Title: The Idea of You
MPA Rating: R
Director: Michael Showalter
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins

What It Is: Solène (Hathaway) is a 40-year old single mom just doing her thing. When her ex-husband, her daughters father cancels on her daughter Izzy (Rubin) she now has to take his spot with Izzy and her friends at Coachella. It is here at the famous desert music festival that Solène meets Hayes (Galitzine) one of the members of a boy band. He’s immediately smitten by the lovely Solène and the two try to commit to each other while dealing with the spotlight that comes from the situation that is Hayes.

What We Think: This is a breath of fresh air for the RomCom genre and honestly this is a genre on the uptick here in the year of our lord 2024. There’s been some really high consistency within it these last 7 months. Anne Hathaway here is fantastic. She’s charming but works seriously in the right moments. Showalter continues to impress behind the camera. From The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Big Sick and Hello, My Name is Doris to his debut The Baxter. Dude just brings fire. What I love about his style and by proxy this film is that all the characters, as they do in his films, feel like plausible, real, characters. They’re flawed and its only through those flaws that we, the audience can enjoying and appreciate the them.

Our Grade: B+, Prime scooped this one up quick as hell after it’s debut at SXSW this year. You can completely understand why. It’s a wonderfully crafted, if a little formulaic, romantic comedy that is all the right parts romantic and just funny enough to be considered a comedy. Check this one out on Prime when you get a chance. You won’t regret it.