Direction: Michael Showalter
Country: USA
The contemporary romantic comedy The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, is a terrible adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel. It’s a corny, somewhat pathetic crowd pleaser that, besides being painfully predictable, fails to rise above a pedestrian formula that is beneath Hathaway’s charm.
Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, 2017; Spoiler Alert, 2022) and written by Jennifer Westfeldt and Showalter, the film follows Soléne (Hathaway), a 40-year-old art gallery director and single mother, who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old boy-band singer Hayes Campbell (Galitzine). While the story’s premise is plausible, it’s executed in a boring manner, laden with gooey pop music that is hard to endure.
Content with the pink tonalities of its finale, the film is a bland addition to the already low-stakes tradition of rom-coms. It is hampered by flaccid attempts at humor and songs with no resonance whatsoever. Although there are some interesting ideas about age-related concerns, the writing is flat and filled with trite, flirtatious dialogue.
Determined to charm audiences, Showalter is ineptly uninspired. The film stumbles when it sacrifices specificity for generic sentiment, making it ultimately a waste of time.
