10 of the Greatest Romantic Gestures From Movies

Flowers? Chocolates? Romantic dinner? Sexy Massage? Awww, how thoughtful BORING.  You really want to make that fool requite your sweet, sweet love once and for all?  Do (a slightly easier version of) one of these daring acts of love, and they’ll be all up on you like marinara sauce on a meatball. *Note to self: Be better at sensual analogies.

1. “The ‘Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls’ Move”– Titanic

The Gesture: Rose lets Jack draw her in the nude, wearing only the Heart of the Ocean necklace.

Your Version: Get naked, put on a nice necklace, and let him draw you like one of his French Girls.  It will be even better if he is terrible at drawing.

2. “The Struggling Singer’s Move”– The Wedding Singer

The Gesture: Robbie serenades Julia with, “I Wanna Grow Old With You” on a plane (*with Billy Idol), to stop her from getting married to her jackass fiance.

Your Version: Get a guitar (if you can play, if not find someone to accompany you), write a song for them (doesn’t have to be great, just sincere), and sing it to your love in a public place (preferably somewhere enclosed like a plane, so that they can’t run away.)  If you can get Billy Idol to be present, marry me.

3. “The Poster Board Confession Move”– Love Actually

The Gesture: Mark shows up at Juliet’s house (*who happens to be his best friend’s wife), and confesses his knowingly-unrequited feelings for her, through a series of Poster Boards.

Your Version: Grab those poster boards, write down how you feel in your own words, and show up at their door step.  You just bought them a one way ticket to Swoon Town.

4. “The Style Switch Move”– Grease

The Gesture: Danny Zuko trades in his greaser style to look more like a cleaned-up jock, in an attempt to win the heart of the preppy Sandy.  In turn, Sandy trades in her sock-hop style to look more like a greaser’s sexy vixen sidekick.  In the end, Both Sexy > Both Preppy.

Your Version: Hopefully you’re dating someone who is the total opposite of you, otherwise this romantic style-swap might not work.  If you’re not total opposites in the wardrobe department, maybe try doing something that the other person enjoys that isn’t really your cup of tea.  Does she love playing video games? Rent a game and bring it over with some pizza and beers, and play all night!  Does he love cooking?  Sign up for a one-off cooking class and learn how to cook something awesome together.

5. “The Last Meatball Move”– Lady and the Tramp

The Gesture: The starving Tramp nudges the last meatball to the pampered (and well-fed) Lady, in a simple act of sacrificial love so pure, that it would make a sociopath weep.

Your Version: Cook your love some spaghetti with an odd number of meatballs, and insist that you eat out of the same bowl.  Recreate the “spaghetti kiss,” of course, and then when it comes to the last meatball– you know what to do.

6. “The Weird-But-Kinda-Hot Neighbor’s Move”– American Beauty

The Gesture: The weird-but-kinda-hot Ricky records his neighbor, Jane, from his window every night, because he thinks she’s beautiful.   Rather than be creeped out by this, Jane lets him record her doing all kinds of things: taking off her shirt, confessing how much she hates her father, complaining about the dullness of suburban life, etc.

Your Version: I can’t think of many people that would like to be secretly taped through their bedroom window, but maybe just make some fun/weird home videos with each other.  You can save them and enjoy watching them for years to come!

7. “The Quirky Indie Girl Move”–Juno

The Gesture: Juno fills Bleaker’s entire mailbox up with orange tic-tacs to apologize/get back together with him.

Your Version: You can probably just pull this one off as is. But upgrade it with your love’s favorite candy, which may or may not be as indie-movie-quirky as orange tic-tacs.

8. “The Lovably Cheeky Bad Boy’s Move” –10 Things I hate about you

The Gesture: Patrick grabs a microphone and sings “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” to Kat, in front of an entire high school athletic stadium. He then has to dodge the campus police, but fails to do so and lands himself in detention.  (*In turn, Kat saves Patrick from detention by flashing the teacher as Patrick sneaks out the back window.  EQUALITY IN ROMANCE.)

Your Version: If you don’t have the means to embarrass your love in front of an athletic stadium right now, maybe just grab a bunch of your friends for a night of Karaoke, and dedicate a cheesy song to them.  They will probably feel equally embarrassed, and find your gesture equally charming.

Your version of the flashing: If your love isn’t in detention, maybe just flash him.  He’ll most likely prefer that to you flashing someone else.

9. “The Hero’s Move”– The Princess Bride

The Gesture: Wesley storms the castle and defeats Lord Humperdinck to run away with his true love, Buttercup.

Your Version: Since this one is completely impossible to replicate unless you’re living in another space and time, maybe just kidnap-save your love from their horrible day job for the day (*without getting them fired*), and spend all day saying, “As you wish,” to whatever they want to do.  If you can, definitely finish off the day with a horseback ride into the sunset.

10. “The Our Love Can Do Anything Move” –The Notebook

The Gesture: Old Noah reads Old Allie the story of their romance every day, despite the fact that she has no idea who he is/that the story is about their love.  Oh yeah, and then they die together at the same time.

Your Version: Let’s not get too literal with this.  Maybe just…make a fun scrapbook of all of the lovely things you’ve done together, and go over it with your love.  You could even do some of the things you did when you first starting falling in love!  (Dying together at the same time should not be something you try out right now…maybe just keep it in mind as a long-term goal.)