16 Real-Life Screen Couples

Going the Distance (2010)

The Couple: Drew Barrymore and Justin Long

On-off love birds Drew and Justin both appeared in the dire He's Just Not That Into You , but their characters were kept separate for the duration of that movie (Long's Alex inexplicably fell for Ginnifer Goodwin's desperate, and desperately annoying, Gigi).

Now the pair have teamed up for this romcom which follows their attempt to maintain a healthy relationship over a long distance.

Onscreen Chemistry? The reviews have been decidedly mixed (check out Total Film 's two cents here ) but the general consensus is that the sparks between between Barrymore and Long hold the film together, despite an overabundance of half-heartedly-recycled staple romcom gags.

You can check it out for yourself when it hits UK cinemas this Friday.

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The Break-Up (2006)

The Couple: Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn

The tabloid media's obsession with Jennifer Aniston's love life granted this romcomdram more attention than it would have deserved otherwise. After separating, Gary (Vaughn) and Brooke (Aniston) find themselves living in distinctly awkward circumstances when they decide that they'll live together as room-mates, as neither of them wants to give up the dream apartment that they co-own.

Surprisingly downbeat in tone, The Break-Up is a bit too tense to be enjoyed by the Saturday night crowd, but it lacks the depth of more thoughtful relationship-examining offerings.

Onscreen Chemistry? Aniston and Vaughn are uncomfortably convincing as the bickering twosome.

Creation (2009)

The Couple: Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany

Real-life spouses Connelly and Bettany play real-life spouses Charles and Emma Darwin in this biopic, which, sentimental as it may be, still finds time to provoke some thoughts.

Charles is trying to make sense of the findings from his Galapagos trip, while also struggling to come to terms with his own belief system, the views of his devoutly-religious wife, and his bereavement following the loss of his cherished daughter.

An interesting one for a married couple to take on, this was far from a vanity project or a sickly love-in. While not entirely convincing as a comprehensive portrait of the bearded legend who graces the back of your ten pound notes, Creation was still a solid attempt at humanising the man behind the theories.

Onscreen chemistry? The Bettany-Connellys do a decent, rounded approximation of a real marriage, encompassing some furious rows, and tender, familial moments.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

The Couple: Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise

The erstwhile golden couple of Hollwood, Cruise and Kidman had previously co-starred in Days of Thunder and Far and Away , but Eyes Wide Shut was undoubtedly the most interesting of their collaborations.

The final movie from legendary auteur Stanley Kubrick can't have been a walk in the park for the married pair, as the perfectionist director shot the movie over a 400 day period (claiming a Guinness record nod for 'The Longest Constant Movie Shoot').

Their efforts paid off though, as the movie, which was initially coldly-received, is now regarded as a suitable bookend to Kubrick's superlative body of work.

Onscreen Chemistry? Spades, though not in the way audiences were expecting. This is a relationship under examination in claustrophobically close quarters, with neither Cruise or Kidman flinching from the difficult material.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

The Couple: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

A contentious entry on the list, as 'Brangelina's' affair didn't officially start until after this movie was completed, though some of Jolie's comments riled Pitt's then-wife Jennifer Aniston, who told Vogue: "That stuff about how she couldn't wait to get to work every day? That was really uncool."

Whether or not they were dating at the time, Mr and Mrs Smith remains of interest to anyone intrigued about the biggest Hollywood hook-up of a generation. Jolie and Pitt played a bored married couple, with both parties secretly working as assassins without the other's knowledge.

When they're both sent after the same mark, their ensuing team-up seems to give the marriage the frisson of excitement that it desperately needed.

Onscreen Chemistry? Putting Pitt and Jolie together on screen and getting them to do cool stuff with guns and explosives was never going to result in audience boredom, even if it does lose a little momentum by the time the final shoot-out arrives.

Gigli (2003)

The Couple: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck

Possibly the worst-ever cinematic collaboration by a real-life coupling, Gigli is now only remembered as shorthand for recalling the lowest point in Ben Affleck's career slump.

Failing as entertainment on every conceivable level, Gigli is a joyless watch akin to some kind of endurance test, an affront to the innocent viewer. Disbelief is the primary emotion evoked, as Affleck's lower-tier mob guy is given the job of taking care of mentally-challenged Justin Bartha (of The Hangover fame), and this important task is overseen by Lopez's hit-lady.

Unsuprisingly, Ben and Jen's relationship didn't last long after the film's release.

Onscreen Chemistry? As Affleck's unlikeable dolt gradually seduces Lopez's lesbian, you need some serious chemistry to even contemplate swallowing this without being grossly offended. Instead, you get Lopez asking Affleck to 'gobble, gobble'. Fail.

Zoolander (2001)

The Couple: Christine Taylor and Ben Stiller

Zoolander was the first film that the real-life couple made together: they went on to appear jointly in Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder .

This one sees the pair slowly developing romantic feelings for each other, after Taylor's journo Matilda writes a disparaging article on Derek Zoolander (Stiller). She follows up on the piece by keeping an eye on him, and together they start investigating Will Ferrell's mysterious fashion mogul, Mugatu.

Stiller seemed to be keeping it in the family with Zoolander , also hiring his parents, his sister and his brother-in-law to fill out the cast.

Onscreen Chemistry? The comedic tone doesn't allow for any serious celluloid-burning chemistry, but they certainly have an easy rapport.

That Hamilton Woman (1941)

The Couple: Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier

Couples working together onscreen is hardly a new phenomena: That Hamilton Woman was the first film to feature Leigh and Olivier as a married couple, although they had previously appeared alongside each other in the likes of Fire Over England and 21 Days , and had starred in numerous stage productions together.

That Hamilton Woman featured Leigh in the title role, as a courtesan who rose through the ranks to become Admiral Nelson's (Olivier) mistress, and it attracted a great deal of attention due to its star coupling.

Onscreen Chemistry? They make a pretty impassioned pairing, bringing life to this impressive romantic epic.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Couple: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Another vintage coupling, and one of the most famous in all moviedom, having jointly-appeared in the likes of Cleopatra , The Taming of the Shrew and The VIPs (among others).

The pair, married (twice) between 1964 and 1976 (with a briefly-divorced period from '74 to '75), had their most memorable roles opposite each other in Mike Nichols' film version of the Edward Albee stageplay. Nichols is renowned for his uncompromising approach to relationships (check out the lesser-seen Carnal Knowledge ), and this courageous effort is no different.

Onscreen Chemistry? The pair share a vitriolic relationship which is hardly romantic, but it showcases some of their finest work as they head to some dark places as a couple.

To Have and Have Not (1944)

The Couple: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart

Bogey and Bacall first met on the set of To Have and Have Not , and began a relationship that would see the end of Bogey's marriage to Mayo Methot.

Bacall, in her film debut, oozes the kind of sex appeal that most starlets can only dream of. 'Slim' is the perfect foil for Steve (a typically cynical Bogart), and the pair start a romance whilst Steve is helping out the French resistance during WWII.

Bogey and Bacall made good use of their screen chemistry, and appeared in a further three films together: The Big Sleep , Dark Passage and Key Largo .

Onscreen Chemistry? Incendiary. Director Howard Hawks incorporated the lines he wrote for Bacall's screen-test into the finished film: "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." Dang!

The Fly (1986)

The Couple: Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum

At the centre of David Cronenberg's decidedly icky sci-fi horror classic is the relationship between Davis' scientific journalist and Goldblum's boundary-breaking scientist.

Ronnie (Davis) moves in with Seth (Goldblum) to document his experiments on video. She soon falls for the geeky, socially-inept inventor, which makes things difficult for her when he starts to mutate into a insect.

Davis and Goldblum met on the set of comedy-horror flop Transylvania 6-5000 , and they worked together again in Earth Girls Are Easy before divorcing in 1990. Goldblum also got ring on the finger of Jurassic Park co-star Laura Dern, but the engagement only lasted a couple of years.

Onscreen Chemistry? The horrific make-up FX prevent things from becoming too scintillating, but Goldblum and Davis still exude a genuine, charming rapport in early scenes.

Overboard (1987)

The Couple: Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

Despite the fact that they have been in a relationship since 1983, Goldie and Kurt have never married. They met on the set of Swing Shift , where their relationship began, but they are better-remembered for co-starring in romantic comedy Overboard .

In this one, Hawn plays an obnoxious heiress, who is convinced by Russell's carpenter that she's his wife after an amnesia-inducing accident. Clearly inspired by the classic screwball comedies of yore, Overboard features the familiar theme of 'bickering twosome who eventually fall in love', but it walks the well-trodden path with so much energy that it has endured as a something of a diamond among frothy 80s romcoms.

Onscreen Chemistry? Thankfully the couple's lively and believable banter diverts attention from the somewhat creepy overtones of the story.

Husbands and Wives (1992)

The Couple: Mia Farrow and Woody Allen

Allen directed (and occasionally starred opposite) his long term partner Farrow several times during the 12 years their relationship lasted. The timing of this tense, penetrating black comedy couldn't have been more apt, arriving as it did in cinemas just as Allen and Farrow were going through a very public, very controversial separation.

The documentary style further complicates things, as Gabe (Allen) and Judy (Farrow) start to come to terms with the decline of their marriage after close friends of theirs announce plans for divorce. Sadly tabloid fascination threatened to cloud judgement on what would be one of Woody's finest movies for some time.

Earlier in his career Allen got some great work casting one-time squeeze Diane Keaton in several of his movies.

Onscreen Chemistry? Read what you will into the couple's 'in character' arguing.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

The Couple: Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger

During the tough shoot in Alberta, Canada, Ledger and Williams developed a relationship that was slightly at odds with what they needed to convey on screen. Brokeback gave Ledger a career-boosting role as Ennis del Mar, a taciturn ranch hand who meets, and falls in love with, fellow sheep-herder Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) while they're working on the eponymous mountain one summer.

Though Ledger and Gyllenhaal were (rightfully) lauded for their moving and committed portrayal of the characters' forbidden love, credit is also due to the ladies in their lives (played by Williams and Anne Hathaway respectively) who provide the movie's emotional gravity, and make what could have been a fantasy relationship into something very real.

Onscreen Chemistry? Thankfully (for the movie's sake) Ledger's chemistry with Gyllenhaal is all the more tangible, though he and Williams ably capture the mood of a marriage, begun too early and too hastily, going sour.

Innerspace (1987)

The Couple: Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid

One of Joe Dante's Amblin Entertainment productions, Innerspace was something of an update of sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage , featuring as it does miniaturisation and entering the human the human body in the name of science.

After Tuck (Quaid) is accidentally injected into Jack's (Martin Short) body, he has to use the medium of Jack to convince his former lady friend Lydia (Ryan) to help them out.

Romance bloomed on the set, and Quaid and Ryan would go on to make two more films together (noir remake D.O.A. and Flesh and Bone ).

Onscreen Chemistry? They don't get much opportunity to shine a twosome, but hopefully that's not a reflection on their relationship as a whole (presumably they didn't have Martin Short working as an intermediary the whole time).

The Getaway (1993)

The Couple: Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin

After meeting on the set of The Marrying Man , Basinger and Baldwin married, and then appeared together in this remake of Peckinpah's '72 original.

Though it barely deviates from the Ali McGraw-Steve McQueen version (making it a slightly redundant exercise), it is serviceable enough as an actioner, and offers a nice opportunity to glimpse the Hollywood golden couple at their charismatic best, before their career dips and subsequent, publicly-acrimonious marriage breakdown.

Kudos is also due to 'When You Dish Upon a Star', an ace episode of The Simpsons in which Homer crash-lands into Basinger and Baldwin's summer home, and becomes their assistant for a time.

Onscreen Chemistry? The heat between the couple is one of the only memorable aspects of the redo of The Getaway .