Five Netflix romance movies to watch if you loved ‘The Love Hypothesis’
Clearly, fake dating is your catnip, and The Love Hypothesis has probably already done a number on you, or why else are you here? Claire Scanlon’s romance adapts Ali Hazelwood’s 2021 bestseller, famously born from Reylo fan fiction, and turns that academic tension into one juicy screen pairing.
Lili Reinhart plays Olive Smith, a Stanford PhD candidate who kisses stern professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) to convince her best friend she has moved on. One impulsive kiss becomes a fake relationship, and, well… you know what happens when feelings gate crash the experiment.
The fun is watching two people lay down rules for a fake relationship and then realise, rather inconveniently, that the heart does not give a damn about those T&C. And that lethal combination of grumpiness and chaos has melted the biggest rom-com haters, and The Love Hypothesis proves it rather spectacularly.
Still craving that romantic nonsense? Netflix has only so many such films ready to scratch the itch, but we’ve got the five best for you.
Five Netflix romance movies to watch if you loved The Love Hypothesis
The Perfect Date (Chris Nelson, 2019)
Back in 2019, Noah Centineo had become Netflix’s resident heartthrob, so The Perfect Date knew what card it was holding and played it smartly. Here he is as Brooks Rattigan, a teenager with Yale in his sights and absolutely no clue how he is going to pay for it, until one paid date gives him an idea: why not turn himself into the boyfriend people can order? A bit shameless, yes, but you have to admire the brass neck.
That scheme brings him into Celia’s orbit, and thank God she is not buying that act for one second. Laura Marano plays Celia, who is Brooks’ first paid date, which is what gives him the idea for the app in the first place, and once that scheme takes off, he starts playing different versions of himself for different clients. Much like Olive and Adam in The Love Hypothesis, Brooks and Celia learn that pretending is the easy part, but the real problem starts when neither of them can tell where the act ends and the real thing begins.
Love, Guaranteed (Mark Steven Johnson, 2020)
From renting out a boyfriend to suing a dating app, we are keeping the romantic schemes alive. Love, Guaranteed gives us Nick Evans, who has gone on close to a thousand dates through a service that promises love and decides, right, enough is enough, and he is taking them to court. Just then, enter Susan Whitaker, a cash-strapped lawyer who needs the case to keep her small firm afloat, and this stupid lawsuit all of a sudden starts looking like serious business.
Rachael Leigh Cook plays Susan and also came up with the source material for the film, which is worth knowing. As she digs through Nick’s dating history, the duo spend more time together, and the professional distance starts to wobble. Olive and Adam in The Love Hypothesis know that problem well: rules look sensible until attraction gets a vote. The joke here is delicious: Nick is suing because love was not guaranteed while falling for his lawyer.
Holidate (John Whitesell, 2020)
Olive and Adam in The Love Hypothesis would understand Sloane and Jackson immediately. Because both the films work on the same principle: agree on the terms, keep things uncomplicated, and nobody gets hurt. Lovely theory. Holidate takes that logic and runs it through an entire calendar year, with Emma Roberts’ Sloane and Luke Bracey’s Jackson deciding to become each other’s no-strings-plus-one for every holiday after both endure miserable festive dates. No awkward questions from relatives, no faff. Sorted.
Except human beings are useless at sticking to arrangements once something called love is involved. As one holiday rolls into the next, the pact stops feeling casual, and these two start wanting more than the bargain allowed. The setup may sound neat at first, but as soon as feelings get involved, they are screwed.
A Perfect Pairing (Stuart McDonald, 2022)
This film gets to make a fuss about the scenery, because A Perfect Pairing was filmed in Queensland, Australia, and that sheep station becomes the backdrop for Lola’s career gamble. Victoria Justice plays a wine executive who quits her job to launch her own company, and so she flies out hoping to land Vaughn Family Wines… Only to get turned down. Does that send her packing? Of course not. Lola decides to prove she belongs there by working as a farmhand, which puts her under Max, a man who is not convinced she will last five minutes.
Max has that same guarded streak that makes Adam such a fun prospect in The Love Hypothesis, so you can already see where the friction comes from. Lola learns the ropes, Max, and then comes the catch: he has been keeping something from her. Well, there goes the easy part.
Love Hard (Hernán Jiménez, 2021)
Dating apps seem like the bread and butter of 2020s rom-coms, and Love Hard knows there is comedy in the gap between the person on your screen and the one who turns up at the door. The writers drew on real dating horror stories when building the film, which explains why Natalie’s bad luck feels a touch too plausible. Nina Dobrev plays the LA columnist who thinks she has found her dream man online and flies 3,000 miles to surprise him at Christmas. Then, ouch, she discovers Josh, played by Jimmy O. Yang, has used his mate Tag’s photos.
Josh offers to help Natalie meet the real Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend for Christmas, and Olive and Adam from The Love Hypothesis would know what a dangerous little bargain that is. Pretending to date Josh gets Natalie closer to Tag, but it also means spending more time with Josh, and, annoyingly for her, she starts seeing a side of him she did not expect. What a pickle.