Film Review – The Idea Of You (2024)

It’s a meet-cute that promises something slightly different. The soon-to-be lovers run across each other in what appears to be a loo. It’s not actually the restroom she thinks it is: it’s part of his trailer, and he’s the lead singer of a red hot boyband at Coachella, no less. You’re getting the picture. In the blink of an eye, we’ve shifted into a glamorous, soft-focus world, something closer to fantasy than reality. It’s not the last time it happens in Michael Showalter’s The Idea Of You.

She is Solene (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mother struggling to get used to her newly divorced status. He is Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), the squeaky-clean group’s 25-year-old frontman. There’s an immediate attraction, he makes it even clearer by dedicating a song to her during the band’s set and they soon find themselves in the middle of a whirlwind romance. Despite their efforts to keep it secret, the news eventually leaks out with the inevitable consequences. Do they have a future? Well, this is a romance …

Balancing the dramatic side of the film, the one with several issues in its sight, with a lighter, almost fantastical tone is a difficult trick to pull off and there are times when the two simply don’t sit together comfortably. Showalter’s solution is to lean towards the fantasy, so that nothing gets too serious: the age gap is 15 years, so not exactly radical, and Hathaway is dressed, made up, and photographed to look as young as possible. There’s the occasional ill-disguised jibe from the other band and their squeezes, but that’s about it and you find yourself longing for a touch of the honesty that went with Emma Thompson’s older woman in Good Luck To You Leo Grande. The boyband is incredibly wholesome and well-behaved, so they’re constantly in the headlines, followed by adoring fans and paparazzi alike. Yet, despite Solene and Hayes venturing out in public, it takes a ridiculously long time for their relationship to leak out. It just needs one person with sharp eyes and a phone, after all.

It all gets horribly real when the news breaks. Social media erupts and, for a while, the tone changes: what was sweet and romantic is now warped, vitriolic, and deeply personal and it happens in a split second. The film handles the fallout nimbly and sympathetically but, inevitably, there’s no going back. It’s helped by the charming appeal of Hathaway and Galitzine, who have more than enough chemistry to make them a credible twosome. The up-and-coming Galitzine is well cast: his Hayes is emotionally mature for his age and not just after the obvious. The rest of the characters, however – with the exception of Annie Mumolo as Hathaway’s straight-talking best friend – are sketchy and less memorable.

For a film that’s supposed to be about an age-gap relationship and one where the woman is older, it’s surprisingly light on that front. Engaging and romantic, yes, but lacking when it comes to any real depth, and that sense of playing it safe never goes away. A good-looking film that’ll go well with that Friday night bottle of wine.

★★★

On Prime Video from 2 May / Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Annie Mumolo, Ella Rubin, Reid Scott / Dir: Michael Showalter / Prime Video / 15