The Idea of You review: Fanfic fantasy comes to life in this much needed Anne Hathaway rom-com!

Romantic tropes, harsh realities and a lot of steamy romance makes for the perfect escape from reality in The Idea of You!

The Idea of You review: If you’ve ever been an avid fan girl of a boy band (Yes, Armys and Directioners, I’m looking at you) you would've for sure thought of multiple scenarios in your mind where you fall in love with your idol; one where you are the lead and he falls in love with you just like in the movies, you’ll instantly become inseparable and he protects you from the media, the haters and everything that comes with it. 

Well, in The Idea of You, Sol aka Solene (Anne Hathaway) actually lives and breathes life into that fantasy. The only thing is that she was never a fan of August Moon, the boy band whose lead singer, Hayes Campbell (Nicolas Galitzine) falls for her at first sight. In fact she never even planned on meeting him. She was supposed to be on airplane mode and celebrate her 40th birthday all by herself. Until her buzzkill of an ex-husband cans on taking their daughter and her friends to Coachella. So now, of course it is upon her to take them to the popular music festival whilst canceling her plans at the drop of a hat. But Sol doesn’t have such a bad time after all because cupid had way better plans for her. 

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Hayes is mesmerized by her personality, and more than anything, he is intrigued by the fact that in a swarm of fans, she didn’t know anything about him. He serenaded her with a cute song and literally the next day he was at her art gallery pretending to care about all the pieces. From one thing to another, it eventually leads both of them to her house and the sexual tension arises. He is consumed by her aura and she senses that but she hesitates to reciprocate because of their immense age gap. She is 40 and he is 24. But she gives in to her temptations and their story of forbidden lust and romance begins while they globe trot for his tour. But society isn’t very kind to women who make their own choices, who want to be happy. For decades now men have been dating women half their age, we’ve all been guilty of enjoying films where the hero is 50 and the heroine could be the age of his daughter. But god forbid a woman does it and hell breaks loose. The movie deals with this issue and portrays it rather authentically.

Sol is constantly on the fence about their age, what would people say and the burden it would put on her daughter. It is a sad reality that she has to choose and think between ten things before she gets to choose her own happiness. And what happens when they actually do decide to tell the world about their relationship? She is guilt tripped with comments on social media about being an absent mother and the worst one. He is judged for dating an older woman and of course there’s name calling like ‘cougar’ and ‘mommy issues’. The fact that this would upset his fans is also what holds the mirror to what today’s pop culture really is like. Celebrity relationships are everyone’s new obsession and people dissect their every move, thanks to the paparazzi culture. 

The Idea of You is the story of this unconventional couple finding their normal and giving a twist to the basic rom-com tropes. There’s nothing like a feel-good Anne Hathaway rom-com and she is back with a bang in a genre she knows best. Not only does she look stunning throughout the movie but there are so many scenes where you just want to take a back seat, look at her performance and be in awe of her. Nicolas Galitzine’s character is a combination of Jungkook from BTS, Zayn Malik from One Direction with a dash of Chris Martin from Coldplay. In an interview, Nicolas mentioned he watched the above-mentioned names for research and he does show mannerisms of a pop star the way we are used to seeing them. And their chemistry together has sparks flying all over the screen. It is the secret rendez-vous and giving into your fantasies that makes it more romantic. Being a good actor and an absolute eye-candy was not enough for Nicolas so he obviously had to have a fabulous voice as well. The sound track of the film has original pop songs sung by him and his vocal talent was the unexpected part of this film.

The movie gives you that quintessential summer romance vibe that we all need and have been craving for since a while. It’s that light hearted weekend binge where you can just go with the flow without having to break a sweat at every given point. As the title suggests, it shows you the reality of how we’re in love with the idea of a celebrity until you see the cards they’re actually dealt with in real life.

The Idea of You is currently streaming on Prime Video!

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