Heart-shaped chocolate boxes. Red roses. Candlelit dinners. Lovey-dovey cards That’s Valentine’s Day for some of us, in happy coupledom. For the rest of us singles or those in unhappy coupledom, Valentine’s Day may be the most loathed day of the year. But that makes it a extra-special reason to treat yourself right, ladies. Splurge on some new shoes or a new purse. Buy your own box of Godiva chocolates (try Russell Stover for those on smaller budgets). Invite your best unattached friend out to the movie theatre and smuggle in the chocolate goodies (shhhh). Skip the wine though. Sit back and relax.

Probably still playing somewhere are the following:

Atonement, starring Kiera Knightley and James McEvoy
Nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Motion Picture. Bring lots of tissue. Lovers True lovers Cecilia and Robbie are torn apart by her jealous younger sister’s mistake. Obviously not a romantic comedy!

P.S. I Love You, starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler
A young widow is encouraged to celebrate life through her late husband’s messages, which arrive in surprising ways.

Definitely playing or about to play soon are the following:

Over Her Dead Body, a romantic comedy starring Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd and Lake Bell
A man’s former fiancée isn’t quite ready to let go of him yet, even if she is dead. Haunting the new girlfriend, who’s also a psychic, is a good option though to resting peacefully. Opened February 1.

Fool’s Gold, a romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey and Donald Sutherland
Kate and Matthew team up again four years after “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” in this flick about a splitsville couple on the hunt for a long-lost treasure. Do they find their lost love as well or instead? Opened February 8.

Definitely, Maybe, a romantic comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher and Abigail Breslin
Now this is a true Valentine’s Day movie because it opens February 14! A would-be divorced dad is questioned about his past. Dad creates a sanitized version for his little girl and changes the names of the three women he met, leaving his daughter to piece together the puzzle of how her parents fell in love in the first place. Happy ending? You’ll have to wait until February 14 to find out!

New on DVD this week are:

Across the Universe, a romantic fantasy starring Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess
This psychedelic love story using songs from the Beatles bombed on the big screen and may not be to everyone’s taste. Jude travels from England to the U.S. looking for his father. Along the way he meets and falls for Lucy, whose brother Max gets the call or the card or whatever (he’s been drafted). Since this is set in the Sixties, expect the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and anti-war protests woven into the love story. With a movie relying so heavily on the music of the Fab Four, it’s only natural that the characters’ names be taken from the songs themselves. If you don’t know, they are “Hey Jude”, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (which is a rather jaunty song about a serial killer!)

The Jane Austen Book Club, starring Emily Blunt and Hugh Dancy, among others
Members of a book club find their lives reflecting the Austen books they read. Jane Austen wrote six books, the club has six members. Hmm, what a coincidence. Jane’s six novels are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. All of these have been turned into movies or mini-series, usually more than once.