'The Idea of You' stays on the right side of ridiculous
Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine bring a Harry Style-inspired romance to life
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If the real measure of fame is having multiple movies adapted from unrelated fanfictions about your life, then perhaps no one is more famous than Harry Styles. Back in 2019, he inspired the character of Hardin Scott in the After film series, based on a Wattpad fanfic about the boys of One Direction as college students. In the new movie The Idea of You, meanwhile, Style’s avatar is Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) a 24-year-old boy band superstar who winds up falling head-over-heels for 40-year-old divorced mom, Solène Marchand (Anne Hathaway)—much to the chagrin of his adoring fans.
Of course, it’s easy to assume that The Idea of You sprung up in the wake of Style’s much-publicized relationship with ten-years-his-senior Olivia Wilde. But, weirdly enough, author Robinne Lee actually published her source novel back in 2017, well before the world’s messiest press tour. (Although Harry did already have a penchant for dating older women.) Sometimes life imitates art, I guess. And now we all get to reap the benefits in Prime’s fun, frothy, deliciously insubstantial new romance.
Directed by The Big Sick’s Michael Showalter from a script he co-wrote with Kissing Jessica Stein’s Jennifer Westfeldt, The Idea of You benefits from a cast and creative team who know their way around the rom-com genre. Plotwise, this cheesy star-crossed romance wouldn’t feel out of place in a thrown-together Netflix rom-com or even a Hallmark Christmas flick. But Showalter and co elevate the material just enough that it feels like a real movie—something that’s been sorely missing from the “quantity over quality” approach of the streaming rom-com era.
To be clear, I still spent a decent chunk of time laughing *at* The Idea of You, as much as with it. The wish fulfillment narrative is turned up to 11 here, starting from the moment Solène captures Hayes’ heart by accidentally wandering into his trailer at Coachella and then not knowing who he is. (A starter-pack teen girl fantasy.) But the tropes are delivered charmingly and confidently, which helps the whole thing go down easy.
It also helps that the stakes couldn’t be lower. Though it’s supposed to be a scandalous that Hayes shacks up with an older woman, Galitzine looks about 30 (he was 28 when they filmed) and never acts particularly immature, so the age-gap doesn’t really seem that large in practice And while Solène is ostensibly the normie getting swept up in his glamorous world of celebrity, from the beginning she’s presented as a hot, rich, sophisticated art gallery owner who runs in elite circles, owns a giant house in L.A., and has a great relationship with her teenage daughter (Ella Rubin). I’m not sure I’ve seen a less relatable rom-com protagonist in years.
Which isn’t to say that Hathaway isn’t a blast to watch. The Idea of You fits seamlessly with a post-Oscar rebrand that saw her shift from lovable everywomen (The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada) to spiky sexpots (Ocean’s 8, The Hustle, WeCrashed). Hathaway oozes charisma in Solène’s confident moments and finds real pathos in her uncertain ones—delivering no shortage of tearful close-ups that are something of her signature.
She gets a great foil in Galitzine, who I first fell for in Camila Cabello’s Cinderella, and who is enjoying something of a breakout moment right now thanks to projects like Red, White & Royal Blue, Bottoms, and Starz’s new historical drama Mary & George. Galitzine’s got great leading man puppy dog eyes and enough magnetic charm to make you buy him as a boy band superstar—even if Hayes’ world is never particularly well fleshed out.
Indeed, when it comes to actual substance, The Idea of You strains for social commentary it can never quite land and emotional depth it can never quite reach, right down to a perfect final shot it isn’t brave enough to commit to. (Check out Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth for a much more nuanced exploration of age gap romances). But the real surprise is how sexy it is—something I honestly didn’t know Showalter had in him. Showalter draws his camera towards hands in a way that could give that infamous Pride & Prejudice scene a run for its money. And he understands the importance of anticipation and pacing when it comes to building a memorably lusty scene (of which The Idea of You has several).
Emotionally, I never particularly cared whether Solène and Hayes could make a long-term relationship work—they honestly both seemed like they’d be fine either way. But I did want them to kiss. And for a romance that’s mostly aiming for risqué fun, sometimes that’s all you need.
Other stuff: Back in my A.V. Club days, one of my favorite random gigs was reviewing the After series, which took such a “for fans” approach that they didn’t even screen them for press. I made it through 2019’s After, 2020’s After We Collided, and 2021’s After We Fell, but never got around to 2022’s After Ever Happy or 2023’s After Everything. Maybe I’ll round out the series on here one day…