‘The Idea of You’ review: Anne Hathaway-led romance drama pure escapism

Movie review

Should you be in the mood for pure escapism, you can do a lot worse than “The Idea of You,” a beguiling little romantic drama about love, passion and spectacular hair. Much of this hair is on the impeccably poised head of Solène (Anne Hathaway), who lives a delightfully only-in-the-movies life: She’s an art gallery owner who wears expensively bohemian outfits, shares a perfectly curated Craftsman house with her equally well-tressed teen daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) and occasionally pouts prettily about the failings of her ex-husband, Daniel (Reid Scott), whose habitual flaking-out-at-the-last-minute requires Solène to unexpectedly take Izzy and her friends on a long-promised trip to Coachella. But wait! At Coachella, Solène does not get sunburn or COVID or temporary hearing loss, as you or I might; instead, she accidentally enters the private trailer of an extremely famous person (because Coachella is presumably full of such opportunities) and meets Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), a handsome boy-band singer who promptly falls madly in love with her.

But, before you can say “Notting Hill” (and you may as well say it, as it’s kind of the same movie; just substitute Hathaway’s art gallery for Hugh Grant’s bookshop), problems arise: namely that Solène is 40 (though looks 28) and Hayes is 24 (though looks 28), and that because of Hayes’ extreme famousness people say nasty cougar-related things about them on the internet. “You’re you and I’m me and we just don’t fit,” Solène says to Hayes, like every person in every rom-com ever, though it’s clear to us that the two have raging chemistry and a sweet rapport. Will these crazy kids work things out, to enjoy a happy life of passionate kisses and excellent-looking room-service BLTs in fancy hotels? Well, you’ve seen “Notting Hill.” (If you haven’t, do; it’s pretty good, too.)

Director Michael Showalter, who wrote the screenplay with Jennifer Westfeldt (whose comedic touch is recognizable in many funny throwaway lines) based on Robinne Lee’s novel, deftly manages the most important thing in this sort of movie: We fall in love with this couple, just a bit, and want them to be together. And Hathaway and Galitzine make a charmer of a pair. He’s sweetly dazzled by her; she’s warier, yet Hathaway lets us see this woman, who’s been burned before, gathering herself to jump off love’s diving board into unknown waters. It’s a lovely performance, in a career full of them: Hathaway has an uncanny way of bringing a world of knowing, a sense of rich past stories, into her dusky voice and bright smile. Solène may live a movie-perfect life, but Hathaway makes her real.