In The idea of you (now streaming on Amazon Prime Video), Anne Hathaway plays the mother of a high school senior, and I just fell apart. the star of The princess’s Diary She is now the older woman in a May/December romance, and time continues to devour our bones, incessant in its hunger. But The idea of you It is not an existential effort; rather, it’s a romantic comedy adapting a novel by Robinne Lee, starring Hathaway as a 40-year-old woman who ends up locking lips with a somewhat significantly younger gentleman, specifically a super-famous boy band singer. played by Nicolás Galitzine (Red, white and royal blue). And as happens when the inevitable work of the universe wears you down, I ended up enjoying the film much more than I expected, and that, frankly, has more to do with the chemistry of its stars than my eroding cynicism.
THE IDEA OF YOU: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: From above, the most immediately noticeable component of The idea of you It’s obviously Hathaway stealing Dakota Johnson’s bangs. Shock. Anyway, Hathaway plays Solene Marchand, owner of an art gallery in Silver Lake and mother of 17-year-old Izzy (Ella Rubin). Solene is still feeling the pain of her porce: Daniel (Reid Scott) is a total fart-stainer who cheated on her, leaving her talking to herself in the mirror as a slightly endearing, slightly eccentric person who is very much the protagonist. in a romantic comedy. Daniel is supposed to take his younger girlfriend, Izzy, and their friends to Coachella, but true to form, he backs out at the last second for work reasons, leaving Solene to escort the teens to a scorching powder keg to a concert and a VIP meeting with August Moon, the totally HAWWWT boy band of the moment.
Solene’s plan was to go camping alone and have a personal weekend, but now she finds herself wandering around the VIP area, looking for a restroom (always a challenge at a music festival). She helps herself open a random door in a random trailer and finds herself looking directly into the not-at-all-random face of Hayes Campbell (Galitzine), the August Moon guy who’s neither the cocky guy nor the jerk. light boy or the cute and demure boy. No, he’s the British guy, tall, heavily accented, always slightly hot. They joke around and he changes shirts (changing shirts is always something that happens in this particular movie situation) and there’s enough there there for him to come on stage that night and dedicate one of those provocative love songs that maybe/could be to “someone I met before.” Hmm.
Solene returns home and soon after is subjected to a 40th birthday party that her best friend is throwing as an impromptu speed dating event, deep siggggggggghhhh. There’s the guy with too many pets and the guy who’s trying too hard to be funny and the guy who’s actually married (oops) and then one day Hayes Campbell walks into Solene’s art gallery, following the paparazzi and groupies. chuckling and buys all the art. He makes his way to extend the impromptu encounter, which eventually results in her saying, “Let’s go to my house.” I want to make you a sandwich,” although when I first heard that phrase all I heard was “I want to make you a SEXwich.”
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. They share a bit of themselves psychologically, leading Hayes to play Solene’s piano as if he wanted to touch her, tenderly, of course. They kiss like crazy and then she pushes him away and tries to go back to the boring old SENSES of her being a total killjoy. IT JUST WON’T WORK. I mean, she’s TRYING to be REASONABLE here. She is about 16 years older than the boy and her daughter is a fan of these places. He leaves and she drops Izzy off at summer camp and then receives an invitation to join Hayes in New York where August Moon is playing a concert. She says no, then watches a cheesy August Moon music video and then, oh right, yeah, gets on a plane. She walks into her hotel room in a dress that demands capital letters and they have some awkward “oh, don’t-put-that-there/hey-that’s-my-” comments.leg sex and then never seeing each other again, the end. No! That is not true! I’m lying! This is a movie about love and fame and what happens when you’re dating a big fat celebrity and you’re trying to keep it a secret from your kid, your best friend, your ex, and the rest of the world, because the rest of the world. The world has the Internet and the Internet is full of idiots. It’s also about how hot it is here. Do you feel warmer? I definitely am. Phew. Someone turn on the air conditioning, please.
What movies will it remind you of?: Hathaway hasn’t activated hormones this way since Love and Other Drugs. Phew.
Performance worth seeing: Hathaway shows the versatility that made her a star shortly after the turn of the century, cementing The idea of youIt’s fluffier romantic stuff with a welcome dose of pragmatic realism. It is his best role among many unsatisfactory films (Armageddon Time being an exception) in recent years.
Memorable dialogue: Once shit inevitably hits the fan and Teh Interwebs finds out what’s going on with Solene and Hayes, her best friend points out an ugly truth: “Didn’t I warn you?” “People hate happy women.”
Sex and skin: Here’s a reminder that you don’t need to see any or all of people’s naughty parts to get inspired to get out there, turn the hose on EXTREME BLAST and cool off.
Our opinion: Ok, the movie The idea of you it really reminds me of es Notting Hillwhich is not only the standard bearer of the celebrity dating romantic comedy, but the standard bearer of all modern romantic comedies. What is new here is the age difference between the protagonists and the environment of the social media era, two key components in the terrible modern cocktail of pop culture scrutiny. The first is not a big deal among consenting adults, but the second, a great confluence of jealousy that accumulates with the greatest cruelty, makes the era of the supermarket tabloids (and Horse and Hound magazine, of course ) seems like a utopia. .
Not that the film makes any particularly insightful commentary on the basic human need for love, acceptance, and privacy. He doesn’t have much on his mind beyond fantasies of love stories between celebrities and regular people within familiar rom-com constructs; roast the old chestnut from Will Love Replace the outside world’s attempts to tear these people apart like a child taking off a sock and throwing it down the toilet, as that chestnut has been roasted many times before. The usual hard lesson is that two incredibly attractive people will never be able to make it in a vacuum.
But the chemistry between Hathaway and Galitizine makes the film work in a pleasant enough way, and not just in its superficial broadcasts of freaks. The raunchier elements work quite well, and might not if the confluence of director Michael Showalter’s handling of tone (a little more romantic than comedic at times) and a relatively nuanced script (by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt) didn’t prepare its cues for the success. Hearts are shared, bodies are shared, and some fairly identifiable doubts and insecurities are shared in the harsh light of external judgment. What happens between Solene and Hayes isn’t always compelling—the ex-asshole subplot overwhelms our suspension of disbelief more than once—but I was forced to care about what happens to these two people, for reasons perhaps almost more beyond the desire to see them dirty a set of sheets even more. Can the love inside the house transcend the disorder outside it? Will this movie end with puppies floating in the clouds or with a dose of harsh, pragmatic reality? No spoilers, but a little bit of both is a good place to land.
Our call: The idea of you it’s smart where No hard feelings and Nobody but you are funnier, but in the wake of these three movies, it seems like the sexy romantic comedy is back. TRANSMIT IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic living in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
