The Idea of You

My wife and I watched this movie on its first day of streaming on Prime. We expected it to be a lightweight but entertaining rom-com but we were completely wrong. It is much more than that. It examines a number of societal issues, including:

The verbal abuse an older woman takes if she dates a much younger man.

The role of paparazzi and social media in inflaming a situation.

The realities of balancing motherhood and social life.

It also plays on one of my favorite themes, the reality of random events determining our direction in life. Anne Hathaway is Solène, a divorced woman just turning 40. She owns an art gallery, she also has a teenage daughter. One day as her ex-husband is about to take the daughter and friends to Coachella he pulls out due to business in Houston, Solène fills in. In another random, accidental incident she goes into the trailer of a well-known, 24-yr-old entertainer, thinking it was the restroom, and meets him.

Nicholas Galitzine, British actor, plays the young entertainer, Hayes. He is a member of a boy band and takes an immediate liking to Solène. Her first reaction is "I am too old for you." His reaction is "I don't care."

This is a well-done movie, the situations and dialog are interesting, the sound track is very good.

For context, I have watched literally hundreds of Hallmark-like TV rom/com movies and of course this is very different. But I see a lot of things in terms of exactly what's different.

The story is fresh for me. More than that, it is well done. Once you know the setting, things are very predictable until they aren't. While all the Hate focused mostly on Solene is predictable, I was still disgusted by it. And when Izzy is verbally attacked, it was harsh. I had no idea what to expect for an ending, and it worked for me.

There is a lot of sex, although it's clumped mostly in the first half. I know Parental guidance is a separate category, but I think it is relevant to the review for two reasons. First, at times it almost seems like their relationship is about sex. But then they go deeper with emotional conversation getting to know each other that way. Second, you shouldn't expect it to be a lot of nudity. I didn't notice any visible private parts albeit their were scenes in lingerie, bikinis and strategically covered nudity.

Anne Hathaway has to play an extremely emotional role and she does it well. I mentioned the Hate. The attacks on Solene are disgusting and are not limited to the media.

There is a lot of music, singing. We get to see the boy band does performances including at least one complete number. Both singing and dancing in Boy Band style. Nicholas Galitzine does some solo singing including a complete number. And another surprise for me, as a Senior citizen, I found a lot of the music entertaining.

I think I could enjoy watching this again knowing what's coming. There really is a lot of entertainment value.

Anne and Nicholas both had great acting. Worth the watch if you liked movies like Fifty Shades, and rom coms. However, i do think it was rushed, and not that much plot besides a boy in a boyband, and a girl who sells art. The romance scenes are good, but it's very fast paced. I wouldn't expect much better than most romance flicks, but the music played is good. I thought it was kinda weird for her to be 40 and him to be 20, and that be the basis of it, i'm not sure what they were trying to do with that as Anne and Nicholas look about the same age and you don't really think of that the whole movie. Not a waste of time movie, try it, you might like it. Critic Review is accurate in my opinion.

I was skeptical at first and thought I would like this movie because it is fanfiction, but I was proven wrong. It suprised me in a good way.

Anne was amazing in portrayal of Solène the role really suits her. Nicholas did a satisfactory job with singing I wish songs where more catchy so that they can be popular and after movie.

There is such great chemistry between Anne and Nicholas which is so important for this kind of movie. I really enjoyed watching their scenes.

Also I really like how they showed the difference in people's reactions when they saw her as a woman dating a younger man versus her ex-husband dating a younger woman.

I've previously read the book, so I anticipated that the movie might not fully live up to my expectations, and unfortunately, I was correct. However, I appreciated how the overall plot was adapted for a faster pace, and both Anne Hathaway and Nicolas Galitzine delivered strong performances. My only gripe is that Ella Rubin seemed too old to convincingly portray Anne Hathaway's teenage daughter; in certain scenes, they resembled siblings rather than mother and daughter, which detracted from the immersion. Nevertheless, the movie excels, particularly in its departure from the book's ending, providing readers with a satisfying closure.