Falling in love with “the idea of” someone is a complicated concept that is hard to pinpoint. Typically, it means falling for an idealized version of a person, overlooking their faults while also succumbing to the need to be wanted. But where does the idea of loving someone stop and truly loving them begin? Once you’re in love, is love enough or will others’ perception of the idea of you wear away at it? These are the questions that lie at the heart of Prime Video’s tender romantic drama The Idea Of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine.
The Idea Of You takes the Notting Hill formula — normal person dates wildly famous individual and tries to hold onto normal healthy relationship while being judged by the entire world — and updates it in every sense of the word, wherein now the tabloid press has become 24-hour social media comments. There’s no escaping scrutiny anymore.
The main way The Idea Of You updates this formula is by flipping the genders of its partners, making the man a celebrity and woman an everyday person, as well as adding in an age gap where a 40-year-old mother starts dating a 24-year-old musician. This simple change goes miles toward elevating The Idea Of You from just another rom-com setup into being an interesting look at how media and fandom not only hate women but specifically older women.
The basic plot is that 40-year-old single mom Solène Marchand (Hathaway) is trying to find herself again two years after her ex-husband (Reid Scott) left her for a younger woman. At his request due to last minute business trip he can’t take her on himself, he asks her to take their teenage daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) to Coachella so she can meet & greet her formerly favorite boy band August Moon.
There, Solène unexpectedly strikes up a romance with the band’s 24-year-old lead singer Hayes Campbell (Galitzine). Despite their best efforts to keep the romance a secret, they eventually get caught by tabloids and social media, with Solène bearing the brunt of the world’s hatred, and must decide if their new relationship can really go the distance or if this will just be a fun short-lived fling.
The Idea Of You is definitely a two-hander between Hathaway and Galitizine, but it’s Hathaway who steals away with the movie. She’s always been one of our greatest actresses working today, and after her Oscar win for Les Miserables she received a ton of unnecessary hate from media outlets that then bled into public discourse, creating such an incredibly toxic narrative around Hathaway that thankfully most people have moved on from.
So casting Hathaway as a woman vilified by the media-inspired casting is one that brings plenty of subtle nuance to her character through personal experience on her part. And as much as I’d love to sit here & talk about how good Anne is in this role — because she truly gives it everything she has and delivers an absolutely stunning performance — let’s just say it would be nearly impossible to imagine anyone else playing Solène Marchand.
Nicholas Galitzine has become one of the most electric young stars around. He is coming off back-to-back movies last year in “Red, White and Royal Blue” and “Bottoms,” which could not have been more different from each other — but showed just how much range he has. “Red, White and Royal Blue” was a more standard romance, while “Bottoms” was an over-the-top hyper-exaggerated comedy. But in both films, he fully commits — especially to the latter, where he had some of the funniest line readings of any movie this past year.
Here, Galitzine returns to what is a more traditional dreamy romance as Solène’s ultimate object of desire. But the movie does not treat him like it might a lesser film. Hayes Campbell is a young talented musician who feels like a joke despite his fame which informs his relationship with Solène and her insecurities with him and this does good work to balance out their dynamic where both characters feel fleshed out. The movie never talks down to him, and for as young as he may be, he’s just as capable of making choices for himself by the end of the film there’s no doubt that Galitzine absolutely has star quality.
As far as chemistry goes it’s clear from their first meet-cute that Hathawawy and Galitzine have it. The movie lets them meet quickly so a good portion of the first act can be dedicated to their courtship. Like any good romance novel should, the movie really builds up to their first kiss making the audience lean in anticipation for it to happen because their first “date” is such an accurate honest depiction of getting to know someone for real that includes all the awkwardness of asking questions choosing what parts about yourself you want to reveal etc etc etc and all those exciting things.
Director Michael Showalter has always been so great at crafting these real romances that balance comedy and intimacy, from the much loved “The Big Sick” to the underrated gems of “Hello, My Name is Dorris” and “Spoiler Alert” and “The Idea of You” not only has more of what you love from his previous movies but also a true sensuality that’s often lacking in mainstream rom-coms.
“The Idea of You” is an adaptation of actress and writer Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name. The screenplay is credited to director Michael Showalter and co-writer Jennifer Westfeldt. Despite being based on a book from seven years ago, “The Idea of You” is very much a movie tapping into the cultural zeitgeist right now while still being a story that feels like it happens over and over again without society ever learning its lesson.
August Moon can either be seen as a One Direction or NSYNC stand-in, with Hayes Campbell being either a Harry Styles or Justin Timberlake stand-in. The film’s commentary on an older woman being with a younger man of one generation (likely those around Hathaway’s character’s age) is similar to how the media scrutinized Demi Moore’s relationship with Ashton Kutcher in the early 2000s.
The Harry Styles comparison seems particularly fitting as the much-publicized Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde relationship while working on Don’t Worry Darling can be seen as having been a major source of Hollywood gossip among trades. It is not an exaggeration to say that fans of Styles showed their ugliest side over the course of his nearly two year long relationship with the filmmaker. The parallels are hard to ignore when you consider that this happened during casting for the movie, which was published four years ago. The book may be timely now but it also has enough other points of comparison for audiences to draw from, so clearly we have not made any progress here.
Some people have referred to The Idea of You as Harry Styles fan-fiction, which isn’t accurate in terms of what this text actually is and does a disservice to understanding its purpose. It’s less about one woman’s particular wish fulfillment coming true than an exploration into how people construct these emotional attachments with artists they’ve never met through their partners eyes once that secret gets out about her dating someone famous like Hayes Allday or whoever he might be called within context; then the movie takes off from there.
Just like how characters aren’t safe from media scrutiny now being aware of their relationship status publicly displayed on screen so too does sweet intimate romance start turning sour because tabloids want something juicier than “oh look two actors fell in love” type headlines. From early on most if not all press attention directed at Solène centers around unfairness in age gap between herself and him; older women getting vilified while men her age or older dating young girls barely gets mentioned let alone criticized for what it really is such as predatory behavior normalized among them? She’s happy though–and Hayes appears to be as well–but why should their happiness make anyone else mad?
By end credits rolled around those two were ready marry each other right then there but world wouldn’t let them sadly… Media has turned hate into 24/7 loop thanks to social networks being bombarded with it from all sides; this film doesn’t shy away showing just how mean spirited some comments can be especially when attacking Solène’s ability as parent even going so far as trying paint her out predator who took advantage over grown man like Hayes. Eventually those same fans begging for Sólène & Haye’s break up because they think it’s what he deserves end pushing him away someone loves back therefore making miserable in process. Romance is also thought provoking and although towards very end does start feel little long still works both ways showcasing attachments people form toward famous individuals while serving up good old fashioned love story.
