Anne Hathaway’s 10 Best Rom-Com Movies, Ranked

Bride Wars may be the movie that best fits in a typical “rom-com mold,” but Emma (Hathaway) gets done so dirty for the majority of this film. Emma and Live (Kate Hudson) are childhood best friends who have been planning their dream weddings together for two decades. That friendship goes out the window when they both get engaged around the same time, but there is only one date available at The Plaza, their mutual dream venue. Tricks and schemes ensue as they try to sabotage each other getting down the aisle until they realize they love each other too much to be so petty. Liv bulldozes her way into an engagement because she was jealous of Emma getting a ring first, which is a crappy friend thing to do. To make matters worse, Emma spends most of the movie engaged to Fletcher (Chris Pratt), who is a misogynist jerk throughout the wedding process. So yes, this fits the rom-com mold, and Emma does eventually get a happily ever after, but she is the first of multiple Anne Hathaway characters who did not deserve the crap she got.

It feels wrong that a Nancy Meyers movie is so close to the bottom of any romantic comedy ranking, but The Intern is her least romantic movie! Don’t get us wrong, Hathaway delivers another heartwarming and relatable performance. When she cries, we cry, but the love story in this movie is the platonic friendship that develops between Hathaway’s Jules and Ben (Robert De Niro), her septuagenarian intern. We love what Jules and Ben become for each other, but the romantic storyline is that Jules learns to forgive her husband Matt (Anders Holm) for cheating on her. Yet another Hathaway heroine who deserves better! However, the movie gets extra points because it is Nancy Meyers, and we respect that love is worth celebrating in all its forms.

Listen, we know that the Netflix series did a way better job of adapting David Nicholl’s novel about two acquaintances who embark on a twenty-year journey to marriage the night of their college graduation. We also know that Hathaway’s British accent is all over the place in this film, which dilutes the power of her performance. However, the story of Emma and Dex (Jim Sturgess) still resonates in this abridged version of their epic story. We also have to concede that this movie is light on the comedy aspect of a rom-com (but it’s very funny at times!) and will emotionally wreck you. You’ve been warned.

If this were a list of Anne Hathaway’s best movies overall, The Devil Wears Prada would be a lot higher (Ocean’s 8 and Brokeback Mountain would also be here). It is an incredible movie overall, but as a romantic comedy, it kind of sucks. Andrea (Hathaway) is an assistant to Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep) for only a year, and Nate (Adrian Grenier) can’t suck up a few missed dinners and a delayed birthday celebration to support her? He’s an aspiring chef, which is not exactly the most accommodating career either, and the amount of grief he gives her for wanting to make a huge step in her career is mind-boggling. Putting this movie at the bottom of the list would be sacrilege, but we couldn’t put it in the top half either because Andrea deserved a much better love life.

Anne Hathaway played Jane Austen in a film, and you thought it wasn’t going to be in the top half of this list? Dream on. Becoming Jane was inspired by the rumors that the Pride & Prejudice author had a secret dalliance that inspired the famous men from her novels. James McAvoy plays Tom Lefroy, the man who comes closest to convincing Jane to consider marriage. However, having the freedom to write means too much to the aspiring author, and the audience is left with a lot of unresolved sexual tension. It’s an enjoyable movie, but the dubious happily ever after gets demerits. It’s not exactly the type of rom-com you go reaching for when you want a pick-me-up.

This one is not for the kids! Love & Other Drugs is definitely the spiciest movie listed in Hathaway’s credits, as she and Jake Gyllenhaal spend the first half of the movie ravishing each other before the devastation kicks in. Hathaway plays Maggie, a young woman with Parkinson’s who ends up in a romantic dalliance with a pharmaceutical rep, Jamie (Gyllenhaal), after a meet-cute at Maggie’s doctor’s office. Things start out casual but turn serious when Jamie falls for Maggie and endeavors to find a cure for the disease that is slowly killing her. You’ll definitely need tissues to get through the end of this, but Love & Other Drugs brilliantly showcases how good Hathaway is at balancing comedy and drama in the same role.

This movie may have cemented Hathaway being type-cast into “princess-type” roles, but it is one of her more underrated performances. It’s based on the classic middle-grade novel by Madeline L’Engle and centers on Ella, a young woman who is cursed by her fairy godmother with the gift of obedience. She must follow every order that someone gives her, which becomes really inconvenient when her path crosses with the prince (Hugh Dancy) and usurpers try to use Ella to kill him. It is such a fun spin on your typical fairy-tale story and the first film that proves Anne Hathaway can Saaaaaaang (with a capital S!).

This pick is divisive, especially if you are a huge fan of the Robinne Lee novel the movie was based on. TV Insider is also a huge fan of the book, but we appreciate that the movie actually leans more into rom-com tropes than its source material. It’s more lighthearted, allowing Solene (Hathaway) and her pop star boyfriend Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) to revel in their allegedly taboo romance for a bit longer. Like many of Hathaway’s works, The Idea of You is about female empowerment and underlining the fact that women don’t become dried-up shrews after they turn 40. The chemistry between Hathaway and Galitzine radiates off the screen, and Hathaway absolutely glows throughout this performance. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that makes it a perfect comfort watch to revisit over and over. Oh, and the songs are absolute bops.

This was the movie that started it all, and it remains a timeless classic. “You saw me when I was invisible” has been etched into the rom-com lines Hall of Fame next to “You had me at hello” and “I am just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” The only reason this movie doesn’t top the list is because the primary focus of the film is seeing Mia become self-actualized and ready to take on her role as Princess of Genovia, and getting a boyfriend is the cherry on top of the wonderful sundae. We couldn’t sleep at night if this beloved movie wasn’t as close to the top of this list as possible though.

I mean, did you have any doubts? It’s the reason why we’re here. Some people may prefer the flagship film, but Royal Engagement is the superior rom-com. We get the clumsy-but-empowered Mia that we all know and love, but also an enemies-to-lovers tale with a baby-faced Chris Pine. The sequel takes a time jump to Mia’s early twenties when she is informed that she must find a titled husband in order to ascend the Genovian throne or else the Renaldis will lose the monarchy. Pine plays Nicholas Devereaux, a conniving rake who is initially after the throne for his family, but can’t help falling for Mia’s charm.

The chemistry between Hathaway and Pine is electric, and even though they fall in love, Mia claims her throne as her own, proving that even queens can have it all. This should not be a surprise because the film was written by Shonda Rhimes, a woman who has built an empire by writing kick-ass women without sacrificing romance.