The Idea of You
Is it familiar? An American and British couple. One is a small-business owner, content with family and friends but a little lonely and lost; the other is an international superstar successful but also a little lonely and lost. Both are honest to God breathtakingly beautiful. And there’s a reason why the star needs to stop by the average person’s house, where they’re offered a disgusting beverage plus a gift of a painting that carries lots of meaning amid constant predatory paparazzi.
Yes, you will recognize many “Notting Hill” elements in “The Idea of You.” It’s smoother but lesser work from Michael Showalter (who also directed) and Jennifer Westfeldt, whose better movies have more texture (“Hello, I must be Going”; “Kissing Jessica Stein”). Here they’re working from Robinne Lee’s beloved novel; its Amazon blurb says it was included on The Skimm’s 2020 list of Eight Books Both You and Mom Will Love. Maybe they erred on the side of fan service, hoping their stars would fill in what the script didn’t give them. They were sorta right: Anne Hathaway, playing the so-called “older woman” (she’s 40), is as dewy as she was as an ingenue, while rocketing-to-stardom Nicholas Galitzine makes for one heckuva Prince Charming. They try their considerable best even when given only longing glances or steamy embraces or heartbreaking partings to work with.
Hathaway plays Solène Marchand (accent on second syllable), owner of a small art gallery in Silver Lake (!). She’s also a divorced mother of Izzy (Ella Rubin), who’s got her sights set on college but then her silly dad Daniel (Reid Scott), who spends money on her instead of time with her, buys VIP access passes for Coachella so she can meet and greet with August Moon, the boy band she stopped loving after seventh grade. At the last minute, Daniel has to bail on the festival to take another business trip (what business would that be?), so Sol’s gotta scrap her plans for a solo camping trip and instead take Izzy and her friends to the concert.
That’s where Solène mistakes a singer’s trailer for a port-a-potty, this story’s attempt at a meet cute. The singer is poor little rich boy Hayes Campbell (Galitzine), who’s been a pop sensation since he auditioned to be part of a boy band when he was 14. He’s drawn to Solène for her combination of normality (not recognizing him) and breathtaking beauty (I mean it is Anne Hathaway). He tracks her down at her art gallery, buys everything in it, and because he’s constantly hounded by press and fans, they go back to her place for lunch, where they share some stories about their trust issues (and then a kiss).
As of now, things are still going well. But this is where it moves from a just barely possible fairytale to one of those YouTube videos that gets picked apart for plot holes and character implausibility. In 2024, after half his life spent in the spotlight with fans and media scrutinizing his every move, they think Solène can go on tour through Europe with him and make out in public and no one will notice? They aged him up four years from his 20 in the book, which takes some of the oooky factor out of it but also leaves us with Hayes as basically lost sensitive guy whose immediate devotion only speaks to his perfect boyfriend ness but not oh I don’t know, undifferentiated neediness, feeling of abandonment by his mother, thoughts about someday wanting kids, generational disconnect, cultural developmental or life experience guy.
Solène’s character doesn’t fare much better (still hurt by ex, adores daughter though very cute when they sing along to St. Vincent in car supports local artists) and later has what I’d argue is a pretty understandable crisis about whether dating a pop star seven years older than her child is a good idea, but at least she has something to work with. Poor Hayes has basically two traits being in love with Solène and maybe wanting to write some songs. It should be noted that the songs in the movie, both original and needle drops, are quite good.
Anne Hathaway and Jonathan Galitzine do what they can with these underwritten roles if Oscars were given for bringing underwritten characters to life they’d be contenders but while many viewers may get more satisfaction from sweet revenge on cheating ex than romance (as implausible as it is), we can’t help but root for Solène and Hayes to find a way to make it work.
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