THE IDEA OF YOU – Review

With the tsunami of action blockbusters flooding the multiplex, you might think that the movie studios have forgotten that Spring (despite some near ninety-degree days) is the season for romance. So, where are the love stories? Actually, this new one is only streaming, though it’s certainly worthy of a theatrical run, After all, it stars an Oscar-winning actress and its director has made two films that “took home the gold” (not for him, but for the lead actress and a pair of married screenwriters). Plus it’s based on a popular novel, though in many ways it’s a modern media gloss on a fairy tale. Mind you, the “princess” is unlike any we’ve met as this is more of a MAY/DECEMBER pairing (minus the tons of angst of that flick from last year). Like that classic Nat King Cole tune, each of these unlikely lovers is smitten with THE IDEA OF YOU.

We first meet one of the “yous” in the film’s opening scene. She is Solene (Anne Hathaway) a forty-year-old (we drop in on the big B-day festivities) divorced mom who runs a small retail art gallery in the LA suburb of Silver Lake. To treat herself after the milestone, she’s going on a solo camping trip while her almost sixteen-year-old daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) will enjoy a VIP pass (along with her two best pals) at the Coachella music festival courtesy of her remarried lawyer Papa Daniel (Reid Scott). Naturally, after the “hand-over” drop-off to her ex, just as she begins to load the car, Daniel pulls up with the trio saying that a work emergency popped up and she needs to be their escort. Aaargghh! Solene’s no fan of the line-up, which is topped by Izzy’s former faves, the “boy band” August Moon, but she’s a good mom so she drops them off in the audience’s grounds, while she retreats to the VIP pass-holder tent. After getting some confusing directions to the restroom, she enters one of the main trailers and is soon shocked when there’s a tapping on the bathroom door. Turns out that she’s in the private deluxe digs of one of the heartthrobs of “AM”, 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine). The duo engages in some flirty small talk before Solene joins Izzy and her crew for AM’s “set” (where Hayes makes strong eye contact with Solene during a song dedicated to “someone special he just met”). Ah but it’s soon time to get back to the “grind” for her at the gallery. Things are pretty normal until they get a very special “customer”: Hayes. With the pretext of needing to fill the walls of his new home, the two spend most of the afternoon together, going from an artist’s storage space to Solene’s home for Lunch. After a tender kiss, she pushes him away, saying a date would be absurd, so Hayes departs after leaving his pricey wristwatch behind. This gives him an excuse to text her and invite her to join him on AM’s world tour. Hmm, he bought out the gallery spurring a temporary closing, so why not? Solene doesn’t tell anyone, even Izzy, and the duo enjoy a whirlwind worldwide secret romance. Can they make it work despite the big age gap? More importantly, what will happen when the paparazzi finally catches them?

The role of Solene proves to be a terrific showcase for the talented Ms. Hathaway, who we’ve not seen enough of on the big screen (she took some ‘family time”). Coming off her work as the slinky, seductive Rebecca in last year’s EILEEN, Hathaway now puts a spin on a down-to-Earth working woman who gets a new chance at romance and the “glamorous life”. So, it’s a bit of a spin on Cinderella, though Solene needs no magical fairy godmother, nor does she need to be rescued. We can see her delight in really being appreciated by Hayes, which leads to a big conflict. Hathaway shows us that Solene’s not sure if she really deserves it (she so does). We see that battle between her mind and heart in her expressive eyes. Plus Hathaway uses her sharp comic skills, whether bantering with Hayes, dealing with a long line of dull, but age-appropriate suitors on her birthday, or giving her ex a verbal smack-down while rebuffing her new wife’s desire to start a friendship. At one point, Solene is intimidated by the twenty-something girlfriends of Hayes’ bandmates, though we can see that she should harbor no insecurities. Hathaway’s a dream for any suitor.

And Galitzine fulfills that part very well as the soulful dreamboat Hayes, who descends from his “castle” to reach new heights of passion with the ‘stunner from Silver Lake”. Sure, he projects confidence, yet he somehow has a vulnerable side, not sure if Solene will accept him. And in another twist on Cinderella, he’s the one leaving a glass slipper behind, though it’s a sparkly bit of male jewelry. On the other end of the male spectrum, Scott oozes smarm and arrogance, much like his “Veep” role, as the pompous ex-hubby Daniel. It’s no wonder his current spouse, played with great comic disgust by Perry Mattfield yearns to be pals with Solene. But her BFF is daughter Izzy, played with great energy and humor by Rubin. That’s until the news breaks on her mom’s new beau. She conveys the hurt in Izzy’s eyes, not at the pairing but at the pain of her mother not confiding in her. The story also benefits from the comic work of Annie Mumolo as Solene’s other pal Tracy, though her screentime is reduced to make room for the romance.

The lauded director I mentioned earlier is comic actor Michael Showalter, and those Oscar-winning films are THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE and THE BIG SICK. He also worked with actress Jennifer Westfeldt in adapting Robbine Lee’s book, which expertly mixes wit (though boy bonds are a fairly easy target for laughs) with a swoony, delirious romantic fantasy. Hey, who wouldn’t want the “high-life” though the story shows that it comes with a price. This occurs when the relationship is “out”, allowing Showalter a chance to skewer social media in a dizzying montage that uses clever pixelation of screens, phones, and pads, where Solene is digitally dragged through the mud by anonymous vultures pecking at her flesh (and moral character). She’s now a conniving callous cougar that has ensnared the naive tunesmith. Daughter Izzy is even caught in the firestorm at school. But Showalter doesn’t let the “influencers’ drag down the “high spirits” of the story’s bouncy “meet cute” or the verbal dance of the duo in the art world. The director and the writers provide us with fun, and frivolity while actually taking a sharp stick to online outrage. And they never lose focus on the engaging couple that is the beating heart of the tale, who also bring that simmering chemistry, that often makes us lightheaded at THE IDEA OF YOU.

3 out of 4

THE IDEA OF YOU streams exclusively on Amazon Prime Video beginning on Thursday, May 2, 2024