Top 10 Movie Love Triangles

Top 10 Movie Love Triangles

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Top 10 Iconic Movie Love Triangles

Three may be a crowd, but they also make for some juicy drama. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 movie love triangles. For this list, we’re looking at films that feature notable romantic entanglements involving at least three people. And, just so you know, there may be some sexy spoilers ahead so SPOILER ALERT.

You how it goes: you’re in Vegas to have a good time when all of a sudden you’ve lost your shirt and some billionaire is trying to buy your wife for an evening. At least, that’s the premise of this ‘90s romantic drama starring Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson. They play a married couple trying to strike it rich for some investment capital when Moore’s character captures the fancy of a disgustingly rich gentleman played by Robert Redford. He propositions the couple, offering them a million bucks for a night with Diana, but their relationship doesn’t end there. What should’ve been a lucrative roll in the sheets leaves a woman torn between two men, and with one difficult choice to make.

#9: “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997)

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This happy-go-lucky romantic comedy, complete with a musical number, stars Julia Roberts in her hey-day. She plays Julianne Potter, a woman whose timing is so bad that it might just be malicious. After her best friend informs her that he plans on getting married in four days, she realizes she’s in love with him and has to stop the wedding. She attempts to sabotage the pre-wedding activities with bad karaoke and a new “boyfriend,” even going so far to declare her love the night before the big day. Timing is everything, folks.

#8: “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001)

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In this London-based rom-com, Renee Zellweger plays a less-than-sophisticated single lady looking for love in all the wrong places. She works for a publishing company where she’s developed a long-standing crush on her boss, Daniel Cleaver, played by Hugh Grant. While her flirtations with her boss seem to be rapidly evolving into something more, she also starts to warm to a childhood friend-turned-adult nuisance, Mark Darcy. Of course, these two men don’t like each other that much, which would put Bridget in an awkward position if there weren’t already a ton of other complications involved in this love triangle. Like the fact that both of her love interests seem to have other love interests.

#7: “The Hunger Games” franchise (2012-15)

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There’s nothing like fighting for your life to get the blood pumping and the love triangles triangulating. Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is a teenage warrior playing a deadly game - literally. She’s battling to stay alive in an annual televised event that pits teenagers in a sprawling battle to the death, but also has to try to manage her love life at the same time. While essentially feigning a relationship with another competitor in order to stay alive, Katniss also remains conflicted about her feelings she’s developing for a boy she grew up with. Aside from the state-sanctioned murders happening around them, this “Hunger Games” love triangle is a typical teenage love story.

#6: “The Notebook” (2004)

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This romantic drama may have propelled Ryan Gosling to heartthrob status, but it also gave us a pretty solid love triangle. In the film, Gosling plays Noah Calhoun, a man who just so happens to be madly in love with Rachel McAdams’s character, Allie. Theirs is a romance that comes with a few rough patches, however, given that they’re from two different socio-economic backgrounds and her rich parents don’t approve. Throw into the mix Allie’s newly minted fiancé, and their passionate love affair becomes that much more difficult to navigate.

#5: “First Knight” (1995)

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King Arthur may have figured out how to pull the sword from the stone, but it doesn’t appear that he mastered the romance department. In this ‘90s medieval drama, King Arthur is played by a very kingly Sean Connery, who is married to the lovely Lady Guinevere and has just added Sir Lancelot to his inner circle of trusted knights. Which wouldn’t be a problem if Lancelot and Guinevere didn’t totally have the hots for each other. To make matters worse, Lancelot keeps saving Guinevere’s life, while she’s bound in a marriage of duty to King Arthur. The rest is ancient history.

What happens when you’re an American tourist travelling to Spain for a little excitement and adventure? Well, if you’re Scarlett Johansson’s character in this Woody Allen flick, you’re likely to end up in a polyamorous relationship. Johansson plays Cristina, an American twenty-something vacationing in Barcelona when she and her friend, Vicky, happen upon the lustful Juan. While her friend Vicky backs out of his threesome offer, Cristina embarks on a romantic relationship with Juan before learning about his former wife. Not to be deterred, she ends up living with both Juan and unstable Maria Elena, played by Penelope Cruz. It’s an arrangement that actually seems to work for all parties involved. At least for a while.

Infidelity and indecisiveness seem to be the name of the game in this romantic drama, starring Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman. As Anna, Roberts plays a photographer who embarks on an affair with Jude Law’s Dan. The problem, aside from the fact that Anna gets married over the course of the affair, is that Dan is also in a relationship. He’s dating Natalie Portman’s character, Alice, but obviously isn’t entirely happy with her. As it happens, Anna leaves her husband, Larry, for Dan, but winds up reconciling with him later. But that’s not before the question arises of whether Larry did or didn’t sleep with Alice. This is more like a love square than a triangle.

While this film may be remembered for its iconic dialogue, the love story at its heart shouldn’t be overlooked either. After all, it’s Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in a classic that helped define an era. In this romantic drama, Bogie plays Rick Blaine, a club owner living in Casablanca, Morocco. All is well and good until his ex-flame strolls back into his life, but this time her husband is in tow and they’re in need of his help to thwart the Nazis. He’s reluctant at first, but seems to warm up after she lets him know she still carries a torch for him. Being the gentleman that Rick is, however, he just can’t stand to see her throw her marriage away. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon… Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions: - “Spider-Man” franchise (2002-07) - “X-Men” franchise (2000-06) - “Keeping the Faith” (2000) - “Caravaggio” (1986) And here’s one dishonorable mention as well: - “Twilight” franchise (2008-12)

#1: “The Graduate” (1967)

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You know what’s more difficult than having a relationship with two people at one time? Sleeping with your girlfriend’s mother. This classic comedy-drama follows Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who engages in an illicit affair with Mrs. Robinson, the wife of a family friend. This would be scandalous enough on its own, but things get even trickier when Benjamin also starts a relationship with Mrs. Robinson’s daughter. It is one of the grimier love triangles, but at least we knew cougars were active and on the prowl way back in the ‘60s. Do you agree with our list? What is your favorite movie love triangle? For more entertaining Top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.