7 Features of the Perfect Date Night Movie

by Kevin Gardner

Date night had been entirely homebound for some time now. You've probably spent hours scrolling through your various streaming services looking for just the right date night movie. The perfect date night movie isn't always easy to find: here are seven features of the ideal date night movie.

A Lovely Gift

A date night movie is a gift to your partner, just like rose gold watches for women or tech presents for men. It will be a gift that you share, yes, but it should be as much about their tastes as it is about yours. This is, after all, an expression of your love for them. 

Familiarity

Keep in mind that there's no need to choose a new movie every time. Especially on date night, it's often more about spending time with your partner than paying attention to a new and exciting story. Familiarity is sometimes a good thing.

Characters

Whether it's an old, familiar movie or a new one, you probably want to make sure that the characters are likable. Watching a movie is not like spending time with friends, and this is a date after all. You wouldn't invite that coworker your partner hates to dinner and expect to have a nice evening. The same applies to characters in movies. You're going to be spending several hours with them, you want to enjoy their company.

Emotional Investment

Movies are also designed to make you feel something for the characters. Half the battle is making you like them, the other half is making you care about what happens to them. When you care about characters, you have emotional investment in their journey. This is important for a date night movie because you want to feel something, otherwise you'll just feel bored.

Tension

In a story, tension is another thing that keeps you from feeling bored. The unresolved anxiety of a horror movie, the edge-of-your-seat thrills of an action movie are the heart wrenching yearning of a romance are all different kinds of tension you might find in different genres of movie. Depending on your tastes and your date's preferences, you may have a preference for one kind of tension over another, but as a general rule, you probably want to lean towards romantic tension for a date night movie. 

Resonance

What really makes a movie stand out is the way it resonates with the audience. We feel a connection with the events on the screen because they reflect something that happened to us, or because we can feel what the characters feel. It isn't always an obvious one-to-one comparison. Plenty of people identify with Frodo Baggins's struggle even though they aren't hobbits on an epic quest. People all around the world identify with Lizzie Bennett even though they don't live in England in the Regency Era. The point is that this personal connection is especially important on date night because it generates catharsis, keeps your mind engaged and most importantly gets your emotions active and involved. Emotional engagement is key for date night. Everyone wants to be excited and interested in date night. 

Ending

Of course you can have too much of a good thing. Date night movies probably shouldn't be too long, and you probably don't want to watch a movie with an unsatisfying or frustrating ending. The end of a movie is what's going to influence the rest of your evening, after all. The swelling music and a romantic kiss is probably going to create a better date night impression than a sad ending and a death. Ideally, you want an ending that's going to leave you and your partner in a good mood, ready to get on with your romantic evening and enjoy the rest of your date. 

That said, of course all couples are unique and not everyone likes the same kind of movie. What is familiar and emotionally resonant for one couple will make another couple feel cold and uncomfortable. Find a movie that works for you!