There are a thousand versions of The Idea of You that would be a bad or at least uninteresting film: a sickly, bland, trope-laden rom-com about an older woman and a younger pop star. But none of those would have been directed by Michael Showalter.
The Idea of You, which closed out the 2024 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, should be a car crash between two clunky narrative devices. First, it’s a May-December romance, with a 40-year-old divorced mother, Solène (Anne Hathaway) falling for a smoldering yet sweet 24-year-old, Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine). On top of that, it’s a rumination about fame and the music business, as Hayes is a member of the biggest boy band on the planet, and Solène must contend with the glamor of showbiz and the terror of modern tabloid and social media infamy.
That May-December element is more April-August, removing any implication of cradle-snatching ickiness from the story. But there are so many reasons for Solène and Hayes to not work out. The age gap, the culture gap, his celebrity, the rawness of her divorce from the adulterous Daniel (Reid Scott), and her role as mother to teen Izzy (Ella Rubin). Importantly, all of those are her issues. The Idea of You isn’t wish fulfilment fan fic about (as the tabloids start to portray their relationship) a cougar bagging a Harry Styles proxy. Instead, it’s the story of a woman trying to work out how much she’s willing to disrupt her life to grow something new.
It’s a perfect role for Hathaway, who balances the dramatic weight of Solène’s complicated life with the giddiness of the whirlwind affair across continents, but can still crack the screen open with a goofy grin and signature explosive laugh. Her undeniable chemistry with Galitzine brings out the best in him, making Hayes so much more than just some doe-eyed fuckboy. Most of all, she makes Solène a creature of hope and experience combined, personifying the yearning that makes a good rom-com work even more than a well-timed joke.
And the nuanced demands of a rom-com are something Showalter understands. He began his feature directorial career lampooning the genre’s conceits in 2005’s The Baxter, but proved he could also play it straight (as it were) with South by Southwest 2017 audience award winner The Big Sick. What distinguished his coma-com was a truly sensitive depiction of the complexities of the human heart, and how it can navigate the harshest of conditions – all while nurturing a profound and warming belief in romance.
Showalter makes rom-coms for adults who have had their hearts broken a few times but still come back for more: they just know that those hearts and flowers take tender care to stay healthy. The script for The Idea of You, which he co-wrote with Jennifer Westfeldt from the book by Robinne Lee, keeps the humor light and the romance delicate, while also pushing Showalter into new territories as a director. The giant concert scenes of Hayes’ band August Moon singing “ooh baby” pop bangers composed by Savan Kotech feel real. So do the undeniably hot sex scenes that are filled with character development (we’re talking “Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney in Out of Sight” levels of heady horniness).
Will these crazy definitely-not-kids make it work? The fact that you’ll care so much proves yet again that Showalter has perfected the modern rom-com.
The Idea of You premieres on Prime Video on May 2.
The Idea of You
Headliner, World Premiere
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This article appears in SXSW 2024 Festival Guide, Part II.
