The Pitch: It’s your classic love story: chiseled-jaw stockbroker Ben (Glen Powell) meet-cutes flibbertigibbet law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) in a coffee shop one day, leading to a beautiful day of casual walks through the park, sizzling conversation (and grilled cheese sandwiches), and a cozy night falling asleep just talking, you guys. But the morning leads to a couple of only-in-the-movies miscommunications, leading to animosity and a mutual decision to never see each other again.
Cut to six months later, and they’re drawn back in each other’s orbit: Bea’s sister (Hadley Robinson) is getting married to Ben’s close friend (Alexandra Shipp), and the pair invite the wedding party to a gorgeous destination wedding in Sydney, Australia. Thrust together by circumstance, the bickering pair threaten to derail the whole weekend — until they decide to just fake being in love to get their overbearing friends and family off their backs till the ceremony ends.
A Merry War Betwixt Them: The big-budget theatrical romantic comedy is, arguably, a lost art — now mostly the purview of Netflix originals, often populated by teens and early twentysomethings, it’s been a good long time since we’ve gotten an honest-to-goodness adult romcom. (Sure, we had Ticket to Paradise last year, with which this film carries more than a few parallels, but pickings remain slim.) Thus, here we are with Anyone But You, a gossamer-thin but genial entry in the genre, one that gestures towards a return of that vaunted time when you could sit back and watch two hot people fall in love amidst a beautiful locale.
The source material for Ilana Wolpert’s script, as the character names and general premise may imply, is William Shakespeare’s classic comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Co-writer and director Will Gluck makes zero bones about this: from the beginning, his camera lingers several times on graffiti or building signs that are just quotes from that play, or even the title itself. It’s the kind of romantic tension that’s fueled every great rom-com since When Harry Met Sally…, glitzed up for the Instagram generation: can two hot people whom audiences would clearly like to see smooch get over their manufactured animosity in two hours or less?
So much of the film’s charm leans on its stars, as physiologically perfect near-movie star material as the 2020s can produce. Powell and Sweeney are chiseled, airbrushed specimens we’re meant to ogle, as each new setpiece finds new excuses to put them in neckline-plunging dresses or, in Powell’s case, various stages of actual undress. Individually, they’re charming, Powell especially: His comic timing is as perfectly polished as his pearly-white smile, brimming with frazzled comic energy that comes from being a hottie who just doesn’t know what to do with all of his chiseled abs. It’s a struggle!
Sydney, Meet Sydney: Sweeney, unfortunately, fares little better, as the script gives her less material to work with by design, making her kind of passive. Apart from an inspired bit in the beginning involving some soaked blue jeans and a hand dryer in a coffee shop bathroom, Sweeney falls just short of the kind of blushing yet quirky performance that America’s Sweethearts could crush in the 1990s. The two acquit themselves well in scenes, but their chemistry as a pair is… overstated. (Add to that the script’s insistence that such a contrived misunderstanding would cause these two to turn from soulmate material to bitter enemies; just know that the thing that makes them hate each other is so insubstantial as to beggar belief.)
Anyone But You (Sony Pictures)
Still, Anyone But You is less a film to be absorbed than it is a film to be looked at. More than the physical perfection of its leads, Gluck urges us to ogle the majestic mountains and beautiful landmarks of Sydney, Australia. It’s a film all but endorsed by the Australia Tourism Board, suggesting that it doesn’t matter how contrived Bea and Ben’s love story may be. Against that gorgeous sea and sand, or under the gaze of a wise koala bear, anyone can find romance.
The Rest Is Still Unwritten: That’s not to say the film’s empty calories aren’t wholly unwelcome. The supporting cast does a lot of the comedy’s heavy lifting, as they vacillate between trying to steal Ben or Bea themselves with scheming to get them together. Dermot Mulroney’s always an ace at these kinds of goofy-dad roles, but the real standout is Dave costar (and Lil Dicky’s IRL hype man) GaTa, taking a crack at feature film acting and easily stealing any scene he’s in. He’s saddled with the Prototypical Black Best Friend role you’ve seen in a million of these movies, sure, but GaTa coasts through scenes with pros like Powell and Aussie legend Bryan Brown with all the confidence of an actor who wasn’t so much directed as unleashed upon the film.
Anyone But You (Sony Pictures)
It’s these moments that spice up an otherwise predictable story, one built off labyrinthine schemes and fake-out love interests and confusingly-timed misunderstandings. There’s the second-act breakup, the bonding over a throwback pop song (big ups to Natasha Beddingfield), the big race to profess love at a famous landmark that involves a frankly unconscionable abuse of Australia’s emergency services apparatus. Nothing surprises, everything comforts. It goes down easy, which I suppose is the point of these things.
The Verdict: Are Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney really in love off-screen? Anyone But You offers little answers, nor should it have to. But that behind-the-scenes intrigue doesn’t translate all that much to the final product, as easygoing and disposable a rom-com as you’ll see. It’s almost unfair to expect Gluck and co. to deliver more than they’re going for here: hot people making moon-eyes at each other while wearing gorgeously tailored clothing against some of the most beautiful places on God’s green Earth. Just don’t expect it to rewrite the genre playbook.
Where’s It Playing? Anyone But You charms and smarms its way into theaters on December 22nd.
Trailer:
