly understood, because the experience here is neat, if a little confounding. At least it all looks and sounds good, though the original, Open Your Eyes, might be better than this remake in this instance (that one is not labeled as a romance movie on Letterboxd, though, while Vanilla Sky is).
7
‘The Piano Teacher’ (2001)
An intentionally unpleasant watch from beginning to end, The Piano Teacher is about as harrowing as psychological dramas get, and calling it a romance film does also feel like a bit of a stretch. It’s about a certain desire for intimacy, maybe? But it’s also about a hugely troubled individual, and so it’s the kind of film that’s about romance, but itself isn’t really romantic.
It’s about, you guessed it, a piano teacher, and what happens when she starts to get pursued romantically by a man who’s a good deal younger than her. If you can get through The Piano Teacher without feeling some kind of nausea or distress, then you’re made of truly tough stuff, or maybe you’re the kind of person who really has seen it all (you poor devil, you).
6
‘Decision to Leave’ (2022)
There are some strange directions Decision to Leave goes in throughout its duration, but it certainly has the time to be more than a little playful, since the film nears 2.5 hours all up. It’s initially about a murder investigation, and the fact that the main suspect is the wife of the deceased, but then complications ensue when the lead detective also starts to develop some kind of attraction toward the wife.
Kind of. That makes it sound like a bit of a tacky 1990s thriller or something, but that’s not entirely what Decision to Leave is going for. It’s a bit difficult to work out exactly what Decision to Leave is going for, actually, but being along for the ride is often thrilling, and it’s one of a handful of films that demonstrates Park Chan-wook’s skill, as a director, at building and maintaining suspense.
5
‘Rebecca’ (1940)
Rebecca is about a woman who marries a widower seemingly still obsessed with – or possessed by – his old wife, the titular Rebecca. The new wife very slowly learns about the past, and the circumstances surrounding the death of Rebecca, and emphasis on the “slowly” part, since this film isn’t afraid to take its time. But it’s done in an effective way, and Rebecca is ultimately worth sticking with.
It’s another Alfred Hitchcock movie, too, and also the only one he ever directed that won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s eerie as a mystery/psychological thriller film, and then it’s also quite grand and melodramatic as a romance. Rebecca is also notable for being one of Hitchcock’s first American films, and he would mostly work in Hollywood from this point onward, inevitably to greater success than he’d found in his already rather strong filmmaking career in the UK.
4
‘The Lobster’ (2015)
As is so often the case with Yorgos Lanthimos, the filmmaker wants you to feel discomfort and near-constant unease while watching The Lobster, and he’s remarkably successful here at evoking such emotions. This one takes place in a kind of dystopian future where single people are rounded up and made to stay at a hotel, and while there, they’re told they have a limited amount of time to find a partner.
Failure to find a romantic partner will lead to the people there being turned into an animal of their choosing, which is where the title – The Lobster – comes in, as that’s the animal Colin Farrell’s character has selected. It’s a bit sci-fi, though in an underplayed way, while also being an absurdist comedy, a psychological drama, and a brutally honest (albeit exaggerated) look at the struggles of finding a like-minded individual to enter into a relationship with.
3
‘The Handmaiden’ (2016)
The film Park Chan-wook made before Decision to Leave was The Handmaiden, and this one might be a bit less of a psychological drama, but it is more of a romance film. And the unpredictable kind of narrative and a willingness to pry deep into the inner workings of what makes the main characters tick are seen here, for sure, but the unlikely love story that grows out of a premise that involves an ambitious con is the thing that’s more memorable here.
Also, The Handmaiden could be called an erotic film, but not in a seedy or gratuitous sort of way. It’s bold but also sensitively done, and stands as one of those movies that’s best entered into knowing as little as possible. So long as you’re ready for something fairly long (but rewarding) and are all good with a few genres being balanced at once, it’s worth taking the plunge on this one.
2
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004)
It’s hard for a movie to get deeper into a character’s mind than what’s done in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but you get a sense it’s going there from the title, in all honesty. Also, that eternal sunshine of a mind that’s spotless seems to be referring to a procedure in the film that allows people to wipe memories of their ex-partners from their minds permanently, and the film captures how it feels to have those memories taken away one by one.
It turns out to be traumatic, to say the least, and then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind becomes about an internal battle to keep as many memories as possible, even the potentially painful ones. It’s a film about a relationship ending, but some feelings remaining, and so that does make it a romance, albeit a stressful and oftentimes somber one. It’s uncomfortably personal and intimate, burrowing into the psyche of Jim Carrey’s character and then some, but it’s also very powerfully done and undeniably striking.
1
‘Vertigo’ (1958)
Since it’s sometimes regarded as Alfred Hitchcock’s best movie, and he was perhaps the best at making the sorts of films that could be described as psychological romance ones, then it feels like a bit of a no-brainer to put Vertigo in the top spot here. It’s about a man whose friend asks him to monitor his wife, but then complicated things happen when it turns out she’s got a bit of an unusual life, and also, he starts developing feelings for her.
There’s a good deal more to Vertigo beyond that, and it’s also a slow-burn, so it takes some time to learn just what the film’s got up its sleeve, but it’s ultimately worth sticking with. And also ultimately dark. So very dark for a movie of its age, surprisingly so, which is probably one of the main reasons why Vertigo feels more or less timeless. It still has the ability to surprise and unsettle, and that’ll likely remain the case as more years/decades tick on.
Vertigo
- Release Date
-
May 28, 1958
- Runtime
-
128 minutes
- Writers
-
Alec Coppel, Samuel A. Taylor
-
James Stewart
Det. John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson
-
Kim Novak
Madeleine Elster / Judy Barton
