Tout sauf toi

The only reason I watched Anyone But You was because I have slowly come to appreciate Glen Powell. I wasn't expecting much, and I Didn't get much. Just imagine all of the standard rom-com tropes and you will surely be able to spot each one throughout the film. A spark on a first date, the breakup, and the back and forth will-they-won't-they until they come together in the end. "Spoiler" alert, if you didn't already see that coming. I don't know why I gave it a 6, but that's just what it felt like. Anyone But You had its share of good moments, but if Glen Powell or rom-coms aren't your thing, then there isn't much for you here.

Bea (Sydney Sweeney) meets Ben (Glen Powell) in a coffee shop and they hook up. There are misunderstandings next morning and they leave angry. It turns out that his friend is marrying her sister. The two enemies have to attend a destination wedding in Australia.

Sweeney and Powell are trying all kind of broad physical humor. They are both gorgeous and both have good charisma. Neither are outright comedians and that is important. They are mildly funny but are rarely the funniest part. The first big laugh is the WTF old guy while the two bicker. The butt grabbing scene kinda works, but the leads may be overshadowed by a koala. This duo tries very hard. It's so ridiculous that it's mildly funny.

I knew from the trailers that I would love this. But if I'd known it was a "Much Ado About Nothing" retelling, I would've gotten around to watching it way sooner. It took me until about a quarter of the way in, but then all the names and Shakespeare quotes made sense. I loved the clever callbacks to both the play and the 1993 movie, from the overdramatic conversations overheard in the garden to the leads even looking a bit like Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. This had me grinning from ear to ear. And my goodness, the credits had me cackling. I will never listen to "Unwritten" the same way again.

This movie was anything but consistent. Some scenes were ridiculously endearing, some were ridiculously annoying, some were ridiculously laughable, and some were just ridiculous. (I think the one commonality is self evident.) Gluck clearly wanted to bring back the big budget RomCom and update Shakespeare all at once - the movie version of a genre novel that leans all the way into all the tropes, but is smart enough to make good literary references along the way. Much like with any somewhat self aware story, there were times when the camera winks amused me and times when they had the opposite effect. Regardless, there is no denying that Powell and Sweeney make the most of every scene. Even if it never fully comes together for you, I bet you will still find yourself at least a little charmed.

We've seen a million movies set at weddings before - where even the couple getting married gets invested in the main couples status. So I knew a lot of the tropes would be the same, but it was the same but a bit worse. The main couple story I actually really liked, I thought they were hilarious and cute and beat out other movies with the same storyline. It was everything else that fell short. The background characters felt cheesy and fake. All surface level gags or you didn't really get to know them, nothing felt genuine - case in point Bea's parents were incredibly unrealistic, no ones that out of touch. Even Bea's background felt half-done, never explaining why she didn't want law school.