50 Dating Tips From The Movies

Frances Ha (2012)

The Dating Tip: "Hurt people hurt people."

How It Applies To Real Life: Take time to heal.

If you try to force romance when you're still shell-shocked from a recent brutal break-up, you'll find yourself falling into a vicious cycle of upset and misery, and, as Frances (Greta Gerwig) learns, sometimes you just need to take a step back and fix yourself.

Hitch (2005)

The Dating Tip: "No woman wakes up saying, 'God, I hope I don't get swept off my feet today!'"

How It Applies To Real Life: It's true. However many times she may tell you that she's just not looking for anything right now, it's impossible to resist some good old-fashioned wooing.

Take heed from Hitch (Will Smith) and his fellow onscreen romantics and make that big, brassy movie gesture. It might just work.

City Slickers (1991)

The Dating Tip: "Women need a reason for having sex, men just need a place."

How It Applies To Real Life: It's the old "men are from Mars" schtick again.

While we don't necessarily always agree that it's quite that black and white, it is true that women usually a bit more groundwork when it comes to the subtle art of seduction. Not to generalise, but show a dude some fancy knickers and a shabby picnic blanket and it's fair to say that you'll probably have a pretty high success rate.

Cocktail (1988)

The Dating Tip: "Never tell tales about a woman. No matter how far away she is, she’ll always hear you."

How It Applies To Real Life: This isn't even a metaphor. Women are alien-like creatures with an unlimited hearing range, so don't try any bitching.

Okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration. What Cocktail 's Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown) actually means is that it's wise to avoid trash-talking anyone you might be, or have been, intimate with. They will find out, they always do, and it'll be you that feels the very uncomfortable repercussions.

The Apartment (1960)

The Dating Tip: "When you're in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara."

How It Applies To Real Life: Love hurts, especially when it's unrequited. If you intentionally get yourself tangled up in a situation that you know will only bring upset a la Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), then prepare yourself for a world of hurt and not much sympathy from your pals.

Also, it's probably wise to adjust your beauty regime accordingly. Tears are imminent.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

The Dating Tip: "Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating."

How It Applies To Real Life : Remember that scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) tells his nattering fiancé Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) four times that he's breaking it off, but she's far too busy chattering to no one about nothing that she barely registers it? Yeah, that.

You can fill those awkward silences with anything from politics to past experiences but it all means diddly-squat if you're not actually listening to each other, and Michel Gondry's portrait of a relationship in reverse demonstrates those crashing lows as well as wild highs of love.

Brief Encounter (1945)

The Dating Tip: "It's awfully easy to lie when you know that you're trusted implicitly. So very easy, and so very degrading."

How It Applies To Real Life: David Lean's drama utterly heart-breaking perfectly captured the wild excitement and sickening guilt of infidelity, something that lonely housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) sums up in this piece of advice for all wannabe adulterers.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

The Dating Tip: "That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence."

How It Applies To Real Life: You know you've bagged yourself a good one when you can sit happily in silence and never feel obligated to make some boring small talk about whether it's pronounced "gif" or "jif".

Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) may be completely addled by a collection of substances, but she knows what a happy relationship makes.

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

The Dating Tip: "Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want. Go for it."

How It Applies To Real Life: It always seems to come back to one thing - confidence.

Heath Ledger was suitably dreamy as high school bad boy Patrick in this cult favourite, and his pep talk to lovelorn Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) should be enough to inspire you to take on any love rival, regardless of how big his muscles and how shiny his hair.

Knocked Up (2007)

The Dating Tip: "You criticise them so much, they get down on themselves, and then they're forced to change."

How It Applies To Real Life: Take the person you love most in the world, and then pick on them mercilessly until they're so miserable that they change and become someone completely different.

Just kidding. We do love Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her all-too-realistic view on marriage though, and this is one insight into long-term marriage that really makes you aware of the ongoing battle between spouses.