Anne Hathaway's age-gap romcom has nothing interesting to say
The Idea of You sits firmly in the ranks of movies I would never watch on my own. Likely, I would never have even heard of it if it weren’t for my lovely girlfriend’s prompting. The appeal of the movie for her, apart from Anne Hathaway’s esteemed presence, was that the story was adapted from a novel that is considered to be borderline fanfiction about an older woman who gets romantically entangled with a member of a popular boyband. (Harry Styles from One Direction being the most obvious parallel)
Honestly, I’d be lying if the slightly weird premise didn’t appeal to me, too. At the very least I knew I hadn’t seen a romcom with this kind of dynamic before, and I was ready to sink into what I expected to a somewhat campy, self-indulgent romp through the world of mega-stardom.
What’s the Big Idea?
Credit: Amazon Prime Video
After single mother Soléne (Hathaway) stumbles into a chance encounter with Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), one of the singers in the boyband ‘August Moon’, she is surprised to discover that the young man is earnestly pursuing her romantically.
When I’m watching romcoms like this, I always ask myself the question, ‘Why do these people like each other?’ Generally, I’ve found that the romcoms I like the best are ones where the leads fall in love slowly throughout the film—maybe they even start off hating each other. Watching them develop their connection is where most of the fun is, so by the end when they get together, I can see clearly why.
The Idea of You doesn’t rush through the development of the two leads’ connection per se—they spend the first half of the movie circling each other before finally beginning a secret relationship in earnest—but the substance of their relationship was pretty light. Soléne is lonely since her divorce and Hayes is interested in someone who treats him like a normal person and not a celebrity.
I wasn’t happy to see them get together or sad when they go through the end-of-the-second-act break-up because not at any point in the movie did I feel like these characters need—or even love—each other.
Frankly, they were boring as hell.
Take Me to the Limit
I do think that that Hathaway and Galitzine give great performances though. The issue isn’t the actors. Hathaway is absolutely magnificent in one particular scene where she’s telling Hayes about how she came to be divorced, and while Hayes is never quite given that level of depth, Galitzine brings a level of charm and swagger to his character that’s pitch perfect for who this guy’s supposed to be.
Mostly I think that these characters are boring because the unique dynamic and selling point of the movie isn’t explored well at all.
So, the two meet at Coachella, where Soléne has brought her teenage daughter, Izzy, to an August Moon meet-and-greet. I am baffled—baffled—by the decision to portray Izzy as being no longer into August Moon to the point where she doesn’t even seem to care about meeting them (also baffling—the woman playing Izzy is clearly in her twenties which made the idea that she needed to be chaperoned at Coachella very confusing for a while). I’m not sure the two ever exchange a line of dialogue in the film after the initial begrudging meet-and-greet.
Having Izzy be a mega-fan of Hayes would’ve just made this dynamic way more exciting. Same with Soléne, who is never tempted or challenged in a meaningful way for deciding to go on tour with Hayes. She owns an art gallery, but she has nothing to say about the superficiality of Hayes’s ‘art’ or feels the need (rightly or wrongly) to push Hayes in a specific artistic direction. She isn’t ‘brought down to his level’ by having her succumb to his glamorous world, nor do we see any real fallout from their relationship.
Yes—when people find out what’s going on there’s one scene where some strangers feel the need to say some weird stuff to her, but it’s half-hearted. Why not have her actually suffer for choosing to be with this younger man? I know that sounds cruel, but good writers are cruel to their characters. It pushes them to explore their limits, to change and grow, and from the audience’s perspective, it’s satisfying to experience a story that fully explores an intriguing premise.
A Bad Joke
I know I’m being quite harsh on a movie that I didn’t care one way or the other about only a few days ago, but I feel cheated. I’ve had a pretty good time with all of the other movies my girlfriend has made us watch, but this really fell short. Perhaps it’s most glaring issue though is that it isn’t funny.
Seriously, I checked afterwards to see if this was even advertised as romcom instead of a romantic drama. If I had incorrectly assumed it was a romcom, then that’s on me. Alas, no. This is being billed as a romcom, but there's barely an attempt at being funny here.
There are no jokes, no one-liners, no set-ups for later pay-offs, and no funny scenarios. It's a slog from beginning to end that takes itself far too seriously.
Overall, we were both super disappointed by this movie. Anne Hathaway is an amazing actress, but that’s not exactly a revolutionary statement. There’s nothing of substance here. If it had some style, then maybe that could be forgiven, but this is a drab, plodding, inexcusably boring movie despite a unique and promising premise.
***
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