The Idea of You
Directed by Michael Showalter
Written by Michael Showalter, Jennifer Westfeldt
Starring Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine
Rated R 
Runtime: 1 hour and 57 minutes
Available on Amazon Prime May 2nd

by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

The death of the mid-level film in the age of streaming and Marvel’s blockbusters really took a hit, in particular, on comedies starring actual comedians (not just funny actor stars) and romantic comedies. In recent years, the studios have started to realize that the big blockbuster bubble is bursting in new and interesting ways but, if they keep failing as epically as they are, then there won’t be anything left that could even hope to make money. 

Enter the rom-com boom of the late 2010s! A few studios started to realize that the bubble had burst after the last film in the Infinity Saga. As they tried to diversify their general film list, in an attempt to get more eyes, they started looking backwards to the types of film that they tried to kill. Netflix was, notably, one of the first places to bring back the romantic comedy with any kind of earnest intent, with films like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Set It Up. 

We’ve since had a few theatrical hits like Anyone but You (a rom-com that goes back to its roots and adapts a Shakespeare play), and Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick. Unfortunately, for us rom-com lovers, the films that get to be hits in theaters are few and far between and these films feel like they’re going to be a genre that lives and dies on streaming platforms.

The Idea of You is a film that I think could actually hit like gangbusters in theaters, so I’m a little disappointed that Amazon MGM (a nightmare, by the way… I hate this merger and all mergers in the industry right now) is pushing it directly to streaming. Especially because Michael Showalter has proven, with the aforementioned The Big Sick, that he can deliver a romantic comedy in theaters. That film made $56 million on a $5 million budget. He’s got the juice, and so does Anne Hathaway. Even Nicholas Galitzine, who I think is supreme in comedies and just okay in everything else, is deeply charming and people love him right now. This film could be a smash. 

All of which is to say that The Idea of You is a really fun and great time. The film has a very simple concept: what if the hottest mom on the planet met and fell in love with one of the singers of a boy band that her daughter was obsessed with a few years ago. Obviously, there’s a bit more to it than that, in terms of the nuances of how and why, but that’s basically it. Honestly, if I was ultra-famous and I met a normie woman as hot and charming as Anne Hathaway then I, too, would fall directly to my knees.

Showalter has a keen eye for how to make absolute insanity feel like a beautiful walk in the park, a thing that’s really necessary with rom-coms. In all honesty, he’s an interesting director for romantic comedies, because he came from such a place of absurdist weirdo comedy with things like The State and Wet Hot American Summer. But his foray into romantic dramedies doesn’t have a hint of absurdism, even when he has a writing credit on the film. It’s kind of the thing that works so much about The Idea of You, in particular. It takes its characters and their feelings about their current predicament seriously. Which is important since it’s a story that’s been called Harry Styles fanfic for many years (the novel was published in 2017) but actually fits more into “chick lit” than it doesn’t into the very narrow definition of “romance” that the book world has. 

More than anything, though, the thing that makes the film work, and it does work, is the amazing performance from Hathaway. She’s been a powerhouse for years, but it’s always great to be reminded how absolutely great Anne Hathaway is. She gives Solène a deep, inner life that can be difficult to adapt from genres that are very internal, like romance and chick lit tend to be. This is a fantasy, of course, but it's one that Hathaway makes feel so much more real and accessible than most people could play it. While Galitzine’s Hayes doesn’t feel quite as formed, he doesn’t really need to be in a film like this one. He’s kind and charming and you understand why they’re drawn together, even if you don’t necessarily think they’d work long-term. Also, I think the music is fun! It doesn’t sound quite like One Direction, or other boy bands of that time period. I think it’s partially because the Harry Style fanfic accusation can be a lot, but also because the passage of time from when the novel was published to when the film is coming out means that the sound of boy bands will have changed a bit. I think it’s a smart choice, to not get overly nostalgic with it, and they’re all fun bops—all you could ask for, honestly!

Overall, The Idea of You is a really fun and sweet film that should make any rom-com lover happy. It’s not filled with goofy antics like the romantic comedies of the 90s and even early 2000s, but I think it’s fairly indicative of what the genre is like in our present landscape. It also very much deserved to be in theaters!