Valentine's Day is annoying enough with all the candy, bears and forced romance shoved down your throat, but it's also when so many horrible romantic movies get pushed from every direction: the theatre, video store, even the cheap sales at the grocery store. Those movies can certainly be fun guilty pleasures (who doesn't get a tiny craving for Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts from time to time?), but sometimes it's really refreshing to see a movie where the world won't end if the girl and guy don't get together. Five really great movies for just this occasion:

1. Living Out Loud (1998):

Judith Nelson (Holly Hunter) is a recent divorcee: her husband left her for another woman. Judith is now coming to terms with being on her own and being nearly friendless ("Our friends were his friends"). She left behind her old life and old friends when she married a rich doctor and gave up her own studies and became a nurse instead of a pediatrician. Now she's alone and sinking into loneliness--but not for long.

She soon befriends the elevator man in her luxury apartment, Pat (Danny DeVito). Pat has his own troubles--he owes a gambling debt and his daughter recently died. The two form a unique friendship that Pat would like to become more. Judith, however, is not ready for romance and has no desire for things to turn to love. She also befriends Liz (Queen Latifah), a nightclub singer who teacher Judith to enjoy being herself and to enjoy going out and having fun. By the time Judith is in a happier place, there is a vague hint of having missed other opportunities, but she is more than happy with her choices and where she is now, both emotionally and mentally. This is a tremendous movie about being happy on a personal level.

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