Hot on the heels of the controversial 2024 erotic thriller “Miller’s Girl” landing on Netflix — causing lead Martin Freeman to offer a fresh defense of the movie and the age gap between him and his 31-years-younger co-star, Jenna Ortega — comes another movie built upon a May-December romance.
However, we expect no such fervor over the relatively tame “The Idea of You,” an Amazon MGM Studios release debuting this week on Prime Video.
For starters, the age gap is roughly half of that of the “Miller’s Girl”: Anne Hathaway’s Solène is freshly 40, while Nicholas Galitzine’s Hayes is 24.
And this is no erotic thriller, but instead a romance, albeit one with a couple of admirable moments of striking but authentic-feeling intimacy.
However, despite an excellent performance by Hathaway as the Los Angeles art gallery director and divorced mom, the adaptation of Robinne Lee’s novel falls a little flat.
It is the rare miss — and, to be fair, at most a minor miss — from director and co-writer Michael Showalter, whose impressive list of films includes “The Big Sick,” “The Lovebirds” and “Spoiler Alert.”
The setup is hokey but cute, Solène meeting Hayes at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival when she mistakes his trailer for a VIP restroom.
You see, she’s there because her cocky-but-flaky ex-husband, Daniel (Reid Scott of “Veep”), bowed out at the last minute, choosing business over taking their teen daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin), and her friends to the fest. The big draw — more for Izzy’s friends than her, as she’s now into female singer-songwriters with something to say — is the boy band August Moon, of which Hayes is a member.
Hayes, a boy band singer and celebrity portrayed by Nicholas Galitzine, meets Anne Hathaway’s gallery owner Solène in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Courtesy of Amazon Content Services)
Once Hayes clues Solène into who he is and finds out why she’s there, he attempts to confirm Izzy is a fan.
“She was,” Solène says.
“Ouch,” he says, listening further as she quotes her daughter saying the band is “so seventh-grade.”
Soon, there’s a VIP meet-and-greet, with the pair getting a few more chances to exchange glances as Izzy and pals snag autographs and pics with the band, followed by a performance during which Hayes makes an apparent change to the setlist so he can sing a song for someone he met on this day.
The fictional boy band August Moon performs in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Courtesy of Amazon Content Services)
Solène seems to enjoy this little injection of some excitement into her life but figures that is that — until Hayes shows up in her gallery in Silver Lake under the auspices of needing to furnish a London apartment. (How much does he want to impress her? He buys EVERYTHING.)
Next thing you know, they’re fleeing to her house to escape overly enthusiastic fans who’ve tracked him to the gallery. At her piano, we get a taste of that aforementioned intimacy, but Solène eventually slams on the breaks.
Hayes, however, has a few moves up his sleeves in the days ahead, and, before she knows it, Solène is being whisked around another continent with Hayes, the other band members and their (much younger) female acquaintances.
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Can they avoid unwanted media attention? Can the world just let these two be happy together? (Um, no and no.)
The screenplay, by Showalter and “Kissing Jessica Stein” writer, director and star Jennifer Westfeldt, is of the herky-jerky variety, with Solene jumping all in and pulling back out a bit too often for the movie to find a real groove. Moments of real happiness (Wang Chung hotel room karaoke!) quickly give way to intense heartache (the mean Internet). And back and forth we go!
Again, though, Hatheway (“Les Misérables,” “Interstellar”) is in ultra-fine form, oozing with all the emotions Solène experiences, Galitzine (“Mary & George,” “Red, White & Royal Blue”) isn’t in the same class. He can sing and play guitar and piano, so he checks the role’s boy band-related boxes, but he struggles to make us feel Hayes’ intense need for Solène. Sure, these are two attractive people, so it’s not as if they’re not at all believable together, but the chemistry isn’t where it needs to be.
Nevertheless, you cannot simply dismiss the movie as another ho-hum romance as, like some of the musical artists Izzy now appreciates, it has something to offer from a feminist perspective — commentary about how the happiness of a woman tends to be prioritized by others less than what is expected of her.
Still, the idea of “The Idea of You” is better than the film itself.
‘The Idea of You’
Where: Prime Video.
When: May 2.
Rated: R for some language and sexual content.
Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.
