- 1
Rated 6.9 with over 3,100 votes, and a fan-favorite for a reason. Emily (Bethany Joy Lenz) gets sent to her ex's hometown for work and arrives at the train station just as his family scoops him up, all of them assuming she and Jamie (Tyler Hynes) are still together. Cue a fake-relationship Christmas built on a misunderstanding nobody wants to correct. Hynes and Lenz have real comic timing, and the whole thing is breezy and quick. One of the better second-chance comedies here.
- 2
When a travel writer shows up unexpectedly at their dad's Bed and Breakfast, the Ralston family all pretend to be guests in hopes of a good review. Lucy (Bethany Joy Lenz) falls for guest Jake (Victor Webster), but can't share her secret.
- 3
Two squabbling TV hosts are sent to a festive small town over Christmas. While pretending to get along for the sake of appearances, they discover there's more to each other than they thought.
- 4
Publishing executive Derek and fashion designer Ella meet in the high-profile magazine world and fall for each other. Hallmark describes their story as a fall romantic comedy.
- 5
Cate's mom is setting up dates for her CEO daughter. When she meets Gabe a week before Christmas, she assumes, he's a date, but he's a corporate recovery consultant for her candy cane company. He's also single.
- 6
After a woman's boyfriend breaks up with her right before the holidays, she agrees to go home with an actor who will pose as her boyfriend.
- 7
Mix Up in the Mediterranean
2021 · 84 min★ 6.3InternationalStory setting: RestaurantRivals become romantic leadsA small-town cook impersonates his big city chef twin to compete in a culinary contest and falls for the woman in charge of the event, who thinks he is the brother who is married.
- 8
Trying to evade the matchmaking efforts of their grandmothers, two former childhood sweethearts pretend to get back together for the summer.
- 9
Rated 6 with over 2,200 votes, and one of the strongest pure-comedy premises here. Holly (Alicia Witt), an ad exec who lies to manage her whole life, gets hit with a Christmas curse after breaking a promise to her niece: she physically cannot tell a lie. The professional chaos that follows is the joke, including a confession that her rental skates smell like her grandmother's corned beef and cabbage. Witt commits fully. A genuinely funny forced-honesty comedy.
- 10
I Married Who?
2012 · 86 min★ 6.0Rated 6 with over 1,500 votes. Straight-laced Jordan (Kellie Martin) wakes up after a Vegas bachelorette party married to a movie star (Ethan Erickson) she does not remember marrying, with her real wedding to a controlling lawyer days away. The accidental marriage gets hijacked into a publicity stunt, and the movie-within-a-movie about a cop who monologues on truth, justice, and pastrami is a delight. A classic Vegas mix-up comedy. Breezy and a little bonkers.
- 11
All's Fair in Love & Advertising
2013 · 87 min★ 5.9Creative director Tom Burns may be at the top of his game, but he's still considered a dinosaur for being over forty in the youthful, trendy business of advertising. In a moment of desperation, he hires young con-artist Dick Sweeney to be his stand-in at an ad agency while Tom does all of the hard work behind the scenes. The scheme works until Tom falls for Dick's co-worker Harriet Foster, forcing Tom and Dick to make a choice between love and getting a paycheck in this comedy about ageism in the work place.
- 12
Jen enters a brand-design contest as a family influencer and asks Max to play her husband. When their video makes the final, the pretend relationship starts to feel real.
- 13
Rated 5.8 with over 1,000 votes. Leigh (Merritt Patterson) runs a website where people post their worst dates anonymously, and when rival blogger Conner (Justin Kelly) ends up featured, the two agree to date each other to settle who is actually the bad dater. The dueling-bloggers setup gives it a built-in comic engine, and the public-embarrassment beats are the fun. A lightweight enemies-to-lovers comedy. Not top-tier, but the premise earns a few real laughs.
- 14
Smooch
2011 · 102 min★ 5.8Rated 5.8 with nearly 1,000 votes, and one of the strangest setups on the list. It is a modern Frog Prince riff: an amnesiac British royal (Simon Kassianides) is mugged in San Francisco, and an 11-year-old girl who could not bring herself to dissect a frog believes her kiss turned a frog into a man. Kellie Martin plays the widowed mom who hires him as a nanny. A storybook framing device and a lot of audacity. Uneven, but you will not see another quite like it.
- 15
No settled IMDb rating yet. Settie Rose (Angela Kinsey) hires struggling novelist Juan to ghostwrite her family's Christmas letter so she can finally make the neighborhood Wall of Fame, and a mix-up sparks gossip that he is engaged to her daughter Lily. The competitive-holiday-letter premise is a sharp comic hook, and Kinsey is built for this kind of farce. Silent disco parties and a mistaken-mafia theory round it out. A promising new comedy. Check its page for the latest rating.
About this list
15 movies · Updated 2026-09-26
Romance and a substantial comic premise must both shape the story. A few jokes in an otherwise straight drama are not enough. Eligible films follow saved IMDb rating where available.
These romances make room for comic trouble. A misunderstanding, a repeated day or two people talking past each other has to do real work in the story. The list looks for that comic engine alongside a developing relationship.
Frequently asked questions
What makes these films romantic comedies?
The romance and a comic problem both need to move the story. A few jokes in an otherwise straight drama are not enough.