Prime Video’s new film, The Idea of You, is based on the Robinne Lee novel of the same name. The story revolves around a 40-year-old divorcee, mother of a young girl, who has a relationship with a 20-year-old boy bander. Per a friend’s suggestion, I read the book and ultimately hated it. Probably not for the reasons you may think.

The book sells a love story about people who just can’t be together because life and the public are keeping them down. However, when I read it I just saw two unlikeable people who are weirdly infatuated and selfish. So, it wasn’t until reading that Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine would be taking on the main roles in the film that I got excited. If anyone can make these two characters interesting and likable it’s them.

THE IDEA OF YOU GETS A FULL REWRITE CREATING A MAGICAL ROMANCE

As someone who has watched a lot of Wattpad turned films, I honestly wasn’t expecting much from The Idea of You. Boy, was I wrong. The story got a whole rewrite. While the basic premise is there the rest of it is brand new or changed. Beginning with streamlining the story. There is no Oliver drama or Oliver’s sister drama. It does not exist. Hayes is aged from 20 to 24. Then, moving on, Solène and Hayes meet cute moving from a meet and greet in Vegas to an awkward run-in, in his trailer at Coachella. The daughter is aged to a teenager. Solène is no longer a pretentious gallery owner in Beverly Hills, but now the cool artsy gallery owner in Silverlake.

However, the biggest change of them all is giving Solène and Hayes a real relationship filled with personal and deep conversations. In the book, all she ever does is talk about how hot he is. So, it was nice and refreshing to see them share secrets and bond over life experiences and not just sex. This was one of my biggest complaints while reading the book and why it was never a love story to me. This major change fixes everything. I was able to fall in love with and root for them to make it work.

Nicholas Galitzine (Mary and George) and Anne Hathaway are absolutely stellar together. From Galatizine’s effortless charm and Hathaway’s quickness, their acting and chemistry are off the charts. These two have created one of the best romance films I’ve seen in a very long time.

My only complaint is for a story based on smutty fan fiction…there isn’t a lot of smut. The book was originally written as smutty fan fiction. So, it was sex galore from boats to hotels, and even on top of expensive art. However, the focus of the film leans away from the fan fiction smutty beginnings giving the viewer incredibly sexy kisses and heavy breathing. This is one change I wish they had worked on more. There easily could have been a happy medium between the two to earn that R-rating because after watching I’m not sure why it’s not PG-13.

Amazon MGM Studios releases The Idea of You in theaters and on Prime Video on May 2, 2024.

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