Top 10 Best Anti-Valentine's Day Movies

 For many, Valentine's Day is the day you openly and demonstrably express your love for your significant other. For others, it's the day to hide underneath the covers and pray for those 24 hours to pass so you can get on with your life. That desire to recoil from the world on Valentine’s Day often stems from a bad breakup—someone lied, cheated, left you for no reason or otherwise just stomped on your heart because they felt like it. While everyone else is watching “Notting Hill,” “The Notebook” or “Titanic” on Feb. 14, consider these films as a way to vicariously avenge your heartbreak. Just don’t try anything you see in these films at home.

“Fatal Attraction“: Sure, we all like the sometimes forbidden excitement that comes with some romances, but let this film serve as a cautionary tale for those who aim to get their cheap thrills by cheating, because someone is going to get hurt, and by hurt I mean get their “bunny boiled.” Since this movie was released, over-reacting, commitment-phonic guys across America now apply the words “boiled bunny” to relationship-coveting girls who get too clingy too fast, as in: "Man, Debbie was getting too attached so I had to kick her to the curb. She won't stop calling now. She's a stage five clinger. I'm afraid she's going to boil my bunny!"

“Double Indemnity“: Almost any film noir flick could be considered a good “anti-Valentine’s Day” movie, since they often feature femme fatale characters you don’t want to mess with—but you just can’t help yourself. In “Double Indemnity,” Fred MacMurry’s Walter Neff character never had a chance. The moment he uttered, “That’s a honey of an anklet you’re wearing,” he was a goner, falling under the spell of black widow Phyllis Dietrichson, played by Barbara Stanwyck, who got Walter to do her murderous dirty work for her.

“Heartburn”: Written by Nora Ephron, the queen of the romcom, who also wrote “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail.” The film only holds value because it stars two of the greatest actors ever: Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. “Heartburn” is an ode to the ’80s, a cinematic time capsule of an era when the best way to communicate the “I want a divorce” message was not done by text, but delivered personally, with a cream pie to the face.

“Unfaithful“: "There is no such thing as a mistake. There is what you do and what you don't do,” said Olivier Martinez’s character in “Unfaithful,” to which Diane Lane’s character replies, "I can't do this." But, she does, living out every bored, passionless, suburban housewife’s fantasy by having an affair with a strapping, poetry-loving Frenchman. Yep, a lot of mistakes are made in this film. Watch it. Learn from it. Don’t do it.

“The Way We Were”: It’s been a few years since I have seen this. I remember more about it from “Sex and the City’s” reference to it in season’s two’s “Ex and the City” episode. “Your girl is lovely, Hubbell,” said Carrie. “I don't get it,” replied Mr. Big. “And you never did,” said Carrie. Robert Redford’s Hubbell and Barbra Streisand’s Katie are great together in “The Way We Were.” But straight-laced Hubbell ultimately doesn’t “get” Katie. Then again, maybe Katie doesn’t know how to tame her wild spirit and just go with the flow. Either way, your heart will break because these two kids couldn’t make it work.

“Waiting to Exhale”: Yes, the title of this box office-topping film from 1995 seems innocent and reasonable enough, but there is a lot of heartbreak here. If you are a guy watching this film, you’ll be reminded why you need to appreciate strong women. If you are a girl watching this film, you’ll want to break out pen and paper and take notes, especially from Angela Bassett’s character, who sets fire to her husband’s car when she finds out he’s leaving her for another woman.

“Broken Flowers”: This quiet little Jim Jarmusch film stars Bill Murray as Don Johnston, an apathetic, aging Don Juan type who gets a letter from a former lover that says he’s the father of a teenage son. Reluctant, at first, to locate his son, Johnston ultimately decides to track down five of the women who most likely wrote the letter. By the end, Johnston comes to the realization that he really wants to know who his son is. The ending is clear yet still arbitrary at the same time, leaving you to wonder if Johnston has finally felt what it’s like to have a broken heart.

“High Fidelity”: Nobody does heartache like John Cusack, who plays Rob, a record store owner who hasn’t quite grown up emotionally. After his latest breakup, Rob looks back on all of the failed romances in his life and, similar to “Broken Flowers,” personally revisits the ladies who make up his “all-time, top-five most memorable breakups” for insight into why his relationships don’t last. While alls wells that ends well, it’s truly the breakups that matter here because they provide the answers that help Rob evolve from man-child to man that—gasp—finally wants to settle down.

“Cinema Paradiso”: If you aren’t crying by the end of this film, then you must have a heart of stone. This film involves heartbreak of another kind, one you experience when you leave home and know you can’t go back. It’s about the love of a father and son, rather, a father figure and son. Young Salvatore love movies and hanging with projectionist Alfredo, who teaches him the ways of the world along with how to keep the films running at the small town Sicilian theater—and how to splice out the naughty bits from movies that have been censored by the local priest. Alfredo ultimately pushes Salvatore to move on, to dream bigger and leave the village. When Alfredo dies, he leaves Salvatore a gift that has become known as the famous “kissing montage.”

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind": Who hasn’t wanted to erase from their memory a bad breakup or unpleasant dating experience? In this sci-fi romantic drama, when Jim Carrey, who plays Joel, learns his girlfriend, Clementine, played by Kate Winslet, purges her mind of all memory of their relationship after a bad fight, he decides to do the same thing to get over her. But mid-mind erase, he fights the procedure. The movie ends like many relationships do, with a do-over, and Joel and Clementine not knowing if it will work again—but they still want to try.

Jennifer Pullinger is a writer and editor in Richmond. Visit her at www.jenniferlpullinger.com or on Twitter @JLPullinger.