The Idea of You

Amazon Prime and Prime Video have been sneaking out a lot of original content this year. They seem to be focusing on romantic comedies and comedies and they have actually been pretty good. The Idea of You got a good amount of internet attention for a lot of reasons, and we will discuss them all. But I for one was excited to watch the newest Anne Hathaway movie. So let’s go into The Idea of You from Prime Video.

First of all Anne Hathaway looks incredible. Her character is turning 40, Anne Hathaway is 41 and damn she looks great. So this story centers around a very close mother and daughter. The daughter is going to a concert with her friends and mom is going camping to center herself. Mom and dad are divorced, dad has a new girl and he sucks. Moms trip gets canceled because dad bails at the last minute and now she has to take them to this concert.

They get to Coachella and mom is on her own. She somehow stumbles into one of the acts' trailers. Because apparently all of the Coachella security was on a lunch break or something. Nicholas Galitzine was an incredible casting choice. He is adorable. I loved him in Red, White, and Royal Blue and I think he was perfect for this. Also he and Anne Hathaway look great together.

The scene of the teenagers meeting the boy band that they totally outgrew is so accurate. They are too cool but they are so flustered when they are in the general vicinity of the band and it's so cute. You should never be too cool for your middle school boyband. The Jonas Brothers will always have my heart.

Oh these boyband moves are so NSYNC. A+ Choreographer, they scream 90s boy band.

Now one of the reasons that this movie got so much internet attention was because of the relationship's age gap. Solene is 40 and the young boy band front man is 24. See when men write age gaps, the man is 40 and the girl is freshly 18, it's creepy and weird no matter how you look at it. When women write age gaps the woman is 40, therefore combatting the idea that a woman’s virility and beauty expire, and the man is 25, a full grown, frontal lobe fully developed person. Please acknowledge the huge massive difference there.

When Hayes visits Solene’s art gallery, every single artist she mentions is a woman. It is a very subtle thing but it implies that she, a 40 year old woman, runs an art gallery specifically showcasing women’s art. It's a very small detail that gives us a lot of information about her character and I think that was a brilliant touch.

When she is opening up to Hayes about how her ex husband cheated on her, Anne delivers such a beautiful monologue. Her pacing, her tone, her expression offers such range and insight. She is such an incredible actress and I feel like because she is known for “fun” movies her skill and talent gets brushed over or overlooked and I just want to acknowledge how incredible she is.

He invites her to New York and she goes…YAY. God they are actually so cute and I love them. I just want any character Anne Hathaway plays to be happy.

When the have the classic and very necessary second act break up, it is after he, of course fucks up and she finds out he lied to her. After telling him about how she got cheated on I feel like her reaction was pretty fair. HE BUYS HER THE ART PIECE SHE LOVES!!! WOW.

Her ex husband has the AUDACITY to tell her that having a relationship with a younger man would be crazy. First of all ew, second of all gross, third of all fuck off. The fact that his new girl is leaving him is great. When Solene tells her friend she straight up asks “So when Daniel does it it's gross but when I do it it's fine?”, this would be another reason people on the internet were exploding and here's the thing, he cheated, she didn’t. That’s it. That’s a huge fucking difference.

Wow, her daughter is awesome. Solene did a really good job of raising her, because she expresses her anger in a reasonable way and then really just asks her mom if she’s okay. Great mother-daughter relationship. It's her daughter's idea to delete social media so that they don’t have to deal with the storm of attention. And like a good mom, when it became too much for her daughter she broke up with him.

They promise to separate until Izzy is out of school and Hayes falls into obscurity. Look the scene with Graham Norton was great but as a huge fan of the actual Graham Norton show, in what world does the musical guest get the couch to himself? Would never happen.

This is the second film that has come out this year that features an age gap between an older woman and a younger (but fully mentally and emotionally developed) man. They are both incredible and I think this is Hollywood’s way of pushing back on the idea that women have an expiration date. Both in life and in Hollywood. I give the movie a very solid 8.5/10. It was sweet, funny, cute, everything a good rom com should be. Anne Hathaway is an absolutely perfect lead for literally any genre of film. She is beautiful and her acting is smart and subtle. The revitalization of the romantic comedy genre with older female leads is incredible and a wonderful addition to the genre.