The Idea of You: Being Swifty

---

MOVIE INFO:

SynopsisBased on the acclaimed, contemporary love story of the same name, The Idea of You centers on Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40-year-old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet. When Solène must step in to chaperone her teenage daughter’s trip to the Coachella Music Festival after her ex bails at the last minute, she has a chance encounter with Hayes and there is an instant, undeniable spark. As they begin a whirlwind romance, it isn’t long before Hayes’ superstar status poses unavoidable challenges to their relationship, and Solène soon discovers that life in the glare of his spotlight might be more than she bargained for.

---

REVIEW:

The Idea of You is Anne Hathaway’s vanity and fantasy project.  The vanity:  she fancies herself a Taylor Swift clone in personality but not musical talent.  The fantasy:  she can have the male Taylor Swift as a boyfriend.

The Idea of You is peripherally based on the bestselling novel by Robinne Lee, a bizarre piece of fan fiction that managed to resonate with the middle age  crowd that adores the Twilight novels.  The novel supposes a MILF fantasy of a Harry Style’s singer-Hayes Campbell  (Nicholas Galitzine) pairing off with a hot 40-year-old mom.

Hathaway’s Solene Marchand is an art gallery owner and divorcee with a 16-year-old daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin).  Her ex, unaware that kids grow out of boy band affectations by their midteens, has bought v.i.p. meet and greet tickets for Izzy and two of her bffs who once were the biggest Hayes Campbell and August Moon fans.

So, there is the meet cute, executed by director Michael Showalter with cringey soft porn style for the man and faux Taylor Swift charm complete with bangs, makeup and The Eras Tour overexposed aplomb for Hathaway.  Solane is smart in a Swift kind of way. She knows her art, or at least memorized the Wikipedia version.  She’s secure in the way that Taylor can devastate the confidence of those men who dump her with a song.  Solane  seems like a human being only in the way Swifties see  Taylor’s stage and public persona as the singer’s real self.  She’s totally in control, having Hayes fawning at her feet for her approval.  And on her thumbs up or down, his life depends.  She has friends, a career, and unlike Taylor, a cute and smart daughter clone. She’s a better Taylor than Taylor.           

The movie, to its credit,  never tries to shame, patronize or make Solane look ridiculous for having her own fantasies and desires.  But she’s also never put in the shameful positions of other romantic comedies.  As a result, The Idea of You goes flat because Solane is never put in any kind of life defining situation.  She can take or leave the romance and not change.  The failure to think of alternative work arounds is a striking lack of nerve and a creative let down.

Aside from the several times characters remark on the double standard attached to people’s judgement of Solene and Haye’s relationship, the age gap never really factors in.  Haye’s seems to be aware that he’s playing the fantasy romantic partner.  He’s stuck in some sort of arrested development.  Outside his fame, nothing has changed for him.  His desire for a life beyond the spotlights is the real desire that can never happen.  The capitalistic creed demands that Haye’s be the slave of those who use him to make money. The Idea of You can only end as a romantic tragedy.  It just routinely uses every genre trick to get there.  It sacrifices its novelty to the demands of streaming video play.

If The Idea of You sounds a lot like Taylor Swift’s latest album The Tortured Poets Department, it’s just a lunatic coincidence of themes colliding at the right time.  Like Hayes, Swift may have regrets of how her carefully cultivated fandom has made her love life a nightmare.  Spiritually the two are pretty much the same there. But like, Solane, Swift has been dragged into fame’s buzzsaw and somehow has figured out to make a life on the other side of it. 

The Idea of You gets a 3.0/5 minute or a B.  It’s streaming on Amazon Prime. 

---

CREDITS:

Directed by

Michael Showalter

Screenplay by

• Michael Showalter
• Jennifer Westfeldt

Based on

The Idea of You

by Robinne Lee

Produced by

• Cathy Schulman
• Gabrielle Union
• Anne Hathaway
• Robinne Lee
• Eric Hayes
• Michael Showalter
• Jordana Mollick

Starring

• Anne Hathaway
• Nicholas Galitzine

Cinematography

Jim Frohna

Edited by

Peter Teschner

Music by

Siddhartha Khosla

Production

companies

• Amazon MGM Studios
• Somewhere Pictures
• Welle Entertainment
• I’ll Have Another
• Belle Hope Productions

Distributed by

Amazon Prime Video

Release dates

• March 16, 2024(SXSW)
• May 2, 2024

Running time

116 minutes[1]

Country

United States

Language

English

---