The Idea of You
Anne Hathaway is luminous and vulnerable in this bittersweet romance about a 40-year-old mom who falls for a much younger member of a famous boy band.
“The Idea of You” seems at first blush like just another romantic piffle — 40-year-old mom falls for much-younger internationally famous singer — but it’s a surprisingly wise and bittersweet movie that looks beyond that gimmick premise to examine what the situation would feel like to the people involved.
Anne Hathaway anchors the picture, a luminous but vulnerable presence. She evokes our empathy, but also the excitement a woman would experience when one of the most sought-after men in the world chooses her, a cast-off divorcée whose self-esteem has been battered by life.
Director Michael Showalter (“The Big Sick”), who co-wrote the script with Jennifer Westfeldt, based on the novel by Robinne Lee, understands this material and embraces the titillating aspects unabashedly. But the film’s heartbeat is rooted in sadness and fear, and our joy comes in watching the characters labor to overcome it.
It debuts on (Amazon) Prime Video May 2.
Hathaway plays Solène (Anne Hathaway), a single mom who runs her own small art gallery, Marchand Collective, in Los Angeles. Three years earlier she divorced from Daniel (Reid Scott) after an affair with a younger woman, who he later married. They share custody of 16-year-old Izzy (Ella Rubin), a sweet kid and Solène’s “favorite person.”
Daniel’s the sort of guy to flaunt his money, and is paying for Izzy and her friends to go to Coachella and a camping trip. But he bails at the last second for work stuff, and Solène agrees to go.
One of the headline acts there is August Moon, the hottest boy band in the world. Izzy used to love them but now considers them “so 7th grade,” though her dad has splurged on a backstage meet ‘n’ greet with the band. The lead singer is Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), a British heartthrob.
Solène and Hayes experience an awkward meet-cute involving a bathroom, and is surprised when the 24-year-old casts moony eyes at her during the backstage event and the concert. She seems to accept the flirtation with gratitude, understanding it’s a special night, a one-off to remember.
Except… Hayes shows up at her gallery soon after, in full pitching-woo mode. They spend a day together looking at art, talking about their respective trust issues, eating legendary sandwiches and trying to keep their hands off each other. (They fail.)
Their whirlwind romance takes them on the road with the band, and Solène gets a taste of the downside of fame. Imagine being someone like Hayes who literally cannot go anywhere without being followed by paparazzi and fans, everyone always demanding your attention.
Eventually, of course, their romance will have to go public, and that brings all sorts of problems for Solène — the ‘cougar’ social media outrage is ubiquitous — but also for Izzy. Daniel has to stick his jerk nose into things too, of course. Envy soon morphs into ire.
“People can’t stand to see a woman happy,” one of Solène’s mom friends quips. It’s funny because it’s true.
Hayes also has confidence issues, if hidden behind a megawatt star smile. He’s upfront about the fact he doesn’t really deserve his fame and fortune; he notes that the same day he auditioned for the band he also tried out for a part in “A Christmas Carol” he didn’t get.
It could just as well be somebody else in my place, he says. This is also his way of answering her confusion about why he chose her.
There’s plenty of music in “The Idea of You,” including pop tunes by August Moon but also callback soundtrack songs the characters sing and dance to. An extended weekend hotel tryst is scorching sexy and funny, to the sound of Wang Chung’s “Dance Hall Days.”
Hayes and Solène’s romance may not seem so far-fetched because, of course, most middle-aged moms don’t look like Anne Hathaway. This is as glamorous as we’ve ever seen her. It’s hard to believe the ingenue from “The Princess Diaries” is now playing the mother of a teenager… but time waits for none of us.
“The Idea of You” is the story of a seemingly impossible affair, the exciting energy of it but also the cold-hearted reality of how others might seek to feast off that. Hathaway and Galitzine make both the upsides and downsides seem very genuine.