Valentine’s Day. It comes around every year, lasts for 24 hours, then completely fades into the background for another 364 days. Despite this, Feb. 14 is viewed in a multitude of different ways. For some it is a day of love between romantic partners, friends, family members, or a combination thereof. For others, it’s better known as “National Singles Awareness Day” and used as an excuse to fine dine with some friends, overindulge in alcohol and complain about love. Then there are those who view the day as “just a Hallmark Holiday” and ignore it all together. With all of these different opinions, it’s hard to get people to agree on anything for Valentine’s Day – except that there are some pretty great movies to watch when celebrating/ignoring/or despairing over the 14th day of February.

This year, we asked what your favorite Valentine’s Day movies were and received some very interesting answers covering multiple genres. These includes: Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day,” a romantic comedy; George Mihalka’s “My Bloody Valentine,” a slasher horror film; and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” a horror-slasher film where the post-prominent romantic pairing involves an Oedipus Complex. As you can see, there was good reason for making this poll anonymous.

Fairfield’s Top 5 Valentine’s Day Movies

1.Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day” (Romance/Comedy)

“Valentine’s Day” was released on Valentine’s Day of 2010 and starred numerous celebrities including, but not limited to, Taylor Swift, Patrick Dempsey, Queen Latifah, Ashton Kutcher and Anne Hathaway. The film consisted of several vaguely connected storylines which show different relationships in a variety of different stages. These stages include first meetings (Jessica Biel and Jamie Fox), engagements (Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Alba), learning what love is in an elementary school classroom (Bryce Robinson), and the sunset years of an elderly couple’s life (Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine). Not all of these stories have happy endings, and few of them go exactly as the viewer expects. One storyline is made up entirely of an Army Captain (Julia Roberts) spending the majority of her single day of leave (Valentine’s Day, of course) traveling to see her love – knowing that she will only have a chance for a brief reunion before returning to her deployment, others end in the destruction of the relationship, and others don’t seem to have any romantic relationships involved until the last seconds of the film.

  1.   Bill Melendez “A Charlie Brown Valentine” (Animated/Family)

The only film on this list that is friendly for the entirety of the family, “A Charlie Brown Valentine” is based on the “Peanuts” cartoons of Charles M. Schulz and features the ever-popular cartoon character Charlie Brown, his dog, Snoopy, and his best friend, Linus. In this film, Charlie Brown is struggling to gather the courage to pursue the love of his life, the ever elusive “Red Haired Girl” who does not even know he exists. Throughout the animated feature, viewers encounter all of their favorite Charlie Brown characters who are having their own difficulties including Lucy, Marcie and Peppermint Patty.

  1. Robert Schwentke “The Time Traveler’s Wife” (Fantasy/Drama)

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is a movie based on the debut novel of Audrey Niffenegger and requires a bit of thought. In this film, librarian Henry De Tamble (Eric Bana) has a genetic disorder that causes him to be pulled back and forward through time at random intervals. Due to this, when he first meets the love of his life, Claire (Rachel McAdams), he has no idea who she is, but she knows everything about him. They continue through life and we see their love story develop from Henry’s point of view as he goes from a date with Claire to the first time she meets him as a child. Later in the film, the story only grows more convoluted as Claire becomes pregnant with a past version of him. It’s a love story, but this is not a flick to watch with a valentine unless you both are 100 percent dedicated to watching the film instead of each other.

  1. Howard Deutch’s “Pretty in Pink” (Drama/Comedy)

“Pretty in Pink” was released in 1986 and features misfit teenager Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald),  considered an “oddball” by her peers due to her father’s terminally unemployed status compared to their inherited wealth. Despite her “oddball” status, Andie is asked out by one of her wealthy peers, Blaine (Andrew McCarthy), and the two maneuver through each of the school’s cliques where they are continuously ridiculed for dating one another. All the while, Andie’s best friend, Duckie (Jon Cryer), is in love with her and has wrecked numerous of her past relationships because of his feelings. Like any classic teenage romance, this film’s plot resolves itself on prom night.

  1. Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”(Slasher/Thriller)

One of the most popular slasher/thriller movies in existence, “Psycho” revolves around the investigation around the mysterious disappearance of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). In what is known as the famous shower scene, Marion dies in the first quarter of the film while staying at the Bates Motel (which is also the name of the Netflix series based on this film), but her her sister (Vera Miles) and boyfriend (John Gavin) have no idea and team up to find her. The results of this search involve the murdering motel owner, Norman (Anthony Perkins), his deceased mother and an Oedipus Complex. Enjoy.

About The Author

-- Executive Editor Emeritus -- English Literature & Film, Television, and Media Arts

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