Updated
2025-02-11T16:55:23Z
- Some romantic movies are fully fiction, but others are rooted in real-life stories.
- "The Theory of Everything" and "The Edge of Love" depict love stories inspired by famous figures.
- "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Notebook" are inspired by books that are based on real couples.
Some romantic movies seem too outlandish to be true, but there are also some popular ones that were inspired by real-life couples.
Here are some films that were based on real relationships.
"The Vow" (2012) was inspired by a couple's struggles after a tragic accident.
Although the names and some of the details were changed, "The Vow" was inspired by the real-life couple Kim and Krickitt Carpenter.
Ten weeks after their wedding, they got into a car wreck that left them both injured. After the crash, Krickitt spent four months in a coma and suffered memory loss — she had no recollection of Kim or the two years leading up to the crash.
As Channing Tatum's character did for Rachel McAdams' in "The Vow," her husband reportedly stayed and patiently helped her fall in love with him again at her own pace. Three years later, the couple renewed their vows because Krickitt never regained the memories of their first wedding day.
However, real love stories don't always have happy endings. Six years after the film was released, Kim and Krickitt got divorced after 25 years of marriage.
"Loving" (2016) was based on Richard and Mildred Loving's inspiring romance.
In the 2016 drama "Loving," Richard and Mildred Loving fight for their right to interracial marriage in 1967 by taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Played by Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, the Lovings in the film are based on a real-life couple of the same name.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Lovings and deemed state restrictions on interracial marriage unconstitutional. The ruling was a significant blow against segregation during the civil rights era and still stands as a watershed moment in US history.
"Southside With You" (2016) details Barack and Michelle Obama's first date.
The biographical drama "Southside With You" depicts the love story of former US president Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) and Michelle Obama (Tika Sumpter).
The film takes place in Chicago on a single night in 1989 when Barack and Michelle had their first date.
The film's director said he tried to make the plot "as authentic as possible."
"The trajectory of the date is about 90 percent accurate," he told Vanity Fair in 2016. "They went to the art institute. They had lunch afterwards. They saw 'Do the Right Thing.' They had ice cream. They kissed outside the ice cream parlor, at Baskin-Robbins … "
"The Theory of Everything" (2014) is based on the life of Stephen Hawking.
In 2014, Eddie Redmayne portrayed the widely celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking in the biopic "The Theory of Everything."
The film depicted the marriage between Hawking and his wife Jane (Felicity Jones) as well as Stephen's progressive physical weakening from ALS, a disease that attacks the nervous system.
The film was primarily based on Jane Hawking's 2007 memoir "Traveling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen."
Hawking himself reportedly said that the film was "broadly true," however, Time magazine noted some key differences. For example, Hawking was more affected by his fame than the film lets on, and the couple never came to a consensus on their religious beliefs.
"I Love You Phillip Morris" (2009) centers on two men who fell in love in prison.
The dramatic comedy "I Love You Phillip Morris" is based on a book of the same name. The story centers on real-life couple Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) and Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), who met in prison in 1995.
"It was lust at first sight," Russell told The Guardian in 2009. "I didn't think it was possible. I mean, we were in prison!"
Eventually, they were both released on parole, and they continued their lives together outside prison. However, Russell continued his troubled relationship with the law, and he was later arrested on a charge of insurance fraud.
In 2018, Russell guest-wrote an article for the HuffPost responding to the film and providing a detailed story about everything it didn't portray about being in prison.
Russell also wrote that, after escaping from prison four times, he was serving a 144-year sentence in solitary confinement. However, he was granted parole and released in July 2024 after being incarcerated for 28 years.
"A Beautiful Mind" (2001) tells the decadeslong love story between John and Alicia Nash.
The 2001 drama "A Beautiful Mind" centers on mathematical genius John Nash (Russell Crowe) and his wife Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). Alicia was one of the few women studying at MIT in the 1950s when she enrolled in one of Josh's courses.
They were married in 1957, two years before Josh was first admitted into the psychiatric ward at McLean Hospital. Josh's mental illness and other marital problems led to their divorce in 1961, but the couple remained friends for decades and eventually remarried in 2001.
The film is based on Sylvia Nasar's biography of Josh, and many critics have argued that the screenplay paints a far better image of Josh than the man and husband he really was.
The love story in "Out of Africa" (1985) is based on a memoir.
The 1985 epic romance "Out of Africa" starred Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. It was based on the memoir of the same name by Karen Blixen, who wrote under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen.
Streep portrayed Blixen and Redford played her lover, Denys Finch Hatton, who she met in Kenya.
The film is largely based on the years Blixen spent in Africa, but there are some major differences between her real life and the events depicted in "Out of Africa."
For instance, in Sara Wheeler's biography of Finch Hatton, he was an English aristocrat, but the film's director asked Redford to use his natural American accent because he felt a British one would be too distracting.
Notably, the memoir and the film have been criticized by some as having racist undertones and highlighting a "white savior" trope.
"The Edge of Love" (2008) details the love affair of poet Dylan Thomas.
"The Edge of Love" is a 2008 drama that's loosely based on the lives of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), his wife Caitlin Macnamara (Sienna Miller), and his lover Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley).
The period film exaggerated many events for dramatic effect. However, the most explosive scene in the film — when Vera's husband William Killick (Cillian Murphy) returns from war and attempts to kill Thomas — is said to be more closely based on real events.
Rebekah Gilbertson, the granddaughter of the real-life Vera and William and the producer of "The Edge of Love," confirmed this story to the Telegraph.
"There was always a sort of mystery around it," Gilbertson said. "I was told once that they had agreed, the four of them, not to talk about it. And my grandfather felt he had five daughters and didn't want to be considered as the person who tried to kill Dylan Thomas."
"The Notebook" (2004) was inspired by a couple's lasting love.
Generally considered one of the most prominent films in the romance genre, "The Notebook" details the love story of Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (McAdams). It spans multiple decades despite familial disapproval and lost love letters.
The film was based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, who took inspiration from an actual couple.
"'The Notebook' was inspired by my wife's grandparents, two wonderful people who spent over 60 years together," he wrote on his website.
"The Big Sick" (2017) starred Kumail Nanjiani, whose real-life relationship inspired the film.
In the independent comedy "The Big Sick," Nanjiani plays a fictionalized version of himself in a love story based on his own relationship with his wife, Emily V. Gordon.
Nanjiani depicts a young Pakistani man who struggles with his parents' expectations for an arranged marriage as he dates a woman outside his culture (Zoe Kazan). However, when Gordon's character suddenly falls into an illness-induced coma, Kumail realizes that she is more important to him than his parents' approval.
In a joint interview with NPR, Nanjiani and Gordon discussed the complexity of interracial love and the hardships associated with challenging familial expectations.
"Understand that there are different ways of doing things and when two representatives from two different cultures come together, it can be beautiful, but it is also quite challenging," Nanjiani said.
This story was previously updated on May 23, 2020, and most recently updated on February 11, 2025.
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