We love “good for her” movies – a special niche of films that celebrates a woman’s ability to get justice on her own terms and validates viewers on a deep level. Here are six light-hearted, sassy, and inspirational “good for her” movies that will help you heal from a break-up with a toxic person or narcissist and remind you that the best revenge is success, personal growth, and leveling up.
Legally Blonde
There’s a running joke that women who go through a break-up often start three businesses, buy two homes, and graduate from Harvard shortly after. What, like it’s hard? But seriously, there’s no one more determined than a woman who is catapulted into victory and channels her experiences into her success after heartbreak. Watching Reese Witherspoon’s character Elle Woods rise to the top of her Harvard class after being broken up with for not being deemed “smart” enough by her obnoxious ex-boyfriend is so healing. After realizing her boyfriend isn’t worthy of her attempts to get him back, she puts her energy solely into her studies and realizes she’s a lot more intelligent and determined than people gave her credit for. This journey brings her to connect with her true gifts as a future lawyer and fashion designer, her real friends, and a much better partner. We’ll also never forget one of the most poignant pieces of wisdom she left us with: “Exercise releases endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands! They just don’t!” Right on.
How To Be Single
Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson star in this hilarious comedy about what it feels like to be freshly single after a break-up in New York City with your girlfriends. Alice decides to pursue her career in New York, leaving her boyfriend Josh behind to explore what it’s like to be on her own for the first time as she never got a chance to do so, leaping straight from college to her four-year relationship. What follows is a salaciously delicious movie about wild nights with her newfound friend Robin, fun flings, and immeasurable self-discovery. How to Be Single turns every rom-com trope upside on its head with its irreverently brilliant writing and is ultimately a celebration of sisterhood and singlehood. You won’t be able to stop laughing, which is so much better than crying over your toxic ex.
The Other Woman
Women who conspire against the same cheating man together thrive together! Or at least that feels like the spirit of the movie, The Other Woman, starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Upton, and Leslie Mann. When New York attorney Carly Whitten begins dating Mark King, a charming and handsome businessman, she has no idea he secretly has a wife, Kate. Rather than wallow in this betrayal and inevitable ending of their respective relationships, however, Kate and Carly conspire to follow Mark and catch Mark with another mistress in the Hamptons, Amber (Kate Upton) who he is also exploiting to cover up fraud in one of his business dealings. What ensues is the hilarity of all three women holding Mark accountable by pulling a number of shenanigans to sabotage Mark and later confronting him together, and then moving forward into their dream lives after gaining closure. Talk about a group break-up for the ages! The Other Woman illuminates the manipulation of pathological liars in a light-hearted, empowering comedy about women joining together to take down the same toxic person.
The First Wives Club
This classic movie starring the iconic trio Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton is the blueprint for all “good for her” break-up movies. Three best friends from college, Annie, Brenda, and Elise are shaken by the suicide of another friend, Cynthia, who ended her life due to her husband leaving her for another woman. This departed friend leaves them a letter that causes the friends to reunite and commiserate about their own philandering husbands and plot a clever scheme against all three husbands to get justice on their own terms. Goldie Hawn stars as Elise, an actress who helped her film producer husband Bill rise to the top but is abandoned for a younger woman. Brenda is also facing divorce and possible financial disaster, and Annie is trying to work through potential separation with her husband who is having an affair with their therapist all while navigating co-parenting. The First Wives Club is a sassy take on sisterhood and moving forward that will help you heal from your break-up.
John Tucker Must Die
Basketball star John Tucker is a bonafide player, but this time, he may have just messed with the wrong women. When three young women from different cliques at the same school (a class overachiever, a head cheerleader, and a vegan activist) discover they are all dating John who promised them to secrecy about their respective relationships, they decide they must get even. However, after a few failed pranks go awry, they realize the best way to outplay the player is to break his heart. Kate, the studious and shy overachiever, is assigned to be the heartbreaker of the trio after she goes through a glow-up and joins the cheerleading squad, causing John to become obsessed with her. What follows is a delightful comedy about players who self-destruct and women who get the last laugh.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Frances Mayes is living a seemingly ideal life: she is a writer in San Francisco married to a loving husband – except she discovers that husband has been cheating on her this whole time, all while relying on Frances’ income. Unfortunately for Frances, the divorce results in the loss of her house and she watches her husband ride off to the sunset with her house and a younger, pregnant new girlfriend. When a friend encourages Frances to vacation in Italy, she becomes the owner of a villa in Tuscany and begins a new life, while inviting new love in. Under the Tuscan Sun is a beautifully mesmerizing and hopeful “good for her” film that encourages women to lean into new beginnings and heal their own hearts in powerful ways.
