Jude (1996)

When they have to depict two characters falling in love many filmmakers use the shorthand of what The Godfather called "the Thunderbolt." One sees another or they look at each other and it's instantaneous. It's standard narrative economy and you're expected to suspend disbelief, at least when the romance isn't central to the story. If it is or it's assigned any importance beyond including it because it's expected "the Thunderbolt" can sabotage a movie. 

It's easier when the relationship started before the film did. Then an audience member can assume there's something more to it than "This person, like me, is quite physically attractive." Because when that's all it is (or all that it's presented as being) you can't expect people to care if the two end up together unless those watching are eugenicists. One of the worst recent examples was Miami Vice (2006). 

Not that Colin Farrell and Gong Li were any less plausible than dozens of other movie relationships. But that flimsy affair, based as it was on "You have lovely skin" / "Thanks, that's some sexy stubble" (dialogue paraphrased), was considered important enough to receive its own mournful denouement. It beats The Godfather as an example because after "the Thunderbolt" there was a sequence where Michael courts Apollonia (not this Apollonia) so it works the same as it having started before the movie did in that you can imagine anything you want happening in the gaps and as wordless moments go Apollonia touching the necklace Michael gave her to show that she's wearing it and the smile between them has it over Sonny and Isabella awkwardly hugging in the shower or staring at each other on a speedboat. 

One of my favorite "burgeoning love" sequences is in Jude. 

"In the Victorian period, Jude Fawley (Eccleston) is a young man who dreams of a scholarly university education. Circumstances conspire against him, however, forcing him into a job as a stonemason and an unhappy marriage to a country girl, Arabella (Griffiths). He remains true to his dream, however, and months later, after his wife's sudden departure, heads for the city, where he thinks education lies for any man who is willing to work hard. There he encounters his beautiful cousin, Sue Bridehead (Winslet), who shares his intelligence and disdain for convention."

What about you? Am I forgetting ones that were worse than Vice?