10 of the weirdest rom-com premises of all time

Brianna ZiglerFri, August 7, 2026 at 9:40 PM UTC

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Jennifer Aniston in ‘The Switch;’ Dustin Milligan in ‘Hot Frosty;’ Sandra Bullock in ‘While You Were Sleeping’Credit: Miramax Films/Everett; Netflix; Buena Vista/Getty

Have you ever wondered what life might look like in a world where people are only allowed to have premarital sex one night per year? Then One Night Only, a new rom-com starring Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, might just be for you.

Though audiences seem to be more curious about the logistics of this fictional society than the actual rom-com premise at the forefront, it at least has people interested. Sometimes all a rom-com needs is a really weird idea to distinguish it from the more standard love stories proliferating in Hollywood. What if a woman playing Santa ended up with a guy who initially thought she was an elderly man? You can find out in My Secret Santa, which is among the truly bizarre rom-com premises we’re highlighting below.

Keep reading as Entertainment Weekly takes a look at 10 of the weirdest rom-coms in film history.

01 of 10

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)

Annie Parisse, Kate Hudson and Kathryn Hahn in ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’Credit: John Clifford/Paramount

After women’s magazine columnist Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) decides to pivot into writing about more “serious” topics, she sets out to pen a column showing women what not to do in a relationship. For “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” Andie will date a man with the intent of driving him away by making the kinds of mistakes women are supposedly prone to make. Meanwhile, the guy she sets her sights on, ad exec Benjamin Barry (Matthew McConaughey), has made a wager of his own: He can make a woman fall in love with him in 10 days. What are the chances?

EW’s review sums it up nicely: “With its ungainly double-deception premise, How to Lose a Guy feels like it was made out of two connect-the-dots drawings laid haphazardly on top of one another.”

Where to watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: Amazon Prime Video

02 of 10

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

Matthew McConaughey in ‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’Credit: New Line Cinema/ Everett

What if a rom-com was also A Christmas Carol? And a man was haunted by ex-girlfriends who aren’t even dead? These are some of the more interesting questions posed by the rom-com industrial complex.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past once again stars a pre-McConaissance McConaughey as a perpetually single playboy juggling multiple casual relationships with numerous women. But when he makes a fool of himself during his brother’s wedding weekend, he’s visited by the spirits of his former lovers to help set him straight. They’re not dead, though. It’s weird.

Where to watch Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

03 of 10

Hot Frosty (2024)

Dustin Milligan and Lacey Chabert in ‘Hot Frosty’Credit: Petr Maur/Netflix

Hot Frosty imagines a world in which Frosty the Snowman is a hot guy with abs — need we say more?

The Netflix original stars Hallmark Channel darling Lacey Chabert as a woman reeling from the death of her handyman husband, whose absence has caused her home to fall into disrepair. That is, until she accidentally brings a hunky snowman (played by Dustin Milligan) to life, and he just happens to be the perfect handyman to help get her life back on track — and thaw her frozen heart, of course.

Where to watch Hot Frosty: Netflix

04 of 10

Life as We Know It (2010)

Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel in ‘Life as We Know It’Credit: Peter Iovino/Warner Bros./Everett

In the “business-as-usually-awful romantic comedy”Life as We Know It, enemies Eric (Josh Duhamel) and Holly (Katherine Heigl) are named as guardians of their mutual friends’ baby daughter, Sophie. But when both of Sophie’s parents are killed in a car accident after the child’s first birthday, Eric and Holly realize that they’ve been left in charge of raising her.

The odd couple are then forced to move in with each other so that they can care for what is basically now their child. But, hey, they also manage to fall in love, so it’s kind of like Sophie’s parents never died in a car crash at all.

EW’s review muses: “Have there ever, in the history of reality, existed parents who fail to discuss the responsibilities of legal guardianship with those designated as legal guardians?”

Where to watch Life as We Know It: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

05 of 10

Marry Me (2022)

Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson in ‘Marry Me’Credit: Barry Wetcher/Universal Pictures

You know a rom-com is going to be good when it’s based on a webcomic. Just look at Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez as pop superstar Kat Valdez. Kat and her fiancé, Bastien (Maluma), decide to livestream their wedding at one of Kat’s concerts, where she’ll perform her chart-topping song “Marry Me.”

But just as Kat is about to wed her beau in front of millions, she discovers he’s been cheating on her with her assistant. In a moment of grief-stricken insanity, she locks onto Charlie (Owen Wilson), a divorced math teacher in the audience holding a sign that reads “Marry Me” — and marries him instead.

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After getting hitched, these two incredibly different people must decide if they’re actually right for each other. EW described the movie as “a wan romantic comedy that leaves most cohesive ideas of character and storytelling at the altar, along with its original groom.”

Where to watch Marry Me: Netflix

06 of 10

My Secret Santa (2025)

Ryan Eggold and Alexandra Breckenridge in ‘My Secret Santa’Credit: Diyah Pera/Netflix

My Secret Santa follows desperate single mom Taylor Jacobson (Alexandra Breckenridge), who is laid off from her job just before Christmas and left scrambling to figure out how to pay for her daughter’s snowboarding lessons.

Taylor discovers that employees at the local ski resort get a discount, but the only opening is for a seasonal Santa. Obviously, Taylor pretends to be an elderly, apple-cheeked man in order to get the Santa job and get her daughter into snowboarding classes. Even more absurd? She falls for the resort owner’s son (Ryan Eggold) while in old-man cosplay.

Where to watch My Secret Santa: Netflix

07 of 10

Never Been Kissed (1999)

Drew Barrymore and David Arquette in ‘Never Been Kissed’Credit: Getty

Drew Barrymore innocent, but the optics of this ‘90s classic are questionable, to say the least. Barrymore plays journalist Josie Geller, who poses as a high school student in order to write an article on contemporary teen culture. However, her investigation becomes complicated when she falls for her handsome English teacher (Michael Vartan) — and what do you know, he’s falling for his presumed teenage student, too! Yuck.

Where to watch Never Been Kissed: Disney+

08 of 10

Simply Irresistible (1999)

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean Patrick Flanery in ‘Simply Irresistible’Credit: Getty

Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Amanda, a middling chef who’s struggling to keep her family’s restaurant business afloat. One day, she’s given a magical crab (??) by a mysterious man. The crab’s magic seems not only to make her dishes amazing, but able to infuse her emotions into the food as well...?

So, when Tom (Sean Patrick Flanery) eats her cooking, he begins falling for her. That is, until one of their romantic encounters literally sends them floating off the ground and he starts to think she’s a witch. EW wasn’t enchanted — in our review, we compared this movie to a “collapsed soufflé.”

Where to watch Simply Irresistible: Amazon Prime Video

09 of 10

The Switch (2010)

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston in ‘The Switch’Credit: Macall Polay/Miramax Films/Everett

Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) is secretly in love with his best friend, Kassie (Jennifer Aniston), and wants to be her sperm donor when she decides to have a baby on her own. But Kassie finds her friend way too neurotic, so she chooses a handsome professor named Roland (Patrick Wilson) to be her sperm donor and hosts an “insemination party.” At the party, Roland produces his seed in the bathroom, which Wally accidentally spills into the sink. So, what does he do? Well, he replaces Roland’s discarded sperm with his own.

Despite the ethically dubious nature of this premise, EW’s critic said it “squeezes fresh laughs out of what is, in essence, a rather startlingly post-Freudian, nature-trumps-nurture view of child development.”

Where to watch The Switch: Cinemax

10 of 10

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

Peter Gallagher and Sandra Bullock in ‘While You Were Sleeping’Credit: Buena Vista/Getty

Single transit worker Lucy (Sandra Bullock) has a crush on commuter Peter (Peter Gallagher), and one day she ends up saving him from an oncoming train. However, he is left in a coma; at the hospital, his family assumes Lucy to be his fiancée.

Instead of correcting them, she simply goes along with it (what else could she do??), posing as the unconscious man’s lover to his worried family. To make matters squirmier, Lucy ends up falling for Peter’s attractive but shy brother, Jack (Bill Pullman), all while Peter is still sleeping.

Where to watch While You Were Sleeping: Disney+

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