The Idea of You

It's hard to believe Anne Hathaway is the same age as Bette Davis as Margo Channing in "All About Eve". However, Hathaway truly owns 40 in this 2024 romcom as she plays Solene, a successful Silver Lake art gallery owner still smarting from a divorce three years prior. While taking her teenaged daughter to Coachella, she meets Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old lead singer of globally popular boy band August Moon. Sparks fly immediately, and homemade sandwiches lead to an extended rendezvous on a world tour. While Nicholas Galitzine fulfills the limited contours of his role as a smitten pop star, it is really Hathaway that delivers the goods giving an accomplished performance that finally adds maturity to her natural effervescence. Directed by Michael Showalter (whose last film was 2022's underrated "Spoiler Alert"), the movie definitely swerves with predictable plot turns, but at least thanks to the observant script by Showalter and the wondrous Jennifer Westfeldt, it moves with a certain aplomb that makes it watchable. Enough with the Hathahate.

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.

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.

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.

Take the 2023 Jennifer Lopez film Marry Me, mix it with the 1999 Julia Roberts film Notting Hill, and you get this movie basically.

Good for what it is. But, why do people have to go and make things so complicated, in the words of Avril Lavigne?

This movie was pleasant, but also frustrating because the female character was too hung up on her age and what other people thought. Meanwhile, she had a literal Prince charming they're waiting for her, time and time again. All that precious time wasted, worrying over nothing.

If anything, this movie demonstrates why people shouldn't let anything get in the way of true love, how silly it is to do so.