The Idea of You (2024)

All I can say for this film is Anne Hathaway, darling, what on Earth are you doing? The level of talent that she possesses as an actress was honestly wasted in this film. 

The idea of you is about a single mother in her 40s who falls in love with a boy band singer in his 20s. It starts off alright. The movie has that feel good summer type of feeling as it is beginning. This is where we are introduced to Anne Hathaway’s character Solene and her daughter Izzy who is played by Ella Rubin. Without giving too much away, the film is great up until Solene meets the singer known as Hayes Campbell. This character is played by Nicholas Galitzine and I have never watched a movie where every interaction between the main love interests are so awkward and uncomfortable. It is not to say that the two are bad actors, I just think they are a bad match. They have no chemistry together and honestly why would they. They are both talented actors in their own right but they are at very different levels of talent and it simply doesn’t work. 

Also casting Anne Hathaway as a 40 year old single mum who got cheated on and gets herself into a relationship with a 24 year old just is not believable. They mention her age so many times in order to express to the audience that she is far older than the boy but Anne looks almost exactly the same now as she did when she was 19 years old. As talented as she is, she does not fit this role in any way. Especially when the script is so appalling at certain points. 

As I was sitting watching this movie, I genuinely thought ‘who thought this was a good idea? Who wrote this script and thought yes this line is perfect and it has to go in the movie?’ I cannot begin to explain how bad it was. I will say that there were some very average and okay parts of the movie but I was shocked at how bad it was. Particularly when I knew Anne Hathaway was in it, I had high expectations because generally speaking her films are very good and her acting is phenomenal. However, this movie was entirely disappointing. I had to force myself to finish the film and had to keep checking how much time was left. If you were thinking about watching this, please do not waste your time because this movie was a flop. Instead, I suggest you watch one of Hathaway’s older and better films.