Millennials grew up in the rom-com’s greatest era – and now they’re finally back

With Eternity now in cinemas, it feels like 2025 has signalled a bright new era for rom-coms, harking back to the ‘90s and early 2000s.

Between the return of a relatable rom-com icon with Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy at the beginning of the year, Materialists being one of the hot topics of the summer and now Eternity offering a fantasy twist on the traditional love-triangle dilemma, this year has brought about a welcome return to power for the genre.

I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting much from any of them, with no excellent rom-coms appearing in recent years – even past giants of the genre Julia Roberts and George Clooney couldn’t quite stick the landing with Ticket to Paradise in 2022.

As A24 movies with earlier US releases, both Materialists and Eternity had also debuted to mixed critical and fan receptions – but I am delighted to, at long last, have had rom-coms exceed my expectations and been proven wrong.

The issue has always been that millennials like me grew up incredibly spoiled when it comes to rom-coms. The artform started to peak in the ‘80s, reaching its pinnacle with the still unmatched When Harry Met Sally in 1989 – followed by a steady stream of triumphs over the next couple of decades.

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks proved a winning combination in You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle in the ‘90s (both remakes from the first golden age of rom-coms in the ‘30s and ‘40s), while Richard Curtis was blessing cinemagoers with his wealth of hits including Four Weddings and A Funeral and Notting Hill.

As we moved into the noughties, Shakespeare was now being beautifully re-interpreted with 10 Things I Hate About You (after Jane Austen in Clueless the decade before), alongside the likes of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and 13 Going on 30. The quality was consistent, before things started to slow down.

By the following decade, Crazy, Stupid, Love in 2011 and About Time in 2013 were the exceptions and not the rule, as rom-coms fell out of fashion as major cinematic releases.

But the problem was very high expectations had been developed by those of us who were raised on the rom-com classics, anticipating that each new release would match the standard of the rom-com thoroughbreds upon which we were raised (and Julia Roberts doesn’t think we properly appreciated).

Perhaps we stumbled as a society as apps infiltrated and eventually overpowered the dating experience, stifling the traditional meet-cute scenarios movie romances were built upon through lack of opportunity. How do you make dry messages, weak chemistry and ghosting cute?

But 2025 is the year that resurrected the rom-com.

Firstly, one of our great heroines from 2001 returned for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, carefully and refreshingly updated to incorporate modern dating’s reliance on tech and a new chapter in Bridget’s life as a widow.

It worked when it had almost everything stacked against it – when was the last time the fourth film in a series was a triumph? – posting the biggest opening weekend for a rom-com in UK history with £12.3million, before raking in over $140m (£104.9m) at the box office on a $50m (£37.4m) budget. And all without the help of theatrical release in the US, where it released on streaming platform Peacock instead.

Bridge’s big comeback, nine years after her last movie, also boasts the strongest critical rating on review aggregator platform Rotten Tomatoes with 88% (the original managed 79%).

Materialists proved more divisive with some fierce debate over whether Dakota Johnson’s matchmaker Lucy chose correctly between her two prospective beaus, Pedro Pascal’s charming and mega-wealthy broker or Chris Evans’ struggling actor ex.

Returning to an analogue setting with matchmaking, the film seemed very fresh and 2025 (thank you, Celine Song, for ensuring the poor thespian had a realistically crummy house share).

And whether you agreed or not, it was one of the most talked about, cool movies of the summer – regardless of if it was even a traditional rom-com (I think it rightfully evolved beyond that).

It also ended up as Past Lives director Song’s highest grossing film and A24’s third most successful ever.

And now Eternity has arrived in cinemas, another A24 gem and one of the funniest rom-coms since Curtis’s heyday. It’s sharp, silly, sweet and sentimental, combining the sweeping romance of The Notebook with the wittiest of the British writer’s barbs thanks to Irish director and co-writer David Freyne (there was something in the film’s self-deprecation that didn’t read as American penned).

Eternity boasts a classic but cruel set-up and dilemma, as Elizabeth Olsen’s Joan arrives in the afterlife to find she must pick between her two husbands – dashing first love Luke (Callum Turner), killed too soon in war, or her second husband of 65 years, Larry (Miles Teller).

Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early’s feuding afterlife consultants are also brilliant comic relief, easing any mawkishness with some truly savage humour.

It remains to be seen how Eternity will fare – although its massive 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes from American fans bodes well.

And this could be just the first wave of the rom-com revolution, with best-selling author Emily Henry’s TikTok-powered empire of books set to see its first screen adaptation – People We Meet on Vacation – release on Netflix in January.

Early reactions to the trailer have hailed it as ‘perfect’ while fans also thanked Henry for ‘saving’ romance movies.

‘You guys the lack of real classic rom-coms is over, like we’re so back, we’ve never been this back, WE SURVIVED THE GREAT WAR!!!’ celebrated Jude on X after the trailer dropped, while Katie urged everyone to ‘say thank you to Emily Henry for saving the rom-com genre’.

Eternity is in UK and US cinemas now.

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