10 Best Pop Culture Love Stories of the Last 10 Years

Three weeks later and I still find myself reflecting on the Lost finale, but not necessarily because of the episode’s most intriguing moments, such as the frozen donkey wheel(!). No, it was the happy ending—for now—of the time-spanning, time-jumping love story between Desmond and Penelope whose reunion was a teary conclusion to the events in the season’s earlier, insta-classic episode “The Constant.” The perfect execution of this love story (actually, considering Ben’s promise to Widmore, execution may be the next step) got me thinking about other great love stories pop culture has given us in the past 10 years. Lo and behold, I decided to make a list of them. I did have some criteria: it had to be romantic and reciprocal love, therefore nothing between a female boxer and her father figure trainer, a Southern pimp and rap music, or a boy and an intergalactic robot (sorry, Iron Giant). Also, it had to be about falling in love, so nothing where we watch an in-progress relationship…progress. Nothing based on true stories either: Walk the Line is a somberly redemptive love story but only because the actual Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash made it that way. Same for A Beautiful Mind.

I narrowed it down to 10. (Good try, Notting Hill, but you just missed the cut. You were just a movie, standing in front of a blogger, asking him to include you.) I feel pretty good about this list, which highlights TV, film, and books. There’s great acting and fantastic star chemistry here, as well as superb writing and nuanced direction. And one of these even spawned the cutest real life couple ever.

And no, I didn’t include The Notebook.

1998
Out of Sight: Jack Foley and Karen Sisco
Played by George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez; directed by Steven Soderbergh; written by Scott Frank based on the book by Elmore Leonard
You don’t get much more “other side of the tracks” than escaped prison inmate and U.S. Marshall, but Foley and Sisco are a match made in a car trunk. As they’re stuffed together in the back of the Ving Rhames-driven getaway car, Sisco and Foley talk about movies and other minutia. But every line crackles and the heat between them remains, even as she chases him across the country waiting to “tussle.” Without giving away the (sublime) ending, I’ll say that Karen never backs down from her duties but won’t let go of Jack either. It’s also Lopez and Clooney at their best.

Shakespeare in Love: Shakespeare and Viola
Played by Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow; directed by Joel Madden; written by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman
Talk about setting a high bar for itself: the bet at the heart of Shakespeare in Love’s plot is whether or not a play can convey the true nature of love. The writer prepares Romeo and Juliet (decidely not a pirate’s daughter) and his inspiration for the wrenching, elegant, profound words are his own self discovery in the presence—and bed—of Viola. A beautiful love story which illustrates the majestic power of words (as well as the awesome relief of unbinding a female thespian's breasts).

2001
Shrek: Shrek and Fiona
Voiced by Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz; directed by Andrew Adamson; written by 7 different guys based on the book by William Steig
Shrek is more of a love story than anything Kate Hudson has even been in, even if it’s seemingly a laugh-driven family film. Shrek and Fiona’s journey through the forest is really a series of developing flirtations and dashed expectations. (Who knew princesses could bicycle kick?) And with a barrel of wit, they expose the Beauty and the Beast myth—once he's beautiful, it's happily ever after—by undermining it: once they're happy together, they're beautiful.

2002
Atonement (book): Robbie Turner and Cecelia Tallis
Written by Ian McEwan
I once recommended to a friend that she should read Atonement. Several days later, I had a voice mail when I got off work. Through her sobs, I could make out the words, “I just finished Atonement.” Yeah, it’s that kind of love story. Robbie and Cecelia’s courtship isn’t strikingly original at the outset—he’s a worker at her upper crust family’s summer house—but the layers (and layers and layers) of their psyches are pulled back, for the reader and for each other, and we see how desperately these two need one another in order make sense of their lives. Cecelia knows that, to Robbie, she is home which is why her desperate plea is always, “Come back to me.”

2003
The Office (UK): Tim and Dawn
Played by Martin Freeman and Lucy Davis from 2001-2003; all episodes written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
All in all, this courtship was just inter-office flirting that culminated—in the Christmas special—with the one of the sweetest Christmas gifts ever. But what flirting it was! Tim and Dawn shared pranks, verbal cues, and stolen looks, letting the audience know that their best friendship was eating both of them alive. While we never really got to see the payoff, it’s impossible to argue that we didn’t watch these two fall in love for two seasons (and a Christmas special.) I just hope they show up together at Jim and Pam’s inevtiable wedding (as those British friends they’ve always neglected to mention.)

2004
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Joel and Clementine
Played by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet; directed by Michel Gondry; screenplay by Charlie Kaufman
Most romances in which the couple spends the film bitterly psychoanalyzing each other star, oh say, Katherine Hepburn and there’s always a scene were a bunch of sly bickering leads to a passionate kiss. Sunshine’s bitter psychoanalyzing, however, contains all-too-human defensive attacks and attempts at redemption which, in the end, proves that the relationship is worth saving. After they’ve erased everything they had together, they have the chance to start over and screw it up again. But you know that they’ll screw it up right this time.

The Time Traveler’s Wife: Henry and Clare
Written by Audrey Niffenegger
If you haven’t read the book, please do so now. If you’re hesitant, here’s my argument: Henry suffers from a disease in which he lives non-chronologically. In other words, he inadvertently bounces around in time. His messy life becomes an unbelievable blessing when it intertwines with that of Clare, whom he meets when she’s just a little girl in a field. (Well, he’ll meet her other times, too.) Their love story is unique, playful, tragic and it nearly redefines the word “commitment” as it post-modernizes romance. Don't eff this up, Robert Schwentke.

2005
The Constant Gardener: Justin and Tessa Quayle
Played by Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz; directed by Fernando Meirelles; written by Jeffrey Caine based on the book by John le Carre
I’ll ruin it now: she dies. The film begins, however, with him identifying the remains. Weisz and Fiennes have incredible chemistry and both of them give Oscar-worthy performances. (Oh yeah, she won.) His love for her is immediately easy to buy: she’s gorgeous, young, idealistic, and brings him out of his shell. It’s her love for him that's slow-building and surprising, but the actress and the writer reveal it with exquisite, heart-wrenching beauty. His decency and intellectualism are the potential she sees; his passion and determination to save the innocent is the gift that her love—and her death—offer.

2007
Once: Boy and Girl
Played by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; written and directed by John Carney
You think I’m breaking my own rule because the love is supposed to be romantic. You’re kidding yourself, then, if you don’t accept that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s working class Dubliners—for whom music is the only true form of communication—have found their true love in one another. While the relationship never gets intimate—despite the Boy’s efforts—you need only hear one verse of their duets to discover two souls intricately linked. His gesture at the end, too, is one of love just as hers is one of sacrifice. And in case you really hate that they don’t end up together, note this: at least they’re dating in real life.

2008
Lost: Desmond and Penelope
Played by Henry Ian Cusack and Sonya Walger; executive producers: Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof
To be honest, it didn’t seem that special at first. When we were first clued in to the Desmond/Penny love story at the end of the season 2, it seemed to be more about plot than emotion. But a funny thing happened on the way to the island: through flashbacks, videophones, and a time-shattering disease not unlike Henry’s above, we watched Desmond and Penny fall in love, fall out, and then reach back toward each other. They have become the show’s real symbol of love, not Kate and Sawyer or Kate and Jack (or Rose and Bernard.) Their reunion in the finale was an unexpected thrill as Desmond and Penny said each other’s names in single, tearful breaths.

I know I had to ignore several love stories. And there’s even more I don’t know about (I can only watch so much TV.) So fill me in and we can get this list to 15.