20 best movies like The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

Calvin is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing – as well as his romantic life. Finally, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby, in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely flabbergasted that his words have turned into a living, breathing person.

A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.

With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a "wacky weatherman" tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early-90s Los Angeles.

No sooner does Italian-American widow Loretta accept a marriage proposal from her doltish boyfriend, Johnny, than she finds herself falling for his younger brother, Ronny. She tries to resist, but Ronny lost his hand in an accident he blames on his brother, and has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls deeper in love, she comes to learn that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

A sleazy politician sends an agent after his ex-fiancee, who fled to Mexico with incriminating film of him.

In 1900, strong-willed widow Lucy Muir goes to live in Gull Cottage by the British seaside, even though it appears to be haunted. On her very first night she meets the ghost of the crusty former owner, Captain Gregg—and refuses to be scared off. They eventually become friends and allies, after Lucy gets used to the idea of a man's ghost haunting her bedroom.

After her mother's death, mediocre chef Amanda Shelton is having trouble attracting customers to her family's restaurant. While shopping for ingredients, she is given a magical crab by mysterious Gene O'Reilly. Afterward, Amanda's dishes suddenly become excellent, inducing strong emotional reactions in everyone who eats them. Tom Bartlett, who is preparing to open his own eatery, tries her cooking and falls in love.

A romantic comedy about a family traveling to the French capital for business. The party includes a young engaged couple forced to confront the illusion that a life different from their own is better.

Drew Baylor is fired after causing his shoe company to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. To make matters worse, he's also dumped by his girlfriend. On the verge of ending it all, Drew gets a new lease on life when he returns to his family's small Kentucky hometown after his father dies. Along the way, he meets a flight attendant with whom he falls in love.

British artist Colin Ware discovers that his fiancée, Vera, is going to marry another man. Distraught and despondent, he gets on a plane for America and ends up in the tiny town of Hope in New England. At first, Colin is depressed, but he soon finds more than a shoulder to cry on when his innkeepers introduce him to Mandy, a beautiful nurse. All's going well and Colin has almost forgotten his old flame until Vera shows up with a surprise of her own.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.

Eva is a divorced soon-to-be empty-nester wondering about her next act. Then she meets Marianne, the embodiment of her perfect self. Armed with a restored outlook on being middle-aged and single, Eva decides to take a chance on her new love interest Albert — a sweet, funny and like-minded man. But things get complicated when Eva discovers that Albert is in fact the dreaded ex–husband of Marianne...

BOY MEETS GIRL is a funny, tender, sex positive romantic comedy that explores what it means to be a real man or woman, and how important it is to live a courageous life not letting fear stand in the way of going after your dreams.

Terri, a pajama-clad, disaffected high school student learns how to engage the world with the help of Mr. Fitzgerald, his assistant principal.

Set to the intoxicating rhythms of Brazil, "Woman on Top" is a spicy, sexy comedy about the magic of food, love and music. Meet Isabella, a sultry enchantress born with the special gift of melting the palates and hearts of men everywhere. When she decides to break free from her rocky marriage and the stifling kitchen of her husband's restaurant in Brazil, she spirits off to San Francisco in pursuit of her dreams of a real culinary career.

Two teenage girls discover that mermaids really do exist after a violent storm washes one ashore. The mermaid, a sassy creature named Aquamarine, is determined to prove to her father that real love exists, and enlists the girls' help in winning the heart of a handsome lifeguard.

An angel under the thumb of a ruthless gangster is saved by a trumpet player down on his luck.

Set in the 1920s French Riviera, a master magician is commissioned to try and expose a psychic as a fraud.

An American girl on vacation in Italy finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands of missives left at the fictional lover's Verona courtyard, which are typically answered by a the "secretaries of Juliet" -- and she goes on a quest to find the lovers referenced in the letter.

A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

Forlorn heiress Penelope Wilhern is cursed, and the only way out is to fall in love with someone of suitable stock. But how can she find her soul mate when she's sequestered inside her family's estate with only her parents to keep her company. This untraditional fairy tale about a girl who bucks convention to create her own happy ending.

Two seemingly unconnected souls from different corners of the United States make a telepathic bond that allows them to see, hear and feel the other's experiences, creating a bond that apparently can't be broken.

P-A-X-497/341, aka “Pax” , a curious young man from the well-ordered but loveless future, travels to present day New Orleans in search of romance novelist Elizabeth Barrett – whose book he has come upon during an archeological dig in the year 3127. Hoping Elizabeth can explain the concept of love to him, which is now nonexistent in his time, Pax embarks on an adventure filled with new discoveries. Elizabeth introduces Pax to life in the year 2011, filled with love, music and of course, destiny. When Pax doesn’t return to the future by the given deadline, Bob, his fellow scientist, travels back in time to find him. Meanwhile, as Elizabeth helps Pax learn about love, she ends up confiding in her colleague, played by Valerie Harper, about her own upcoming “surprise” engagement.

Peggy Sue faints at a high school reunion. When she wakes up she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished school.

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Flax is tired of her wacky mom moving their family to a different town any time she feels it is necessary. When they move to a small Massachusetts town and Mrs. Flax begins dating a shopkeeper, Charlotte and her 9-year-old sister, Kate, hope that they can finally settle down. But when Charlotte's attraction to an older man gets in the way, the family must learn to accept each other for who they truly are.

A Parisian policeman gives up everything for the love of a free-living sex worker.

Louie Jeffries is happily married to Corinne. On their first anniversary, Louie is killed crossing the road. Louie is reincarnated as Alex Finch, and twenty years later, fate brings Alex and Louie's daughter, Miranda, together. It's not until Alex is invited to Louie's home that he begins to remember his former life, wife and best friend. Of course, there's also the problem that he's attracted to Louie's/his own daughter.

Joe Pendleton is a quarterback preparing to lead his team to the superbowl when he is almost killed in an accident. An overanxious angel plucks him to heaven only to discover that he wasn't ready to die, and that his body has been cremated. A new body must be found, and that of a recently-murdered millionaire is chosen. His wife and accountant—the murderers—are confused by this development, as he buys the L.A. Rams in order to once again quarterback them into the Superbowl.

Book superstore magnate, Joe Fox and independent book shop owner, Kathleen Kelly fall in love in the anonymity of the Internet – both blissfully unaware that he's putting her out of business.

Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) is a designer from New York City who is sent to Las Vegas to supervise the construction of a nightclub that his firm has been hired to build. Alex is a straight-laced WASP-ish type who, while enjoying a night on the town, meets Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), a free-spirited Mexican-American photographer. Alex and Isabel are overtaken by lust at first sight and end up sp

Advice columnist, Dan Burns is an expert on relationships, but somehow struggles to succeed as a brother, a son and a single parent to three precocious daughters. Things get even more complicated when Dan finds out that the woman he falls in love with is actually his brother's new girlfriend.

A clairvoyant woman thinks that she's met her future husband because she's seen him in a dream. They marry and he takes her back to his butcher shop in New York city, where her powers tend to influence everyone she meets while working in the shop. Through her advice, she helps others and eventually finds the true man of her dreams.

Mickey Gordon is a basketball referee who travels to France to bury his father. Ellen Andrews is an American living in Paris who works for the airline he flies on. They meet and fall in love, but their relationship goes through many difficult patches.

When he finds out his longtime girlfriend is pregnant, a commitment-phobe realizes he might have to change his lifestyle for better or much, much worse.

After leaving Washington D.C. hospital, plastic surgeon Ben Stone heads for California, where a lucrative practice in Beverly Hills awaits. After a car accident, he's sentenced to perform as the community's general practitioner.

A romantic comedy about a mysterious love letter that turns a sleepy New England town upside down.

Dr. Henry Harriston is a successful psychoanalyst in New York City. When he is near a nervous breakdown, he arranges to change his flat with Beatrice Saulnier from France for a while. Both don't know each other and both find themselves deeply involved into the social settings of the other, because the decision to change their flats is made overnight. Could be the perfect amusement, but suddenly Henry finds himself beaten up by Beatrice' lover and Beatrice is considered to be Dr. Harriston's substitute by his clients...

The night after another unsatisfactory New Year party, Tim's father tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. Tim can't change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life – so he decides to make his world a better place... by getting a girlfriend. Sadly, that turns out not to be as easy as he thinks.

Cheated on, mistreated and stepped on, the women are holding their breath, waiting for the elusive "good man" to break a string of less-than-stellar lovers. Friends and confidants Vannah, Bernie, Glo and Robin talk it all out, determined to find a better way to breathe.

The film follows a man with an unwanted gift for healing who meets a teenager with cancer who helps him to find himself.

Extremely shy Lars finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother and sister-in-law worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars' new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor, his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

After spending eight months in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.

Roseanna is dying of a heart condition, and all she wants is to be buried next to her daughter, in a cemetery that is getting full fast. The cemetery can't expand because Capestro, the man who owns the land next to the cemetery, won't sell. While Marcello is doing good deeds to make sure no one dies, Roseanna thinks of Marcello's future.

Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events.

A comedy that pays tribute to the science fiction genre -- specifically, the sub-genre of time travel. But here the alternate reality is contemporary New York City where past and future experiences of trust, commitment and denial are cleverly put to the test. Just as Ruby is beginning to relish her first-ever healthy relationship, Sam begins muttering about being a time traveler from the year 2470.

In an attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend on Christmas Eve, Kate ends up ruining her blind date with Miles, a handsome guy she's been set up with. In a strange twist of fate, Kate is given the chance to re-live Christmas Eve twelve times.

Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

Victor Bukowski is an out-of-work actor with problems. He's got a lousy agent, he has a habit of falling out with directors and he's still in love with his ex-girlfriend. However, Victor is about to embark on an unexpected emotional journey which will make him confront his future and his past mistakes.

A saucy American showgirl in London is wooed by a roving-eyed Duke, but his estranged son, the young King, interrupts their late supper with politics and angry accusations.

Unknowingly trapped in her role as caretaker of her unappreciative family, a young single woman desperately needs to get her own life. When she volunteers to cat sit at her unrequited love's downtown L.A loft, her world, as she knows it, changes forever.