Comment on ‘The Idea of You’ review: Boy band-flavored romance fails to keep the beat

‘The Idea of You’ review: Boy band-flavored romance fails to keep the beat

Hot on the heels of the controversial 2024 erotic thriller “Miller’s Girl” landing on Netflix — causing lead Martin Freeman to offer a fresh defense of the movie and the age gap between him and his 31-years-younger co-star, Jenna Ortega — comes another movie built upon a May-December romance. However, we expect no such fervor over the relatively tame “The Idea of You,” an Amazon MGM Studios release debuting this week on Prime Video. For starters, the age gap is roughly half of that of the “Miller’s Girl”: Anne Hathaway’s Solène is freshly 40, while Nicholas Galitzine’s Hayes is 24. And this is no erotic thriller, but instead a romance, albeit one with a couple of admirable moments of striking but authentic-feeling intimacy. However, despite an excellent performance by Hathaway as the Los Angeles art gallery director and divorced mom, the adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel falls a little flat. It is the rare miss — and, to be fair, at most a minor miss — from director and co-writer Michael Showalter, whose impressive list of films includes “The Big Sick,” “The Lovebirds” and “Spoiler Alert.” The setup is hokey but cute, Solène meeting Hayes at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival when she mistakes his trailer for a VIP restroom. You see, she’s there because her cocky-but-flaky ex-husband, Daniel (Reid Scott of “Veep”), bowed out at the last minute, choosing business over taking their teen daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin), and her friends to the fest.

 

Comment On This Story

Welcome to Wopular!

Welcome to Wopular

Wopular is an online newspaper rack, giving you a summary view of the top headlines from the top news sites.

Senh Duong (Founder)
Wopular, MWB, RottenTomatoes

Subscribe to Wopular's RSS Fan Wopular on Facebook Follow Wopular on Twitter Follow Wopular on Google Plus

MoviesWithButter : Our Sister Site

More U.s. News