The Idea of You Review: A Romance Movie By-The-Books!

Another streaming romance movie with some big-name stars? Is it any good? I’ll say this off the bat, the stars selling The Idea of You are great. Anne Hathaway is as remarkable as she always is here. I mean, you can already tell what kind of performance you’re getting out of her, and she absolutely delivers. Nicholas Galitzine also really works here! As the pop star heartthrob, he sells it, as well as feeling helpless when he’s with Hathaway. Their chemistry is amazing. You buy their romance and the progression of their relationship.

It’s a pretty silly concept, but honestly, the makers sold it really well. It’s a bit cheesy and over the top, especially in the first act or so, but it totally works. The Idea of You opens really cheesy and fun, and it kind of wins you over, despite how blandly it’s put together. However, the movie tries to go for more of an emotional gut-punch angle as it progresses into the final two acts. Sometimes that heart works, and you swoon with this relationship, but other times the “will they won’t they” begins to wear on the viewers.

Also, this whole “I can’t date you, my husband dated someone younger while we were married. I’d be a hypocrite” thing is so stupid. Her husband was cheating on her with a younger woman. She is casually seeing someone who is younger than her while she’s single. If the drama were about the age gap, then maybe it would have been interesting, but the drama is about the double standard between her and her ex-husband, when in reality the situations are not at all the same.

No thoughts, just chicken fingers, dancing and watching #TheIdeaOfYou all day.

Now streaming on @PrimeVideo! pic.twitter.com/sVR04ZMM9V

— Amazon MGM Studios (@AmazonMGMStudio) May 2, 2024

The movie doesn’t really want to address the controversy of the age gap and instead plays up this drama about how it’s going to ruin the band and his image without really explaining why, which is wildly frustrating. I enjoy Michael Showalter’s approach to dramedies typically, and this is definitely more on the unique side for him conceptually, but ultimately it’s just a little too by-the-books. You kinda know where it’s going and it treads a lot of similar themes to other romances like this. However, he does know how to get good performances out of his actors.