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Romance is complicated. The meshing together of two or more people isn't designed to be a smooth process and art has reflected that for generations, most recently in the new Amazon MGM rom-com "The Idea of You". In honor of the film dropping on Prime Video, IndieWire has compiled a list of the best age-gap romance films to enjoy after watching Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine's jaunt within the genre. From the best-selling novel by Robinne Lee, "The Idea of You" follows a 40-year-old gallery owner and divorceé, who, after escorting her daughter to Coachella, ends up in a whirlwind romance with the 24-year-old lead singer of a famous boy band. The book was adapted for the screen by Michael Showalter, as well as Jennifer Westfeldt, who's dabbled in complicated romances in the past with films like "Kissing Jessica Stein" and "Friends With Kids". In terms of how he approached the age-gap in his film, director Michael Showalter ("The Big Sick", "The Eyes of Tammy Faye") told Indiewire, "We wanted the audience to feel good about them, to feel good about their love affair and to root for them. I think if he's 20 years old and she's 40, again, it just adds a layer of sort of impropriety or whatever that is great, but just not for this story." No doubt there will be some films on this list that don't make audiences feel good about romance. That's okay. That's the beauty of cinema. We're allowed to like different things. That's a central throughline within all the films on this list in fact. What the age-gap film represents to cinema is the breaking of conformity, in ways formal — such as the use of reflection and dolly shots in Douglas Sirk's melodrama "All That Heaven Allows" — and informal — like the sexuality on display in Alfonso Cuarón's coming-of-age road movie "Y Tu Mamá También". However, we do make space on this list for feel-good films as well. At the end of the day, we're here to endorse love in all of its boundless forms, so sit back, open your mind, and enjoy all that love can be with this list of the best age-gap romance films. Billy Wilder loved romance. He loved love in all its kooky, varied complexities, whether it was the hopeless romanticism of Bud and Fran in "The Apartment" or the silly, physical barriers preventing Joe and Sugar's dalliance in "Some Like It Hot". His most touching romance, however, has to be "Sabrina", which pairs a 55-year-old Humphrey Bogart against a 25-year-old Audrey Hepburn and never once references the age disparity. It is important to the plot, however, which tells the story of chauffeur's daughter Sabrina Fairchild, who's obsession with David, the playboy youngest son (William Holden) of the rich family her father works for, nearly turns tragic if not for the attentiveness of the family's eldest son, Lionel, played by Bogart. After spending two years refining herself in Paris, Sabrina returns home to find David's affections suddenly turned in her direction. At first she's overjoyed, but as Lionel spends more time with her in an effort to push David towards another suitor, she realizes her tastes have changed and that someone more mature may in fact be better for her. In this sense, age becomes an important factor as Lionel soon realizes how time he's spent focused on financial bottom lines rather than living his life. —HR One of cinema's most beloved romances, 'All That Heaven Allows' tells a story of suburban discontent and repression as an expressionistic, elemental forbidden romance. Jane Wyman is a rich, relatively young widow with a big house and two children who take her for granted. Rock Hudson is her handsome, earthy gardener who craves a simple life. When sparks blossom, their age gap — and the fact that Wyman is the elder of the two — and class divide provoke gossip in their materialistic town. 'All That Heaven Allows' was dismissed as a relatively tawdry melodrama in its day, but at its core is a timeless and moving story about going against social pressures to achieve what you really want. —WC Aided by the Simon and Garfunkel track of the same name, Mrs. Robinson from 'The Graduate' is one of the most notorious film characters of the '60s, and her name is practically a shorthand for 'hot older woman.' And yet, 'The Graduate' is far more cynical about the relationship between Anne Bancroft's jaded suburbanite and Dustin Hoffman's directionless college grad Benjamin than its saucy reputation suggests, depicting their tawdry affair as an escape from reality for two people who feel stuck in their shallow non-lives. When Benjamin finds a much more suitable partner in Robinson's daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross), the older woman threatens to destroy their relationship before it even starts. While Hoffman was the breakout star of 'The Graduate,' it's Bancroft's performance that proves the true key to the film, portraying a complex woman whose unhappiness drives her into cruelty even as she attempts to protect her own family from her mistakes. —WC 'All That Heaven Allows' is such an iconic romance that there's a borderline subgenre of films retelling and reimagining it. Easily the greatest — and arguably superior to the original — is 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul,' one of the most poignant and devastating films from German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Set in West Germany in the months following the Munich Massacre, the age gap romance has a much wider gulf between lovers — Brigitte Mira's Emmi is in her 60s, while El Hedi ben Salem's Ali is in his late 30s. And their experience difference isn't as stark as the cultural divide between them — Emmi is a sweet white woman who supported the Nazi party during the war, while Ali is a young, brusque Moroccan man whose presence provokes racism from Emmi's coworkers and children. But what makes 'Ali: Fear Eats the Soul' such a riveting work is it isn't only external pressures that threaten their relationship; Emmi shows ignorance towards her younger lover and his culture, while Ali has a streak of cruelty and dismissiveness towards this older woman despite their undeniable chemistry. That just makes the moments when they dance together in harmony so much more moving, an expression of love that transcends their very human flaws. —WC The groundbreaking 1996 musical 'Rent' may have given Taye Diggs his break in show business, but it was 'How Stella Got Her Groove Back' that put his glistening abs on the big screen and turned him mainstream overnight. Adapted from Terry McMillan's best-selling novel of the same name, this breezy, yet thoughtful rom-com placed Angela Bassett center stage after years in supporting and secondary roles and her shine elevates the picture beyond its often soppy plotting. She plays 40-something stock broker/single mother Stella Payne, who, after years of putting others first, is convinced by friends to treat herself to a Jamaican getaway. It's there she meets Diggs' Winston Shakespeare, a local in his 20s who plans on attending medical school, but for now, is fine lounging by the pool and courting hotel guests like Stella. What follows is an up-and-down emotional rollercoaster for Stella, as she grapples with Winston's youthful freeness, her professional and parental responsibilities, as well as the surprise illness of her best friend, Delilah (Whoopi Goldberg). The film explores the space where fantasy meets real life, offering depth and cliche in equal measure, but Bassett's command and Diggs' abs make for an altogether worthwhile trip. —HR Faint of heart, be wary. For our money, 'Y Tu Mamá También' is the closest a mainstream film will ever come to having sex with you. The chemistry between the three leads oozes off the screen with curious and raging delight. Alfonso Cuarón's coming-of-age road film has echoes of other cinematic love triangles, such as Francois Truffaut's 'Jules and Jim', but stands on its own for its open display of unadulterated sensuality. This peek into the perverse joy and sorrow of two teenage boys (confidently played by baby Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) experiencing their sexual awakening and personal separation at the hands of a lovelorn twenty-something woman (a free and open Maribel Verdú) is as horny and spellbinding as it sounds. But by the end, after all that lust and satisfaction is over with, the film leaves us to wonder — as with life — was it all worth it? —HR If Michael Douglas and Matt Damon spooning naked in a hot tub, getting plastic surgery together, doing copious amounts of drugs, and fucking in the back of '80s porn shops doesn't appeal to you, skip past this one. You laugh, but apparently Hollywood studios didn't want to touch 'Behind The Candelabra' with a ten-foot-pole. It took Douglas and Steven Sodebergh years to secure funding for this dive into the world of Liberace's splendor and abuse, ultimately landing at HBO Films. Some may contest defining this pairing of Douglas' 50-something Liberace and Damon's 18-year-old Scott Thorson as a romance, but rather an act of grooming. That would be the objective view. Subjectively, Liberace was in love with Thorson and Thorson was in love with Liberace. Until they weren't. They fed off each other, relied on one another in ways toxic and beautiful, and when all was said and done, Thorson still remembers the magic Liberace made him believe in. It may not be everyone's view of romance, but it was theirs. —HR Todd Haynes knows how to pull off a 1950s-set melodrama, and 'Carol' may just be his best. Based on the 1952 novel 'The Price of Salt' by Tom Ripley scribe Patricia Highsmith and adapted by Phyllis Nagy, 'Carol' stars Rooney Mara as Therese, a young counter-girl at a department store whose photographic aspirations lead her to catch sight of a stunning subject one evening around Christmas, the titular Carol. Cate Blanchett plays Carol as a woman aware of the spell she casts over people, but tired of not having more control over it. Divorcing from her husband Harge in a time and place where it casts you as a leper, she does her best to carry on the social graces her community demands of her, but it's Therese's infatuation towards her that gives her the strength to carry on and fight for herself. Therese shows her that they can create a new vision of themselves that's more in their image and despite it seeming harder and harder for them to do so as the film goes on, their romance makes viewers believe in what is possible rather than what might not be. —HR One of the most romantic films of the 21st century (no, really), Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Phantom Thread' thrillingly subverts the power dynamics you'd expect from its central pairing. As seen through the eyes of young foreign waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps), the meticulous fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is at first a graying prince charming who sweeps her off her feet in a whirlwind marriage, turning her into a muse and model. Then, he's a terror, cold-hearted and vicious. But just when the audience thinks they have the dynamic pegged down, 'Phantom Thread' suddenly startlingly flips the script, as the seemingly submissive Alma finds a way to exert control in her relationship. And what's even more impressive is how convincingly Anderson's film makes the case for her and Reynolds' codependent, disturbing chemistry, a union between two screwed-up, strange people that works against all odds. —WC Another age-gap romance from Paul Thomas Anderson, 'Licorice Pizza' is a much breezier, sunnier affair than the cold, quiet 'Phantom Thread.' But the nature of 15-year-old actor Gary Valentine's (Cooper Hoffman) hold on directionless 25-year-old Alana Kane (a fantastic Alana Haim) is a constantly nagging question that makes the dreamy '70s comedy more than a tad queasy. Does Alana see Gary as just a kid? Or as someone whose relative emotional maturity makes him a peer to her in her arrested development? Or maybe his youth is the appeal, a way to remain a child even as she tries and mostly fails to transition into adulthood. Whatever the case, Hoffman and Haim's sweet, shaggy chemistry makes the mismatched duo's misadventures and schemes around the San Fernando Valley a real treat, but the ever-looming reality of their age difference adds a bittersweet uncertainty to their romantic runs through the night. —WC
'Sabrina' (1954)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
'All That Heaven Allows' (1955)
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'The Graduate' (1967)
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'Ali: Fear Eats The Soul' (1974)
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'How Stella Got Her Groove Back' (1998)
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'Y Tu Mamá También' (2001)
Image Credit: ©IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
'Behind The Candelabra' (2013)
Image Credit: 'Behind the Candelabra', HBO Films
'Carol' (2015)
Image Credit: ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
'Phantom Thread' (2017)
Image Credit: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
'Licorice Pizza' (2021)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection