While the film presents their relationship as a pragmatic social match, a complete lack of spark makes it hard to invest in even that premise. Pedro Pascal, an actor famous for his on-screen charisma, somehow generates zero heat with his co-star Dakota Johnson here. The result is a central pairing that feels as hollow as their characters' social-climbing ambitions, making the story’s emotional beats fall flat. | © A24
While you can see their off-screen friendship in interviews, that warmth vanishes on screen, replaced by a distant, formal dynamic. While this arguably fits Paul's calculated path, it leaves the central romance feeling cold and emotionally vacant. You never get the sense of a real, passionate connection, making their story more about political destiny than compelling love. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
No matter the character's emotional state, a romantic storyline lives or dies by the chemistry between the actors, and here it simply doesn't exist. Their connection feels more like a functional friendship than a passionate, fraught romance. The result is a key relationship that comes across as narratively forced, lacking the believable spark that would make its complications feel truly compelling. | © HBO
After growing up together on screen for a decade, their real-life sibling bond worked against them when the script demanded romance. Their big kiss feels more like an awkward obligation than a triumphant payoff for years of build-up. You can see their discomfort, making it hard to buy into the love story their characters are supposed to have. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
In a film packed with brutal revenge and a gripping historical setting, the romance between DiCaprio and Diaz feels completely tacked on. They share no believable spark or connection, making every one of their scenes together a drag. It's the one glaring flaw in an otherwise powerful movie, proving that not every epic needs a love story. | © Miramax Films
Snow White & The Huntsman excels in its grim atmosphere and Charlize Theron's commanding villainy, but the central romance utterly fizzles. Stewart and Hemsworth share a tentative, almost brotherly dynamic that never convinces as a burgeoning epic love. Their connection feels like a contractual obligation, paling next to the film's visual spectacle and far more interesting antagonistic relationships. | © Universal Studios
Swordfish assembled two of Hollywood's most magnetic stars, yet somehow their combined charisma resulted in zero romantic heat. For all the plot's twists and stylish action, the supposed attraction between their characters feels completely inert. You get the distinct sense they're just two very attractive coworkers, politely waiting for their scenes together to be over. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
The Fifty Shades of Grey franchise was built on the promise of intense, all-consuming passion, but the central duo delivered something closer to mutual discomfort. Their famous intimate scenes feel strangely mechanical and disconnected, lacking the raw, believable attraction the story hinges on. You're left watching two people who seem more like awkward colleagues than characters caught in a whirlwind of obsessive desire. | © Universal Studios
The off-screen animosity between these two stars was an open secret, and it bleeds into every frame of this romantic comedy. Their dialogue, meant to be sharp and flirtatious, instead drips with genuine hostility. You're not watching rivals-to-lovers; you're watching two people who can barely tolerate sharing a scene, which makes the entire premise completely impossible to buy. | © Touchstone Pictures
While Jonathan Bailey is normally a master of on-screen connection, even he can't seem to generate a spark here. Their scenes feel curiously flat and one-sided, making it hard to invest in their characters' romance. It's telling that Elphaba's strongest relationship in the film is clearly with Glinda, not her supposed love interest. | © Universal Studios
The Great Gatsby is a visual feast, but the love story at its center never finds a heartbeat. DiCaprio's intense yearning crashes against Mulligan's chilly restraint, and the result is more like an awkward reunion than a rekindled epic passion. For a romance meant to propel the entire tragedy, their connection feels formal and distant. | © Warner Bros. Pictures
To the Wonder is visually stunning, yet its central romance feels strangely empty. As lovers drifting through golden-lit fields and empty mansions, Affleck and Kurylenko offer beautiful images but no tangible emotional pull. The film's signature style, which relies heavily on unspoken connection, only highlights the total lack of heat between them. | © Magnolia Pictures
Coming off their previous successes, audiences expected another spark from this proven on-screen pair. That spark is precisely what's missing in this grim period drama. Their interactions feel disconnected and strangely inert, making it impossible to invest in the marriage supposedly unraveling at the story's core. | © StudioCanal
Putting two of the world's biggest stars in a glamorous European thriller should have been foolproof. Instead, their combined charisma somehow cancelled itself out entirely. The film is less famous for its plot than for the puzzling, inert space between its two leads, who move through scenes with all the romantic heat of strangers sharing an elevator. | © Sony Pictures Releasing
Star Wars fans were promised a heartbreaking, forbidden love story, but what they got felt painfully awkward. Even putting aside the famously clunky dialogue, there's a stiff, unnatural quality to their romantic scenes. For a romance that's meant to be the catalyst for galactic tragedy, it's surprisingly difficult to believe these two characters are even remotely interested in each other. | © Lucasfilm
Some movie couples are legendary. Others… aren’t. Here are the on-screen pairs where the romantic spark was conspicuously absent, leaving us to wonder what went wrong.
