The Idea of You
Dustin Chase
Director Michael Showalter continues to deliver smart, advantageous films that explore alternative viewpoints and uncommon characters. His previous films Hello My Name is Doris with Sally Field and the Oscar-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye were beautifully crafted projects for their leading ladies. He does it again with The Idea of You, starring the irresistible Anne Hathaway. On the surface, “The Idea of You” is a modern interpretation of Notting Hill, only gender-flipped. However, it doesn’t take long for the script, based on the book of the same name, to dive into territory and complexities the 1999 Julia Roberts couldn’t have imagined. So, for those curious about what things must have been like for Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde, read on.
She might be divorced and about to turn 40, but Solène (Hathaway) has a great life. A 16-year-old daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin), whom she adores, a successful art gallery in Silver Lake, and she’s the cool mom. Great hair, fabulous clothes, a good friend circle, even Izzy’s friends love Solène’s energy. They are going to Coachella to see a band Izzy adored a few years ago called Autumn Moon. A chance meeting brings the stylish Solène into flirty conversation with 24-year-old boy band lead singer Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine). They both find something in each other that’s missing from people their own age. They pursue the dangerous relationship until it disrupts both their lives. Solène must choose between the happiness and sanity of her daughter and this new feeling of being complete.
"If you get a shot at happiness, you take it" might be a film's most unexpectedly brutal line this year.
Actors should study Anne Hathaway’s rise, fall, and rebirth as a movie star in acting class textbooks. A promising young actress who made a name for herself with mainstream films The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada won an Academy Award for Les Misérables in 2012 and somehow became the most hated actress working. Her comeback and subsequent reinvention is a process even Miranda Priestly would admire. Her new film career path is challenging and controversial with roles like Eileen and the yet-to-be-released in America Mothers Instinct. As Solène in The Idea of You, she personifies everything the new, in-vogue Hathaway represents. She now enters the territory of a select few, who we can apply the term, “I would watch her read the phone book.”
The film’s biggest flaw is also one of its biggest strengths: costumes and set design. From the way Solène dresses to the artwork and even the decorations in her house, the entire movie is overly, almost desperately curated. It feels like a boardroom full of set designers spent days obsessing over which vase or which color pallet would appear in every frame. It sucks a bit of the authenticity out of the film. If Notting Hill examined the “every man” getting caught up in the movie star world, The Idea of You leans far more heavily on the fantasy concept of falling in love with a pop star. Showalter might not cover new ground for the romance genre or even the falling in love with someone famous subgenre, but it certainly refreshes the idea. While there are plenty of steamy and sultry scenes, the takeaways are between the lines: ageism, priorities, and motherhood. “If you get a shot at happiness, you take it” might be a film’s most unexpectedly brutal line this year.
Final Thought
In The Idea of You, a film full of guilty pleasures, Anne Hathaway is the epitome of cool.