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A WOMAN stands at the front door, hurrying to put her coat on. A man appears at the top of the stairs.

He is a handsome man, she will admit, but everything that has led up to that point tells her she should hate him.

She hurries to avoid any further awkward conversation.

He fumbles over his words, as he always does, but amid the mixed messages and confusing statements that seem to be just more insults, he manages to muster seven little words that stop her right in her tracks: "I like you... just as you are."

I am, of course, talking about Bridget Jones's Diary and the scene that had many woman across the world breathe out a unanimous sigh!

The delectable Mark Darcy, who up until this point has been a real uptight... (okay, I can't think of a better word than one Bridget would have used, but I know my editor won't allow it)... anyway, so the uptight Mr Darcy finally expresses to Bridget exactly how he feels about her.

Darcy: I like you, very much.

Bridget: Ah, apart from the smoking and the drinking, the vulgar mother and... ah, the verbal diarrhoea.

Darcy: No, I like you very much. Just as you are. I know to many out there this might not sound like your classic romantic line.

But just imagine it: a man ? who is well aware of your flaws, your lumps, bumps and bad habits ? loves you, and not despite but rather because of it all, just the way you are!

Go on, let it out: Sigh!

Of course, it only takes a few minutes after the DVD has been put back in its box before reality returns to your romance-clouded head, but it is still remarkable that in such a cynical time we still manage to be excited by the slightest thought of being swept off our feet.

Over the years we experience heartache and meet people who embody, well, whatever the polar opposite of romance is.

And yet we still manage to find ourselves experiencing the tiniest little glimmer of hope when we hear lines like:

?"You can be anywhere when your life begins. You meet the right person and anything is possible." ? Crazy Beautiful;

? "It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic." ? Sleepless in Seattle;

or "... I think I'd miss you even if we'd never met." - The Wedding Date.

Okay, okay, I can hear all the men out there gagging. But really, even though us women also find some of these lines a little too cheesy, that's probably because we hear those kinds of things so seldom we wouldn't believe it if someone said it to us. Sad, but true.

Is it wrong of us to look at romantic movies and hope? Is it crazy to think love like that really exists?

Probably. But that is why words like "just the way you are" gets us so emotional.

Because it is not too unbelievable and, quite frankly, that is what love and romance is actually about.

It's not about the champagne and roses (although that doesn?t hurt), but more about finding someone who loves you, even though you drive them crazy.

Who loves you even when you have morning breath. Who loves you even though you talk too much and have cellulite.

Basically someone who loves you even though you are only human.

I decided long ago that no matter what experiences I have had in the past, I am going to remain a hopeless romantic.

I believe there is someone special out there for everyone.

And I believe one day I will fall in love with a man who will in turn love me... just the way I am.

Ryan Gosling made many a woman's heart flutter in the movie The Notebook. A film about a love that survives the passing years and all the challenges they bring with them, and has since been named by some as the most romantic movie of our time.

So the hopeless romantic in me would like to leave you with a quote from this movie:

"I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me, and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul and to me, this has always been enough."

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