'The Idea of You' review: Anne Hathaway dazzles in rom-com inspired by Harry Styles fandom

In Michael Showalter’s The Idea of You — which sees a middle-aged mother falling for a youthful pop star — fan-fiction fantasy collides with reality in clunky ways. The result, however, is breathtaking for one reason in particular: a career-highlight performance from Anne Hathaway, who also serves as the movie’s producer.

The rom-com is seldom considered a venue for such luminous on-screen work, but Showalter’s film (penned by Kissing Jessica Stein's Jennifer Westfeldt) affords the Oscar-winning actress a fun, freeing, and occasionally melodramatic part. While the movie too lazily expresses its social commentary through verbose declarations about double standards for women in the public spotlight, Hathaway frequently speaks with her eyes, bringing the story’s more complicated emotions and desires to the fore in silent, considered moments.

It's a rush of energy at times, and its weakest moments are only fleeting inconveniences. Bottoms' Nicholas Galitzine holds his own opposite Hathaway in a role that — though shallowly written — provides him with a star-making turn. But enough cannot be said about what a tremendous performance Hathaway delivers here, practically warping the movie around her blazing screen presence, until The Idea of You becomes a personal mission statement about the kind of roles she will very likely command in the near future. (In her own words: “I want to have fun, dammit. It speaks to me.”)

What is The Idea of You about?  

Based on the 2017 novel by actress Robinne Lee, The Idea of You expands on the burgeoning cottage industry of film based on lightly-disguised fan fiction of One Direction’s Harry Styles. Where the five-movie After series — released between 2019 and 2023, based on a series of 2014-15 novels — features international college student Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), The Idea of You has the more straightforwardly Styles-esque Hayes Campbell (Galitzine), a 24-year-old English heartthrob who ostensibly leads the boy band August Moon.

The group, now nearly a decade old, is still popular with tweens and mothers, but to high-schooler Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her friends, they’re already a nostalgia act ("They’re so seventh grade," she groans). When Izzy’s father, Daniel (Reid Scott), splurges on VIP tickets to the band’s Coachella meet-and-greet, she politely agrees to attend — while her mother Solène (Hathaway) is unexpectedly called in to chaperone.

Solène is a 40-year-old art dealer in Los Angeles's hipster chic Silver Lake, and isn’t particularly enthused about hordes of screaming fans of August Moon — a band she knows little about. However, a misunderstanding leads to a meet-cute in Hayes’ trailer, during which the young Brit is instantly smitten with the beguiling mom. Solène is more amused than swooning. But the fact that she doesn’t seem to really know who he is — and that she isn’t flustered or overwhelmed by his celebrity — is refreshing to Hayes.

He pursues her with oodles of charm, leading to a secretive whirlwind romance on his European tour. Unfortunately, a celebrity affair can only stay secret for so long. The dam inevitably breaks, revealing a flood of misogyny directed Solène’s way through social media. 

This leads to a somber detour, during which the film insists on stopping to explain its underlying social dynamics in broad, preachy statements for the camera, even when it doesn’t need to. Hathaway’s quiet responses to each evolving scenario carry enough nuance to get the point across, ensuring that The Idea of You remains tethered to its emotional core even when it verges on sermonizing. There’s rarely a moment where the actress isn’t utterly convincing as a woman trying to fend off venomous media scrutiny as she attempts to live her best life. It’s a fitting role for Hathaway, given what she’s been through herself — Hathahaters gonna hate — but this is just one of several elements that makes her performance so unmissable.

Anne Hathaway is absolutely stunning in The Idea of You.

The plot might seem run-of-the-mill, but the dramatic tensions between Hayes and Solène — stemming from their differing lifestyles, and the disparity in what they want and how they read various situations, given their 16-year age gap — are deftly expressed through wordless glances. You could watch the film on mute and still feel 100 percent of the electricity between its leads (though you’d miss out on the movie’s earworm soundtrack in the process, a fitting mix of classic rock and August Moon "originals").  As it's being released straight to Prime Video, it’s a shame The Idea of You won’t see a proper theatrical release, because listening to (and more importantly, feeling) an entire audience being swept up in the movie is one hell of a fun experience. It’s the kind of film that draws not only raucous laughter from a crowd, but excited hooting and hollering when things get hot and heavy. 

The couple’s hesitance is palpable, but so is their mutual lust and their deeper, more fulfilling connection. Showalter builds their respective desires through scenes of what they lack, or what they can’t find elsewhere. Hayes attempts to tune out the overzealous energy of screaming fans, and Solène tries her best not to be bogged down by the mundane, divorcé energy of men her age. He wants something more mature, and more stable, while she yearns for the kind of free-spirited adventure she never had as a young mother who married right after college. These desires are at odds, but can they meet perfectly in the middle?

Nicolas Galitzine is no Harry Styles. 

As a stage performer in The Idea of You, Galitzine lacks the pop prince's high level of panache. But he is committed to rounding out the character with hidden layers behind closed doors. However, he frequently brushes up against issues in the film’s writing and editing. 

We rarely see the deeper, non-celebrity self of which he frequently speaks, and which draws Solène to him in the first place. His interiority is more discussed than revealed. Still, their dynamic is immediately enrapturing because of Hathaway’s suppressed excitement. Even if you never feel a thing for Hayes during the movie’s 115 minutes, all you need is one look at Solène’s reactions to his longing stares in order to be convinced. The way she smiles with her eyes tells an entire story on its own: of a woman who yearns to be seen and adored, and who finally gets these things whenever Hayes walks into a room.

It's a thrilling performance, and it proves to be heartbreaking even when the movie speeds through its interpersonal drama to skip between rom-com tropes, including the inevitable rift between the lovers. Hathaway makes these rushed plot elements feel whole, turning Solène’s insecurities inward in the form of fear, and outward as impulsive, self-destructive decisions. It’s as though Solène, having been hurt by men in the past, is so terrified of love’s possibilities that she has no choice but to stop the movie dead. But no matter what direction it takes, Hathaway fills it with life.

How fantasy and reality collide in The Idea of You.

Showalter tends to lack visual flair as a filmmaker, which surprisingly (perhaps accidentally) works to his advantage in initial scenes. Before Hayes and Solène meet, the frame always seems noncommittal, both in its staging and its use of color. It’s never aesthetically offensive, but it doesn’t do much beyond take an unobtrusive, uninvolved, flatly lit look at Solène’s daily routine.

However, once Solène gives into temptation (after allowing herself to feel the giddy rush of youthful anticipation), she gets swept up in Hayes’ lifestyle, and cinematographer Jim Frohna turns the frame warm and intimate. His camera captures each arousing first — their first touch, their first kiss, and Solène’s steamy first orgasm — with ecstatic energy, as the characters get lost in passion. But they also simply enjoy each other’s company behind closed doors, and get swept up in joy and laughter far away from watchful eyes.

When the weight of reality comes crashing down on them, in the form of invasive celebrity gossip and online vitriol, the effects on Solène’s psyche are stark. But the impact of their relationship on Izzy ends up a key factor in the film’s trajectory. In aging Izzy up to 16 (she’s 12 years old in the book), she becomes a much more self-aware part of the story, with her own thoughts and her own conflicting objections and acceptance. The film employs her as a sly mouthpiece for its gender commentary — much like Barbie did with its opinionated teenager —but how seriously it takes her input seems to change from scene to scene.

On the plus side, The Idea of You never falls victim to the brash, reductive framing of art and artistry found in many mainstream films — especially romance films, where couples bond over their distaste for perceived pretentiousness. What starts out as a scene of Hayes and Solène making fun of modern, interpretive art takes on a much more meaningful tone as they find connection in the abstract. Solène loves art, after all, and Hayes even learns to take it as seriously as she does. Conversely, whenever Hayes’ artistic insecurities bubble to the surface, Solène takes him seriously too, despite his seemingly frivolous public persona. It helps that the music he produces — whether his soulful acoustic solos, or the group’s mainstream chart-toppers, which have a bit of a Maroon 5 kick — is genuinely worth listening to. 

The ideas these two people have of each other may be idealized at times, as is the case with any new relationship. But the movie reckons with this as well. It brushes up against the expectations of romantic comedies, at times subverting them by delving deeper than expected into its couple’s personal complications (in this case, stemming from Hayes’ dreamlike stardom). However, The Idea of You is also entirely unapologetic about its genre, despite verging on deconstructive in its final act. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, and it mostly succeeds.

Lee’s book was criticized by several readers for its sudden, arguably unpleasant ending. The movie doesn’t avoid this aspect of the source material, but it does expand on it in satisfying ways, which are anchored by Hathaway’s riveting performance, resulting in a final shot destined to be remembered among the actress’s career highlights. She’s consistently delivered during her 23-year career, whether in her Oscar-winning role in prestige musical Les Misérables, or in traditional dramas like Brokeback Mountain and Rachel Getting Married. However, her work in rom-coms isn’t remembered quite as fondly. While this may be understandable for less acclaimed films like Bride Wars and Valentine’s Day, even 2010’s Love & Other Drugs, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, is seldom mentioned in the same breath as her strongest work. She hasn’t starred in a rom-com in nearly a decade and a half, so The Idea of You marks a triumphant return to a genre in which she hasn’t received her due, making it a crowning moment for someone who’s always had the potential to be a rom-com queen.

It’s a performance that not only works within the lighthearted confines of the rom-com, but one that demands more rigorous dramatic work as well: a cinematic synthesis that requires an actress of her caliber. She’s so phenomenally in-tune with the material that she practically transforms The Idea of You into a career rebirth, where she’s able to fashion a genre otherwise considered disposable fluff into something deeply moving, writing a new chapter for herself as a character who wrestles with whether or not she deserves a new lease on life. The answer, for both Hathaway and Solène, is an emphatic “yes,” and seeing them get everything they deserve is cinematic wish-fulfillment at its finest.

The Idea of You was reviewed out of SXSW 2024; it will debut on Prime Video on May 2.