Random Romantic Comedies In Which Leads Are Gaslighting Their Love Interests (15 items)

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  (#1) Love Actually

  • Keira Knightley, Elisha Cuthbert, Liam Neeson, January Jones, Denise Richards, Emma Thompson, Shannon Elizabeth, Hugh Grant, Claudia Schiffer, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney, Martin Freeman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Bill Nighy, Sienna Guillory, Rodrigo Santoro, Martine McCutcheon, Ivana Miličević, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Richard Curtis, Frances de la Tour, Joanna Page, Declan Donnelly, Nancy Sorrell, Meredith Ostrom, Anthony McPartlin, Heike Makatsch, Gregor Fisher, Michael Parkinson, Julia Davis, Kris Marshall, Anne Reid, Edward Hardwicke, Marcus Brigstocke, Lúcia Moniz, Ruby Turner, Jo Whiley, Adam Godley, Margery Mason, Nina Sosanya, Brian Bovell, Olivia Olson, John Sharian, Meg Wynn Owen, Caroline John, Sheila Allen, Abdul Salis, Jamie Edgell, Peter Marinker, Shaughan Seymour, Gillian Barge, Rebecca Frayn, Sarah Holland, Arturo Venegas, Wes Butters, David Lynden Hall, Laura Rees, Rory MacGregor, Elisabeth Margoni, Jont, Lulu Popplewell, Glenn Conroy, Tuuli, Carla Vasconcelos, Bill Moody, Nat Udom, Emma Buckley, Dan Fredenburgh, Patrick Delaney, Stewart Howson, Paul Heasman, Richard Wills-Cotton, Adrian Preater, Kate Bowes Renna, Richard Hawley, June Flewett, Tony Lucken, Ciaran O'Driscoll, William Wadham, Georgia Flint, Joanna Thaw, Frank Moorey, Michael Fitzgerald, Keir Charles, Matt Harvey, Junior Simpson, Dave Fisher, Ines Boughanmi, Katharine Bailey, Catia Duarte, Yuk Sim Yau, Tiffany Boysell, Carol Carey, Terry Reece, Doraly Rosen, Nicola McRoy, Raul Atalaia, Helen Murton, Sarah McDougall, Clare Bennett, Hélder Costa, Katherine Poulton, Billy Campbell, Paul Slack, Tim Hatwell, Kate Glover, Wyllie Longmore, Vicki Murdoch, Amanda Garwood, Gemma Aston, Alan Barnes, Joanna Bacon, Igor Urdenko, Sarah Atkinson, Colin Coull

  Love Actually, the king daddy of ensemble films about sad attractive people becoming happy attractive people, is full of disappointing and unsettling storylines, but the worst of them all involves Andrew Lincoln falling in love with his best friend’s new wife Juliet (played by Keira Knightley). Lincoln's character, Mark, goes out of his way to be distant from Juliet - which seems oxymoronic - but it's all a part of his plan to make her realize that her affable, handsome husband is boring and not the guy for her. When she finds out that he ruined her wedding video by completely focusing on her (and constantly zooming in on her face with a disregard for the audience not seen since The Blair Witch Project), she's intrigued. But it isn't until Lincoln shows up on her door with a collection of threatening cue cards that she knows that the truest love actually (sorry) exists between the two of them. 
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  (#2) Never Been Kissed

  • Jessica Alba, Drew Barrymore, James Franco, Leelee Sobieski, John C. Reilly, David Arquette, Molly Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Marley Shelton, Garry Marshall, Jordan Ladd, Michael Vartan, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Chali 2na, Cut Chemist, Allen Covert, Jeremy Jordan, Cress Williams, Andrew Wilson, Sean Whalen, Cory Hardrict, David Doty, Sara Downing, Alex Solowitz, Giuseppe Andrews, Gregory Sporleder, Tracy Reiner, Jenny Bicks, Philip Hawn, Kathleen Marshall, Branden Williams, Marcello Robinson, Andrew Aguilar, Carmen Llywelyn, Chad Todhunter, Daniel Louis Rivas, Martha Hackett, Denny Kirkwood, Hunter G. Williams, Kevin Scott Greer, Priscilla Cory, A. David Burleigh, Don Snell, Joe Ochman, Russell Bobbitt, Raul Pacheco, Maya McLaughlin, Sarah DeVincentis, Tinsley Grimes, Jason Weissbrod, Marq Edwards, David Douglas, Asdru Sierra, Mike Moyer, William Marrufo, Niesha Trout, Derek Morgan, Katie Lansdale, Rock Reiser, Jose Espinosa, Fabio May, Billy McLellan, Danny Zavatsky, Wil-Dog Abers, Justin Porée, Chad Haywood, Ulises Bella, Jiro Yamaguchi, Amanda Wilmshurst, Steven Wilde, Tara Skye, Jennifer Parsons, Joshua Fitzgerald, Conor O'Neil, Mark Allen

  Does Never Been Kissed leave anyone else feeling like they've just been dragged through the mud by a wild horse? The trope of an adult going back to high school in order to get the scoop on a track meet or school lunches is problematic, but it never entered full creep territory until Drew Barrymore went back to South Glen South High School to the sounds of Jimmy Eat World and wooed her English teacher under the guise of being an 18-year old (let's at least just pretend she's 18 in order to keep the retching to a minimum). And her scheme works! She gets her article about school pizza or whatever, the English teacher falls in love with "her," and they likely spend the rest of their relationship in a mutual state of distrust. A happy ending for all! 
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  (#3) Mrs. Doubtfire

  • Robin Williams, Pierce Brosnan, Sally Field, Mara Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Matthew Lawrence, Lisa Jakub, Martin Mull, Robert Prosky, Polly Holliday, Anne Haney, Sydney Walker

  Some film historians believe that Taxi Driver is the ultimate film in the genre of social deviance. And sure, Travis Bickle stalks the streets of New York trying to clean the scum from the city with vigilante violence, but does he begin wearing a horrifying old woman costume in order to surreptitiously spy on his children and ex-wife while scheming to kill her new boyfriend? No way. Mrs. Doubtfire is a collection of scenes in the life of a human nightmare of a man who sinks to unheard of lows in order to drive a wedge between his ex-wife and her new boyfriend so that he can win her back. By the time his scheme falls apart after an attempted murder, he's ingratiated himself enough that he's actually rewarded for his time spent inflicting mental anguish on everyone around him. 
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  (#4) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

  • Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Bebe Neuwirth, Marvin Hamlisch, Kathryn Hahn, Shalom Harlow, Michael Michele, Thomas Lennon, Robert Klein, Adam Goldberg, Annie Parisse, Marv Albert, Celia Weston, Natalie Madison-Brown, Tony Longo, Georgia Craig, William Duell, Ingrid Hart, Liliane Montevecchi, James Murtaugh, Warner Wolf, Justin Peroff, John DiResta, William Hill, Radio Man, Andrew Moodie, David Macniven, David C. Roehm Sr., Diego Fuentes, Julie McLeod, James Mainprize, Al Bernstein, Doug Murray, Gina Sorell, Samantha Quan, Jeff Gruich, Scott Benes, Zachary Benes, Rebecca Harris, Ross Gallo, Collin Barrett, Jody Raymond, Gery Soles, Bob Reeves, Rod MacDonald, Frank Penny, Bruce Farquhar, Jim Paris, Ames Adamson, Archie MacGregor, Randy Kerdoon

  Out of all the characters on this list who manipulate, lie, and harass their way through a relationship, Kate Hudson's Andie Anderson (seriously) is the only one who goes out of her way to completely destroy her love interest. While trying to write an article about driving men to the breaking point, she does everything from breaking into Matthew McConaughey's home, to badgering his friends and convincing McConaughey to change himself completely for her. When the target of her scheme discovers what's been done to him, he doesn't seek out therapy or rethink his entire life, he chases Anderson down to tell her he loves her - proof that her programming worked. 
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  (#5) She's All That

  • Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anna Paquin, Lil' Kim, Usher, Gabrielle Union, Paul Walker, Rachael Leigh Cook, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Milo Ventimiglia, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Matthew Lillard, Kevin Pollak, Tim Matheson, Clea DuVall, Dulé Hill, Alexis Arquette, Kieran Culkin, Brandon Mychal Smith, Katharine Towne, Debbi Morgan, Chris Owen, Elden Henson, Tamara Mello, Dave Buzzotta

  Morrissey once crooned, "Why do I smile at people I'd much rather kick in the eye?" and that's likely what Rachael Leigh Cook's Laney Boggs is asking herself by the end of a film that sees her torn away from her personal theater project, friends, and sense of self, before being thrust into a world where the only things that matter are looks and silent acquiescence. And why? Because a depressed soccer player needs a date to prom (the fact that that depressed lad is Freddie Prinze Jr. notwithstanding). You wouldn't be out of your mind if you believed that She's All That was one of Camus's long-lost stories. 
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  (#6) Drive Me Crazy

  • Ali Larter, Melissa Joan Hart, Adrian Grenier, Stephen Collins, Keri Lynn Pratt, Mark Webber, Susan May Pratt, Lourdes Benedicto, Keram Malicki-Sánchez, Mark Metcalf, Jordan Bridges, William Converse-Roberts, Faye Grant, Kristy Wu, Andrew Roach, Elizabeth Hart, Derrick Shore, Gabriel Carpenter, Terry Walters, Ivey Lloyd, Natasha Pearce, Kris Park, Jacque Gray, Joey Lopez, Lauren Reneé Boyer, Jessica Frandsen, Lee Holmes

  When a movie is literally called Drive Me Crazy, you have to be aware that you probably won't be watching morally upstanding characters handling their problems with the ease and grace of conflict mediators. Both Melissa Joan Hart and Adrian Grenier play characters who are so filled with hate for their respective exes that they begin a campaign of subterfuge in order to make the objects of their desire mad with envy. In a classic bit of not being able to see the forest for the trees, neither Hart nor Grenier realizes that they've found their romantic and psychologically damaged match in each other until it's too late. Sad.
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  (#7) Little Black Book

  • Rashida Jones, Brittany Murphy, Kathy Bates, Holly Hunter, Josie Maran, Carly Simon, Gavin Rossdale, Ron Livingston, Sharon Lawrence, Stephen Tobolowsky, Yvette Nicole Brown, Julianne Nicholson, Dave Annable, Marshall Allman, Tracy Dali, Natalie Denise Sperl, Cress Williams, Kevin Sussman, Johnny Pacar, Greg Brown, Nick Vallelonga, Keram Malicki-Sánchez, Dan Benson, Sara Chase, Gary Dubin, Jason Antoon, Lucy Lee Flippin, Vivian Bang, Mathew Botuchis, Americus Abesamis, Greg Baker, Ben Ziff, James Wlcek, Ron Pearson, Matthew Frauman, Alex E. Burns, Cameron Lee, Mary Firestone, Noah Harpster, Jon Simanton, Trent Gill, Stephanie Langhoff, Emma Thaler, Paul Jacobson, Chris Farah, Guy Wilson, Mercedes Mercado, Rachel Norris, Joey Capone, Brendan Bonner, Scott Summitt, Benjamin Caya, Steve Teamkin, Gary Hoffman, Louis Bernstein, Jeremy Gilbreath, Betsy McIntyre, Noah Smith, Lee Cherry, Zac Cole, Chris Dotson, Robin Hunter, Marjorie Loomis, Katie Murphy, Alex Alexander, Kory Alden, Shawnacy Patrick Todd, Mahta Sharif, Ross Gottstein, Chad Holland, Jason Cowles, Irene Goldstein, Norma Lee Resnick

  Little Black Book may seem like it lacks the depths of even the shallowest of rain puddles, but this film features manipulation upon manipulation. Not only does Brittany Murphy spend most of the film's run time lying to each of her boyfriend's exes in order to get dirt on him, but Murphy's character is actually being manipulated by Holly Hunter in order to produce a Jerry Springer-esque live event where everyone is shattered on film. To top it all off, the film attempts to make the audience run out and by a Palm Pilot to less than stellar results. It was a good try, though.
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  (#8) Overboard

  • Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Roddy McDowall, Katherine Helmond, Edward Herrmann, Mike Hagerty, Frank Buxton, Frank Campanella, Rielle Hunter, Jared Rushton, Jeffrey Wiseman, Doris Hess, Carol Williard, Henry Alan Miller, Brian Price, Jamie Wild

  If you watched TBS at any given moment in the '90s, then you saw the story of a man who convinces a wealthy woman with amnesia that they've been married for years before he has her take care of his house in a strange revenge plot. After she comes out of her amnesiac stupor, she leaves for a bit before returning to the man's houseboat to thank him for everything he's done. First of all, yikes. It's telling that the only other film that deals with a male captor dispensing such vile mental torment on a woman only to have her fall in love him is the little known and brutally violent The Poughkeepsie Tapes. Although if there's a scene where Kurt Russell crab walks across a room while convincing Goldie Hawn to slit another woman's throat, then it has yet to be released on Blu-Ray. 
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  (#9) Wedding Crashers

  • Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Jane Seymour

  You know what all women love? When they meet someone at a wedding who specifically attends a ceremony they weren't invited to with a carefully constructed false identity in order to sleep with random people who might be more emotionally open to the idea of hooking up with someone either because they feel lonely, or the idea of finding "the one" seems all the more possible after witnessing your friends get married in front of their loved ones. Who doesn't like to be manipulated into sex by two schmucks who probably have matching Fight Club posters in their bedrooms? What makes Wedding Crashers worse than your average movie about guys trying to get their f*ck on is that the characters played by Vinch Vaughn and Owen Wilson legitimately believe that if they can lie hard enough and manipulate enough people, then no one will care that all of their relationships are based on horrific intentions. 
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  (#10) 10 Things I Hate About You

  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gabrielle Union, Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Allison Janney, Bianca Kajlich, Larry Miller, Andrew Keegan, David Krumholtz, Larisa Oleynik, Kyle Cease, David Leisure, Susan May Pratt, Monique Powell

  Watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt conspire with Heath Ledger (and to a lesser degree David Krumholtz) in an attempt to get Julia Stiles to sleep with the Australian heart throb so Levitt can take her sister to prom is off putting enough, but when you discover that it works, no paintball scene soundtracked by Semisonic can ever make you feel better. At the beginning of the film Stiles is an intelligent woman who knows what she wants to do, but by the time the credits roll and Letters to Cleo are playing on top of a school, she's been badgered, mentally beaten down, and even tricked into exposing herself to an older man. And for what? Prom? No thanks Shakespeare.
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  (#11) The One I Love

  • Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Marlee Matlin, Mark Duplass, Sean O'Malley, Mel Eslyn, Liz Lash, Jeremy Mackie, Jennifer Spriggs, Charlie McDowell, Drew Langer, Brett Bietz, Ryan Pederson, Kaitlyn Dodson, Tim Peddicord, Lori Farrar, Kiana Cason

  It's almost impossible to explain the gaslighting that occurs in this smart little film without giving away the conceit, but much of the plot concerns both Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss trying to make each other - and their respective doppelgangers - lose their minds while at a mysterious cabin in the woods. Even watching this movie with your significant other is the basis for getting into an argument, so tread lightly before ordering this up on demand. 
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  (#12) Failure to Launch

  • Zooey Deschanel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew McConaughey, Bradley Cooper, Terry Bradshaw, Kathy Bates, Patton Oswalt, Katheryn Winnick, Justin Bartha, Rob Corddry, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mageina Tovah, Aubrey Dollar, Peter Jacobson, Elton LeBlanc, Cynthia LeBlanc, /m/026q0k_, Tyrel Jackson Williams, Geoffrey Gould, Kate McGregor-Stewart, Adam Alexi-Malle, Johnny Rock, Michael Ahl, Codie Scott, Kristi Chalaire, Stephen Rue, Larry Gamell Jr., Anne Ewen, Melissa Caudle, Stewart Skelton, Greg Cool, Jon Purvis, Michele Harrington, Sarah Lilly, Kristin Michelle Duncil, Jessica Stone, Debby Gaudet, Lawrence Broughton, Tyler Gatton, Don Lincoln, Jerrod Paige, Raymond Parker, Gretchen Cleevely, Carter Mitchell, Brian Jesiolowski, Summer Lee, Phoebe Dey, Pepper Morgan, Miladin Mutavdzic, Tim Stoltenberg, E.L. James, Tremelda D. Cobb, Jody Nolan, Charles Dey

  At the beginning of this film, the viewer is introduced to a veritable gallery of terrible people, and no one in Failure to Launch makes it out of the film without committing heinous sins against their friends, lovers, and parents. Sitting on top of the pile of rubble that is this film is Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Paula, a woman who is paid to construct elaborate backstories for herself in order to convince men to fall in love with her so they'll move out of their parents' houses. She then leaves them high, dry, and alone in a one-bedroom apartment. 
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  (#13) High Fidelity

  • Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Black, John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Lisa Bonet, Joan Cusack, Harold Ramis, Penny Marshall, Sara Gilbert, Drake Bell, Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, Chris Bauer, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Dick Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Alex Désert, Margaret Travolta, Aaron Himelstein, David Darlow, Scott A. Martin, Reese Foster, K. K. Dodds, Ian Williams, Marilyn Dodds Frank, James Azrael, Laura Whyte, Jennifré DuMont, Philip Rayburn Smith, Polly Noonan, Ben Carr, Lisa Harrison, Susan Hegarty, Tristan Layne Tapscott, Susie Cusack, Damian Rogers, Timothy W. Tiedje, Susan Yoo, Rich Talarico, Brian Powell, Liam Hayes, Ian Michaels, Jill Peterson, Matthew O'Neill, Mark Finney, Ian Belknap, Duke Doyle, Robert A. Villanueva, Shannon Stillo, Al Johnson, Julie DiJohn, Leah Gale, Michele Graff, Joe Spaulding, Heather Norris, Erik Gundersen, Chris Rehmann, Daniel Lee Smith, Jonathan Herrington, Andrew Micheli

  John Cusack's sad-sack lead character spends much of High Fidelity moping around and trying to keep his life from falling apart by compiling things into pointless lists. But in the middle of the film, the audience learns that he unabashedly cheated on the love of his life, Laura, before forcing her to get an abortion. Woah. Not only that, but he openly admits to inventing "the sketch of a decent guy” so he can sleep with Lisa Bonet. Was this actually supposed to be a sequel to American Psycho? 
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  (#14) Sweet Home Alabama

  • Reese Witherspoon, Matthew McConaughey, Dakota Fanning, Patrick Dempsey, Candice Bergen, Rhona Mitra, Josh Lucas, Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, Melanie Lynskey, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Colin Ford, Fred Ward, Ethan Embry, Afemo Omilami, Michelle Krusiec, Jason Guy, Katharine Towne, Kevin Sussman, Courtney Gains, Andrew Prine, Mark Oliver, Bob Penny, Ted Manson, Edward Donno, Sean Bridgers, Deborah Duke, Thomas Curtis, Jody Thompson, Leslie Hendrix, Keni Thomas, Chris Burns, Nathan Lee Graham, Rodney L. James, Joel Sturdivant, Rich Bryant, Mark Matkevich, Traci Ann Wolfe, Ambre Lake, Charles McClelland, Gary Beck, Robert Black, Don Young, Brandon Carroll, Matthew D. Miller, Kevin Hagan, Mary Jean McAdams, Tony Rizzoli, Sarah Baker, Deionne Gibson, Haley Buchanan, Jim O'Connor, Sharon Blackwood, Randy Bratton, Jen Apgar, Arvell Poe, Bob Seel, Laurie Gardner, Suzi Bass, Doshia Darmane, Lee Roy Giles, Matt Mangum, Jacob Moyer Moats, Kelli Franklin, Kimberly Adler, Kelsey Lowenthal, Jana Lynn Schoep, LaChanda Alexander, Doug Killen, Michael Snow, Jeanne Arnold, Phil Cater, Osjha Anderson, Emily Furman, Aimee Davis, Mark Skinner, Charlotte Pierrepont, Kena Allen, Lori Williams, Dennis Ryan, Fleet Cooper, Pete Talton, Ernest Peterson

  In a slight variation on the topic at hand, Reese Witherspoon's Melanie Carmichael has spent countless pre-movie hours building a character that she plays for her fiancé, the son of the Mayor of New York City, that's the complete opposite who she actually is. That's bad enough, but then she takes things 10 steps further when she travels back to Alabama in pursuit of divorce papers from her estranged husband. As her lie begins to unfurl she enlists her hometown "friends" to be pawns in her game. Somehow her fiancé finds this all endearing, and her estranged husband-cum-new love interest doesn't seem to mind that Melanie spent a decade living under an assumed identity to trick her lover and the entire fashion world. 
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  (#15) Annie Hall

  • Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Walken, Paul Simon, Jeff Goldblum, Truman Capote, Beverly DAngelo, Carol Kane, Shelley Duvall, Shelley Hack, Dick Cavett, Marshall McLuhan, John Glover, Colleen Dewhurst, Tracey Walter, Tony Roberts, Mark Lenard, Janet Margolin, Walter Bernstein, John Dennis Johnston, Lucy Lee Flippin, William Callaway, Charles Levin, Shaun Casey, Roger Newman, Johnny Haymer, Alan Landers, Hy Anzell, Bob Maroff, Jim McKrell, Paula Trueman, Albert M. Ottenheimer, Chris Gampel, Christine Jones, Laurie Bird, Gary Mule Deer, Loretta Clemens Tupper, John Doumanian, Rick Petrucelli, Helen Ludlam, James Burge, Vince O'Brien, Bernie Styles, Rashel Novikoff, Michael J. Aronin, Joan Newman, Wayne Carson, Michael Karm, Gary Allen, Ved Bandhu, Martin Rosenblatt, Wendy Girard, Mary Boylan, Humphrey Davis, Scott Crawford, Russell Horton, Sybil Bowan, Jean Sarah Frost, Petronia Johnson, Jonathan Munk, Margaretta Warwick, Dan Ruskin, Amy Levitan, Keith Dentice, Gregory Doucette, Susan Mellinger, Lou Picetti, James Balter, Veronica Radburn, Lee Callahan, David Wier, Frank Vohs, Eric Gould, Robin Mary Paris, Hamit Perezic, Ruth Volner, Riccardo Bertoni

  So this probably isn't a big shock to you if you've seen more than one Woody Allen film, but his greatest bit of gaslighting comes from the romantic comedy classic Annie Hall. Allen displays a full range of controlling behavior with the women he dates in the film, but two instances stick out as being considerably terrible. When he and Annie begin to get serious, she suggests that they move in together, and Allen, being a mentally balanced adult, begins to perform verbal gymnastics in order to convince her that if they move in together he should be able to keep his apartment in case he needs his space. While that might seem to be the last gasp of a man seeing himself slip into monogamy, the way he treats his next paramour is straight up creepy. 

  After breaking things off with Annie, Allen goes through a string of women and tries to replay the best moments of his most meaningful relationship with these new women. In one instance, he tries to relive a mirthful dinner of lobster with a young woman, and the entire thing seems like an awkward and desperate bit of theater. 

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