The Idea of You: pop star romance has a strangely inhuman quality

Robinne Lee, the writer of the novel The Idea Of You, has dismissed the idea her text is Harry Styles fan fiction, but this adaptation seems to lean into the speculation. The film follows a 40-year-old art gallery owner Soléne (Anne Hathaway) who is given VIP passes to Coachella by her ex-husband. She gets lost looking for the bathroom, only to find herself in the trailer of Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the most popular member of the British boy band August Moon (as we learned in interracial rom-com The Big Sick (2017) and queer romance Spoiler Alert (2022), director Michael Showalter a loves a ‘meet cute’). From here, the pair fall slowly, predictably, in love. Challenges lie ahead as they evade the paparazzi and deal with toxic fandoms and judgement around on their 16-year age gap.  

The Idea of You is not exactly a romantic comedy, in that it eschews punchlines for dewy-eyed glances and passionate kisses in the rain that do not so much subvert romantic clichés as eulogise them. Unfortunately, this means that every composition, character, and plot device evokes a dozen superior films that have more compelling depictions of desire. 

This saccharine approach to love, so sanitised and chaste, ultimately leads to a lingering atmosphere of insincerity and a childishness that is out of step with attempted nods towards female empowerment, with Soléne’s friend Tracy quipping about the press backlash that “no one likes a happy woman.” Further commentary on the toxicity of the internet and the strange para-social relationships between celebrities and their fans hold little weight and, if anything, feels a little jarring given the similarities with the real life of a famed boy band member.  

There’s a sense that the filmmakers are shielding themselves from age-gap discourse by continually asserting Hayes’s maturity and levelling the playing field of their power dynamic with reminders of his astonishing wealth and fame. As for Soléne, Hathaway plays her with an openness and naivete that seems at odds with her character’s background as a divorced single mother and savvy business-woman. From her immaculate styling to her lack of emotional baggage, she feels as removed from reality as the celebrity persona Hayes presents to the world. 

The film is not without its charms. There are enough coy half-smiles and moments of intimacy to keep their attraction plausible and sweet. But Hayes’s parallels with a well-known pop star somehow create a strangely inhuman quality that sends the film into an unromantic and uncanny valley.

► The Idea of You is available to stream now on Amazon Prime.