Anne Hathaway gets romantic with younger man in The Idea of You

Despite the fact that she has continued working steadily since winning an Oscar for 2012’s Les Misérables, Anne Hathaway’s status as an A-list Hollywood star has faded somewhat. Following her charming turn in 2015’s The Intern, her recent filmography is mostly full of supporting roles or lesser-known films. Even hits like Alice Through the Looking Glass and Ocean’s 8 have failed to maintain any kind of cultural cachet.

All of which is to say that it’s great to get a reminder of her notable acting talent, which she shows off in new and interesting ways in The Idea of You. She plays Solène, a 40-year-old art gallery owner who’s also the divorced mother of 17-year-old Izzy (Ella Rubin). When her ex-husband Daniel (Reid Scott) bails on a planned trip to Coachella with Izzy, Solène chaperones instead, leading to a meet-cute with the lead singer of boy band August Moon, the 24-year-old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine).

A follow-up visit by Hayes to Solène’s art gallery leads to them embarking on a love affair, with Hayes convincing Solène to accompany him on the European leg of the band’s tour. Through a sharing of their respective life traumas and a love of art, the two are soon enraptured with each other. They do their best to ignore how the May-December aspect of their relationship will be viewed by the world at large until it inevitably comes to a head.

Directed by Michael Showalter and written by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt, the film may make you look at Hathaway in an entirely new light. Although she has played both a wife and mother in previous roles, she feels like a fully mature woman in this part. Some may quibble with the character’s choices, including fans of Robinne Lee’s source novel, but Hathaway uses Solène’s strengths and vulnerabilities to her advantage, giving her best performance in recent memory.

Those ruing the lack of romance in modern movies will find plenty to enjoy in this film. Showalter and Westfeldt do an effective job of portraying Hayes and Solène as people who would legitimately be attracted to one another both physically and mentally, and their scenes together have a palpable spark to them. Although the filmmakers give somewhat short shrift to the complicating factors that would affect such a relationship in the real world, the story remains grounded enough to stay believable in the world of the movie.

Also helpful in establishing the credibility of the story are the songs sung by August Moon, written by Savan Kotecha and Carl Falk. Each of the songs played in the film are legitimate bops, ones you could easily see making the fictional boy band popular enough to be headliners at Coachella. Galitizine is credited as the singer on all of the original songs, and his vocal chops make his performance feel more authentic as well.

After a solid first hour, the film does become a little fast and loose in the second hour. There’s more telling and less showing of the mother-daughter bond that Solène and Izzy share, and the film rushes through the impact that Solène and Hayes’ relationship has on Izzy. In fact, pretty much every character outside of the main duo could have been fleshed out more to give more feeling to the events toward the end of the film.

Still, The Idea of You has more hits than misses, with a compelling lead performance by Hathaway, strong chemistry with rising star Galitzine, and songs that could become hits in the real world. With more roles like this, Hathaway could be on her way to a strong second half of her career.

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The Idea of You is now streaming on Prime Video.