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In his novel, From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy, author Scott Meslow writes, “In some ways, making a fun zippy rom-com is maybe the hardest kind of movie to make.” The early 2000s made it look easy, bringing back to life a genre that was often declared dead, alive, and dead again. With the end of the golden age of romantic comedies, it seems that the genre is dead again – or that’s just what the internet wants you to think. Searching the question, “Is the rom-com dead,” results in many articles from the last year alone declaring so. But the romantic comedy has never been dead, only evolving, and taking old conventions and trying new things.
Since the end of the 2000s, we’ve had rom-coms about female friendships (Bridesmaids), women embracing singledom (How to Be Single), and women who love to fuck (Trainwreck). New narratives are forming, while old tropes are subverting. The rom-com is also more queer than ever, with films like Fire Island rewriting classic love stories.
Anyone But You Review
Anyone But You fits both the old and new rom-com mold, taking tropes from the early 2000s and combining them with our desire for more messy, real characters. Many of our beloved rom-coms of the golden era are just plain silly in concept but they have a strong emotional pull and big laughs. They’re lighthearted, humorous, cutesy fun. Will Gluck is a writer and director who, after giving us works like Easy A, Friends with Benefits, and About Last Night, should know what works and what doesn’t in a modern romantic comedy. In the case of his latest, Anyone But You, he misses the mark, creating a film that is neither funny nor reignites that agonizing feeling of waiting for the boy and girl to finally kiss.
We begin, of course, with a meet-cute. In Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell)’s case, it’s in a coffee shop. Cute, flirtatious, and silly all in one, they hit it off and spend the rest of the day walking around the city, followed by Ben making Bea a grilled cheese, and the pair talking themselves to sleep. Quickly after that, we have a classic case of miscommunication as Bea sneaks away before Ben wakes up and immediately regrets it. Ben is hurt, and when Bea comes back after realizing her mistake, she overhears him saying hurtful things about her to his friend Pete (GaTa).
A couple of years later, they have a tension-filled reunion in a small-world scenario. It turns out that Pete’s sister, Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), is getting married to Bea’s sister, Halle (Hadley Robinson), and Bea and Ben are at the wedding party. They don’t want anything to do with each other, but soon find themselves stuck together at this destination wedding in Sydney. Everyone is worried that their animosity will ruin the wedding, so the blushing brides and the rest of the party try to trick them into falling for each other. The pair quickly clue in, but decide that pretending to be together might work in their favour. For one, Bea could get her parents off her back about breaking it off with her fiancee, Jonathan (Darren Barnet), and it would hopefully convince Ben’s ex, Margaret (Charlee Fraser), to get back with him. With their tension on the verge of eruption, can they make their relationship convincing?
Anyone But You doesn’t break new ground but does sell what it’s advertising: Two hot people falling in love. For some moviegoers, that might just be enough.
Anyone But You shows its formulaic, cliché side from the start. The animosity between them begins in a very tired fashion, but it introduces the classic haters-to-lovers trope. Following in Fire Island’s footsteps on being inspired by a classic work, in its case Pride and Prejudice, Anyone But You has Much Ado About Nothing written all over it, literally. Quotes from the play are littered throughout, meant to appear naturally in the environment but feel too gimmicky. Far from the quality of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, the script is too bland to live up to films like 10 Things I Hate About You. One that really sucks you into the romance and makes you desperately hang to the hope of a happy ending. The absence of this doesn’t speak to the performances or chemistry of the leads, but rather, the weak script. This is not seen more so than in its execution of the fake relationship trope. Like in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Proposal, it’s often ridiculous but it’s a trope that can be done creatively. It also just needs to be funny and Anyone But You fails to meet that criteria.
If it weren’t for Sweeney and Powell, Anyone But You would be a total disaster. You’re completely sold on their growing attraction from the very beginning and it only gets stronger as the story unfolds. They are at times adorably charming, while their chemistry balances from sweet, sizzling to scorching hot. Their banter is the only zippy fun part. While exposition in Ben’s case could have used some work, Bea squashes the 2000s romantic comedy expectation that you can have it all, while also getting rid of the whole, “I need a man to complete me,” vibe. She’s the headstrong female lead of old, but one that we meet during the worst time in her life. Newly single and unsure about her future, she’s full of uncertainties and worry.
Anyone But You doesn’t break new ground but does sell what it’s advertising: Two hot people falling in love. For some moviegoers, that might just be enough.
Grade: D+
Anyone But You
“They only look like the perfect couple.” Bea and Ben look like the perfect couple, but after an amazing first date, something happens that turns their fiery hot attraction ice cold — until they find themselves unexpectedly thrust together at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do – pretend to be a couple.
Release Date: December 20, 2024
Director: Will Gluck
Cast: Sydney Sweeney , Glen Powell , Alexandra Shipp
