Here we go again: just a few weeks after the release of Maker of Tears on Netflix (here is our review of Maker of Tears), Amazon also offers its sentimental summer film. We’re talking about yet another adaptation of a romance bestseller, this time written by Robinne Lee (who by the way is also an actress, just to close the circle). Unlike Maker of Tears, The Idea of You is intriguing for its cast, or at least for its leading actress, Anne Hathaway, who measures herself with the complex – so to speak – role of Solène, curator of an art gallery in Los Angeles, mother of a teenager and newly divorced after her husband left her for her twenty-year-old assistant. As you will have understood from this summary description of her main character, The Idea of You is not an inventive masterpiece: Instead, every part of the film is lifted from some other production, resulting in a patchwork of quotes, suggestions and situations that are extremely predictable and devoid of any spark of originality.
If there is a “fresh” part of the production, it is its publishing history, since the original book (and with it the film on which it is based) has generated several controversies overseas because it is little more than a fanfiction about controversial relationship between Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde, whose names are obviously replaced with those of some fictional characters. But will this background that hints at gossip be enough to make Michael Showalter’s film unforgettable?
An impossible relationship… or not?
The answer, you will have already understood, is no, and this is clear from the first lines of the film. The premise is somewhat annoyingthe kind that doesn’t seem “right” and sends a shiver down the spine several times over the course of the two-hour narrative.
Let it be clear that we do not want to criticize in any way the message underlying the film, which reduced to its minimum terms is the classic “love has no age”. The problem lies instead in the way in which this morality is managed in narrative and, even before that, sentimental terms: the relationship between Solène and singer Hayes Campbell (Nicolas Galitzine) is born in a strange way, evolves in a predictable way and ends exactly as anyone would expect, but his parable is transposed onto the big screen in a totally unrealistic way. The development of this impossible love story passes through a series of moments completely unrelated to each other, starting from the relational dynamics themselves: there is a romantic part, there is a part with strong sexual connotations, there is an emotional part, the latter connected to the age difficulties we talked about above. The problem is that these three sections are not amalgamated in a coherent manner, as happens in real ones love story between real people: one gives way to the other almost as if were stages of a journey with a pre-established destination, which is clear to all viewers from the very first scenes. But, on the other hand, those who approach the vision of The Idea of You he certainly doesn’t do it expecting an Oscar-winning plot.
However, good writing was desirable, but instead it isn’t there. Not only for the bizarre management of the story at the center of the film, but also because greater underlying coherence was necessary for a film which in fact is a juxtaposition of hackneyed situations and of topoi very well known – and also very loved, it must be said – of sentimental cinema and comedy. There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other productions, but to do it well you need to at least mix together all the elements you throw into the cauldron. Which doesn’t happen in this case: the impression is that whoever wrote The Idea of You has drawn up a huge “shopping list” of clichés of the pink genre and decided to check off all the entries within 120 minutes.
The result is that we move from one stereotype to another seamlessly and without a single flash of creativity, which is lacking in the characterization of the characters, in the plot and in the dialogues. The latter seem to be there equal transposition of the words of the book on which the film is based: Solène, her daughter Izzy, her ex-husband Daniel and Hayes – especially Hayes – speak in a completely unrealistic way, moving from one cliché to another. The result is the most complete loss of credibility, which moreover often occurs precisely just before the most intense sentimental climaxesbringing the viewer back down to earth in the blink of an eye and making them lose any sense of identification with the protagonists.
Anne Hathaway and little else
Supporting the film isexcellent performance by Anne Hathawaywhich is in fact the only element of The Idea of You which is appreciated and which pushes you to watch the film until the end credits.
Fortunately, the space dedicated to her on the screen is preponderant, also because the rest of the cast is not particularly memorable, neither for the names involved nor for their performances. This, however, has the unintended effect of put some narrative lines into the background outline, which are started at the beginning of the film, “parked” at the end of the first quarter and resumed only at the end: the story of Solène’s previous marriage is sketchy and does not offer any interesting ideas, while the development of the relationship with Izzy – which should also be the center of the world for the mother – it ends abruptly when the girl is left at a campsite from which he can only contact his parents for fifteen minutes a week (but do campsites like this really exist?). A bizarre choice, which goes hand in hand with that of condensing the bulk of the emotional ups and downs in the last part of the film, compared to a decidedly slow central portion which could easily have been shortened by several minutes. The result is that theidyllic relationship between Solène and her daughter is enacted through a couple of moments where the two sing together in the car. Not a confidence, not a profound conversation between the two – except for a few words on the ending: Izzy’s character itself experiences a rather inconsistent evolution, with an emotional turnaround in the space of a few scenes that can only leave you perplexed.
But the bigger problem is that The Idea of You is a film that struggles to find a place real in terms of the public. Let’s explain better. Given its plot and the age of its protagonist, the film touches on themes mostly suitable for an adult audience: great disappointments in love, “getting back on your feet” after a long relationship and betrayal, the problems of an affair with a much younger personthe drama of a mother who must put her own happiness second to protect her daughter.
Topics that are only touched upon briefly and superficially, let it be clear, but which nevertheless exist and which they do not closely interest the viewer of The Idea of You, clearly designed for the teenage segment of the female audience. This contributes to making the experiment connected to the film even more bizarre, which plays with a “taboo” theme in the world of love stories – that of gap of age, especially when the woman is more adult – but it does so by addressing an audience that, for purely age-related reasons, has never experienced it.
