Review: ‘The Idea of You’ on Prime Video
IDON’T normally watch romantic comedies but I will make an exception for actors and actresses who I like. One of those artists is Anne Hathaway, whose The Idea of You is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. love Anne Hathaway and I think that at 41, she is at her most beautiful. I am saying this because this is the one compelling reason why I watched The Idea of You until its end. In the film, 40-year-old single mom Solène Marchand (Hathaway) meets and falls for 24-year-old boy-band member Hayes Campbell (played by Nicholas Galitzine) while taking her teenage daughter to Coachella where his group August Moon is performing. What follows is a whirlwind summer filled with love, sex and romance, which takes place when Solène’s daughter is conveniently away at summer camp.
One of the things I love about The Idea of You is that Hathaway and Ella Rubin, who plays her daughter Izzy, could really be mother and daughter.
When I started watching The Idea of You, I didn’t know that people were saying that it was fan fiction. But as I was watching it, that’s what I was asking myself: “Is this fan fiction?” Because there is no way that a 24-year-old rich pop star, who is still so popular that he’s stalked by fans and paparazzi everywhere he goes, would pay attention to a 40-year-old woman in Coachella, look for her and actively pursue her. I still believe it won’t happen in real life, no matter how hot the woman is. That can only happen if the woman looks like Anne Hathaway and no one looks like Anne Hathaway in real life.
After I watched the movie, I learned that my X (formerly Twitter) mutuals refuse to watch the movie because it sexualizes Harry Styles. They claim that it is fan fiction and is based on the romance of Styles and Olivia Wilde. I will be honest: After I watched the movie, I thought, “This is a thirsty matrona’s fantasy.”
But being a journalist, I did my research and learned that the book from which the movie was adapted was written by a woman who was a fan of Duran Duran when she was young.
In an interview with People magazine, author Robinne Lee said the idea for The Idea of You came to her during a political fundraiser interrupted by an earthquake. “I had been joking around with my husband and told him that I was going to run off and leave him and our two kids for a guy in a band who was half my age. He laughed at me and was like, ‘You are crazy...but that would make a great book.’ And as he said it, it just all came together,” Lee told People.
In another interview with Economictimes.com, Lee said the inspiration for Hayes was several artists, including Harry Styles, Michael Hutchence, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Duran Duran.
I did enjoy watching The Idea of You before knowing that people thought it was fanfic inspired by Harry Styles but I skipped the steamy parts not because I am a prude. I am not comfortable with huge age gaps between men and women in relationships Solène was not old enough to be Hayes’ mother unless she had him at 16 but she was certainly old enough to be his aunt. I was also not comfortable with the thought that Hayes lived with Solène in her house while Izzy was around and he was walking around shirtless. Again, I am not a prude but Izzy was a minor at that time.
Aside from these parts that made me uncomfortable, I think The Idea of You was entertaining. Hathaway and Rubin had a natural rapport than translated to the screen. In real life, Nicholas Galitzine is 29, not 24, so that made things better. I just wish the writers did better research. For example, if you have a meet-and-greet ticket, only you would be allowed onstage. Your mother, no matter how gorgeous, would not. You also have a few seconds or a minute max for that meet-and-greet moment. You certainly cannot go back and forth between artists.
I also liked August Moon’s songs. They were cheesy, yes, but they are boy-band songs so that was understandable. Galitzine was perfect for the role of Hayes. I just wish the role of Daniel (played by Reid Scott), Solène’s ex-husband, was less of a caricature.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad movie. I would have watched The Idea of You on a larger screen and paid for admission just to see Anne Hathaway. Now, I wish Robinne Lee would do a spin-off, this time with Izzy as the main character. ■