Starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, The Idea of You – streaming May 2 on Prime Video – has fine form in a romantic genre packed with swoonsome classics, writes Stephen A Russell.
You either love rom coms or you’re probably pretending you don’t.
How can you not swoon for Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell sparkling in stone-cold classic His Girl Friday? Or Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal dancing around one another in Nora Ephron’s sublime When Harry Met Sally? Then there’s the gloriously daft tug of war in Sharon Jones’ glorious Bridget Jones’s Diary, pulling Renée Zellweger back and forth between Hugh Grant’s bad boy and Colin Firth’s sweet but buttoned-up lawyer, the Singapore fling between Constance Wu and Henry Golding in Crazy Rich Asians, or Angela Bassett shimmering in the surf alongside Taye Diggs in How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
That last gem has echoes of the age gap at play between Anne Hathaway’s Solène, a divorcee gallery owner on the cusp of 40 and mum to teenaged daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin), and twenty-something Nicholas Galitzine as pop star Hayes, a boy band member in Prime Video’s newest contender for the rom-com crown, The Idea of You.
And here’s the thing: even the cream of the canon plays by recognisable rules that, instead of making them predictably boring, only heighten our romantic expectations.
Here’s how The Idea of You gets it right.
1. The more references to beloved rom-com, the better
Adapted from Robinne Lee’s best-selling romantic novel by The Big Sick director Michael Showalter, co-writing with Jennifer Westfeldt of Younger and Friends With Kids fame, the big guns are already assembled for a winsome win.
The basic plot of The Idea of You—Solène unexpectedly winds up at Coachella and sparks ignite between her and the world-famous Hayes—mirrors multiple faves, most notably rom-com queen Julia Roberts’ turns in both Notting Hill and Pretty Woman (top marks for going there with a reverential gag nodding to these overt echoes) with a pinch of Bridget Jones’s Baby in the musical festival set-up too.
2. It helps a heap if the leads have rigorous rom-com form
Anne Hathaway is mighty in rom-com land, from her fairy tale wish fulfilment beginnings in The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted, the Edinburgh-set swing and hit of One Day, and playing a harried Vogue assistant in The Devil Wears Prada, torn between Adrian Grenier and Simon Baker. In other words, she’s got this.
Galitzine might be the newer kid on the block, but he’s already built up admirable rom-com receipts, including Bottoms and deliciously queer royal outings with royal leanings in Red, White & Royal Blue and the much darker Mary & George.
So our lead knows exactly what he’s doing in The Idea of You, including Galitzine mostly singing his August Moon songs penned by Indian-American songwriter Savan Kotecha, who has written tunes for the likes of Lizzo, Katy Perry and, yes, One Direction.
3. The meet cute must be ridiculously sweet
Hathaway and Galitzine nail the gorgeous meet cute that kicks off The Idea of You. Solène’s cheating ex, Daniel (Reid Scott) bails on his promise to take Izzy to Coachella, ostensibly to see Hayes’ band August Moon in a meet and greet session despite claiming she’s aged out of her fandom at 16.
The teens leave Solène solo as Izzy and her crew do their thing. She takes herself to what she’s sure is a toilet block in the VIP area only to realise, to her mortification, that it’s actually Hayes’ personal trailer. And whenever a rom-com star is flustered, they have to make things way worse.
4. Our leads must be strong and independent, but emotionally wounded
Hollywood’s littered with movies in which considerably older men wind up with a much younger woman, so it’s still a thrill when a rom-com flips that set-up on its head.
Hathaway shines as the switched-on Solène in The Idea of You. She’s a successful businesswoman with a flourishing Silver Lake gallery, has a great relationship with Izzy and is moving on from Daniel. Still, she’s not denying the damage he did that she has to work past or her concerns about her future.
Galitzine strikes the perfect balance between a confident yet sweet-hearted soul, but one who’s not quite sure of his place in the band or life in general, with an insight into his deepest fears in the second half of The Idea of You layering in further intrigue.
5. We want the whirlwind
Let’s be serious. The will they, won’t they wait is part and parcel of the rom-com, but it can’t all be the tease. You have to deliver.
When Hayes sweeps Solène off her feet in The Idea of You, whisking her away on a European tour with the band, it’s dreamy. And some of the sex scenes get pretty steamy.
6. A third-act pivot must thrust them apart
No spoilers, but it wouldn’t be a rom-com if a pretty big ‘won’t they’ didn’t things up, leaving our leads nursing their souls to sad songs as they ask, ‘Can we really do this?’ in The Idea of You.
7. Leave us wanting more
As with all the best rom-coms, Solène and Hayes’ ultimate choice—one way or the other—will leave you hanging in The Idea of You.
