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| Best Movies Like The Love Hypothesis. |
The best movies like The Love Hypothesis tend to have one thing in common: romance becomes considerably messier when two people who are supposed to keep things professional, casual or completely fake start catching genuine feelings. The 2026 Amazon MGM adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling novel puts Olive Smith and intimidating Stanford professor Adam Carlsen through exactly that sort of chaos, mixing STEM romance, fake dating, academic rivalry, workplace tension and slow-burning chemistry.
If that combination worked for you, there is plenty more to watch next. From pretend relationships that become inconveniently real to sharp-tongued couples who would rather argue than admit they fancy each other, these 21 films hit many of the same romantic-comedy notes without simply copying The Love Hypothesis.
Movies Like THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS
1. The Hating Game (2021)
The Hating Game is perhaps the most obvious next stop for anyone who enjoyed the combative chemistry of The Love Hypothesis. Lucy and Joshua work together and appear to have perfected the art of irritating each other, while an office promotion gives their rivalry an extra layer of tension. Like Olive and Adam, they are surrounded by professional expectations and spend an alarming amount of time pretending their attraction does not exist. It also understands the romantic-comedy rule that two people can apparently be deeply annoyed by each other while standing approximately three centimetres apart.
2. Set It Up (2018)
Netflix’s Set It Up follows two overworked assistants who decide to match their demanding bosses in the hope that everyone will become slightly less unbearable. While the central romance differs from The Love Hypothesis, the film shares its workplace setting, quick humour and characters trying to manipulate romantic circumstances for practical reasons. The fake matchmaking gradually creates complications of its own, proving once again that interfering with other people’s love lives is rarely the efficient career strategy anyone thinks it will be.
3. Anyone but You (2023)
Anyone but You turns the fake relationship formula into a glossy modern romantic comedy. Bea and Ben initially cannot stand each other, but circumstances at a wedding lead them to pretend they are a couple. The setup echoes The Love Hypothesis through its staged romance, public performance and increasingly obvious attraction. Both films also rely on the same delicious problem: once everyone believes the relationship is real, the people involved have to work rather harder to remember that it supposedly is not.
4. The Proposal (2009)
Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds star in The Proposal, where a career-driven boss persuades her assistant to enter a fake engagement after facing an immigration problem. The premise is wildly different from Olive and Adam’s academic arrangement, but the romantic machinery is remarkably similar. A relationship begins for entirely practical reasons, rules are established, and then actual affection turns up uninvited. The film also gives viewers another intimidating professional who discovers that being emotionally vulnerable is considerably harder than bossing everyone around.
5. Plus One (2019)
Plus One centres on two longtime friends who agree to become each other’s wedding dates for an entire season. It has less of the academic setting found in The Love Hypothesis, but the emotional progression will feel familiar. A supposedly straightforward arrangement becomes complicated when friendship and attraction begin occupying the same space. The film is particularly suited to viewers who enjoyed the way Olive’s carefully controlled plans gradually fall apart once genuine feelings enter the equation.
6. The Ugly Truth (2009)
The Ugly Truth pairs a television producer with a deliberately provocative relationship expert who has very different ideas about romance. Their constant disagreements create the familiar enemies-to-lovers rhythm that makes The Love Hypothesis work. The characters are professionally connected, emotionally guarded and convinced they know more about relationships than they actually do. It is also one of those films where the protagonists could save themselves several hours of trouble simply by having one honest conversation. Naturally, they do not.
7. Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant bring another workplace romance to Two Weeks Notice, with a lawyer becoming increasingly frustrated by her billionaire employer. The relationship starts from a professional arrangement rather than a fake dating scheme, but the film shares The Love Hypothesis’s interest in career pressure, clashing personalities and the uncomfortable realisation that irritation can sometimes be suspiciously close to attraction.
8. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
The high-school setting makes 10 Things I Hate About You very different from Stanford’s academic world, but its romantic structure has plenty in common with The Love Hypothesis. Kat and Patrick are drawn into a relationship involving hidden motives and assumptions before the emotional side becomes much more complicated. The film also delivers the essential romantic-comedy ingredient: people making elaborate plans to avoid simply admitting what they actually feel.
9. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)
Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey play two people entering a relationship while secretly pursuing completely different goals. She wants to prove how quickly she can drive a man away; he wants to prove he can make a woman fall for him.
That makes their romance an entertaining cousin to Olive and Adam’s carefully structured fake arrangement. Both films thrive on the dramatic irony of characters believing they are controlling the situation while the audience can see the emotional disaster approaching from several kilometres away.
10. Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
Crazy Rich Asians swaps academic laboratories for Singapore’s ultra-wealthy social circles, but its central romance similarly places a grounded protagonist inside an environment governed by complicated expectations. Rachel and Nick must navigate family pressure, social status and competing ideas about relationships. Viewers who enjoyed the emotional growth and romantic obstacles in The Love Hypothesis may appreciate the way this film balances comedy with genuine questions about belonging and commitment.
11. Friends with Benefits (2011)
Friends with Benefits begins with a straightforward agreement between two friends who believe they can keep physical attraction separate from emotional attachment. That plan goes about as well as you would expect.
Like The Love Hypothesis, it uses an arrangement with clearly defined boundaries before gradually testing those boundaries. The characters may not be signing academic agreements at Stanford, but they are equally optimistic about their ability to keep feelings out of the equation. Spoiler: feelings remain notoriously bad at following instructions.
12. No Strings Attached (2011)
No Strings Attached explores another supposedly uncomplicated romantic arrangement between two friends. Emma and Adam agree to keep things physical without turning their relationship into something serious, only to discover that human emotions are inconveniently less cooperative than a written contract. Its similarities to The Love Hypothesis come from the central question of whether people can successfully control romantic relationships by establishing rules before anything gets complicated.
13. Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Love & Other Drugs is a more dramatic romantic comedy, following pharmaceutical salesman Jamie and artist Maggie as their initially casual relationship develops into something deeper. It does not use fake dating, but it shares The Love Hypothesis’s interest in emotionally guarded characters being forced to confront vulnerability. The professional world is also important to the story, making it a useful choice for viewers who enjoyed the combination of career ambition and romance.
14. 27 Dresses (2008)
27 Dresses follows Jane, a woman who has spent years putting other people’s weddings ahead of her own romantic life. Her relationship with cynical journalist Kevin develops through arguments, misunderstandings and reluctant attraction.
Like The Love Hypothesis, it gives its central couple plenty of reasons to resist their feelings before eventually forcing them to reconsider what they actually want. There is also a wedding-related complication because apparently romantic comedies believe one emotional crisis at a time is far too sensible.
15. What's Your Number? (2011)
Anna Faris stars in What's Your Number? as a woman who becomes convinced that she may have already dated her ideal partner without recognising it. She turns to her neighbour for help revisiting her romantic history, creating an arrangement that becomes increasingly complicated. The film shares The Love Hypothesis’s playful approach to dating, its focus on assumptions about relationships and its belief that romance often becomes most interesting when people try far too hard to make it logical.
16. The DUFF (2015)
The DUFF brings the academic setting closer to the world of school and follows Bianca as she challenges the social label placed on her. Her relationship with Wesley develops through a deal designed to improve her social confidence, giving the film another relationship arrangement that slowly becomes emotionally genuine. Like Olive, Bianca starts from a position of scepticism and self-doubt before learning that other people’s definitions of her do not necessarily match reality.
17. The Valet (2022)
The Valet offers another variation on the fake relationship formula. A Hollywood actress asks a restaurant valet to pretend to be her boyfriend after a photograph threatens to expose her actual relationship.
The two strangers gradually develop a genuine connection while dealing with the absurdity of their public arrangement. It shares The Love Hypothesis’s central comic engine: a relationship begins as a performance for someone else, only for the emotions underneath it to become increasingly difficult to fake.
18. Holidate (2020)
Holidate follows two strangers who agree to become each other’s platonic dates for holidays throughout the year. Their arrangement comes with boundaries and expectations, but those rules become increasingly difficult to maintain as their friendship develops.
That makes it a natural companion to The Love Hypothesis, particularly for viewers who enjoy romance stories where the protagonists create a sensible agreement and then spend the rest of the film discovering why sensible agreements are not particularly useful when feelings are involved.
19. Leap Year (2010)
Leap Year follows a woman travelling to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend, only for the journey to become complicated when she meets a completely different man. The film shares the romantic-comedy tradition of putting an ambitious protagonist on a carefully planned path before introducing a person capable of ruining the entire itinerary. Like Olive, she begins with a clear idea of how her life should work and gradually discovers that relationships do not always respect spreadsheets, schedules or personal hypotheses.
20. Austenland (2013)
Austenland takes romantic fantasy and turns it into a playful comedy about a woman travelling to a Jane Austen-themed resort in search of an idealised romance. The film is particularly appealing for viewers who enjoyed The Love Hypothesis’s mixture of romance and humour because it pokes fun at the expectations people bring into relationships. Its characters are effectively performing versions of romance before genuine emotions begin complicating the arrangement, creating another story where pretending eventually becomes rather less pretend.
21. Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
Red, White & Royal Blue rounds out the list with another romance that begins under very public and carefully managed circumstances. Alex and Prince Henry initially have a strained relationship, but a strategic arrangement designed to improve their public image develops into genuine affection.
The film shares The Love Hypothesis’s fake-relationship appeal, strong chemistry and gradual movement from carefully controlled behaviour to emotional honesty. It also understands one of the genre's most reliable truths: the more desperately characters try to keep romance under control, the more entertaining the eventual mess becomes.
For viewers who loved The Love Hypothesis, the appeal of these films is not simply the romance. It is the particular combination of clever protagonists, professional ambition, awkward attraction, fake dating, enemies-to-lovers tension and characters who insist they are being completely rational while behaving spectacularly irrationally.
The Hating Game, The Proposal, Set It Up and Anyone but You come closest to the film’s workplace-romance energy, while Plus One, Holidate and The Valet lean harder into the fake-relationship setup. Others, including Crazy Rich Asians and Red, White & Royal Blue, expand the formula into stories about social expectations and public pressure.
There is enough variety here to keep the mood going without feeling like you are watching the same plot 21 times. And, frankly, that is probably healthier than attempting your own fake-dating experiment with a terrifying professor. Which one would you put at the top of your watchlist?