I've seen The Idea of You twice since it came out. Normally, I am not interested in cishet romances because they are a dime a dozen. Every time I turn around, I am running into a new one. They're nice, but they don't speak to me personally as a queer person. So, I tend to watch queer romances and I enjoy them a lot more.
My main exception to this rule is The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2 with Anne Hathaway. I see them as a trans story, which helps my enjoyment. Add to that the fact that I love Anne Hathaway and that these are (IMNSHO) the perfect romances, and I will gladly watch them. The other, more recent, exception is cishet romances with Nicholas Galitizine. I've watched every movie he's been in (still have 2 TV shows to watch at some point) and have enjoyed him in every one. There were one or two that I didn't like, but those weren't about him, they were about the story or the other actors. So when I heard there was a movie where these two were the romantic leads, I was instantly intrigued and decided to watch it.
I did read the book after I watched the movie and I have to say that I was not impressed. It wasn't a bad book, in fact it was in many respects a fairly standard romance (albeit with a non-traditional ending) with lots of fairly descriptive sex scenes. I was hoping that my love of Nicholas and Anne would translate to a love of the book, but that didn't happen at all. I finished the book and will probably never read it again. I will continue to watch the movie though, not as many times as Red, White, and Royal Blue, but a few times a year.
Ok, now that we've got the preliminaries out of the way, let's talk about what I loved about the movie. Anne and Nicholas have amazing chemistry. Watching the two of them together was absolutely electric. Bothe of them can communicate a lot with just a look and they've both mastered the art of tearing up on a moment's notice, so watching the two of them play off of each other was just fun. As Solene, Anne was in her best form showing shades of Mia with her awkwardness and her spine of steel that she can draw on. And as Hayes, Nicholas showed his mettle with the warmness and empathy of Henry while also showing some real playfulness and a desire to get what he wants.
I will say that the desire to get what he wants was a little offputting the first time they kissed in Solene's house. She said and indicated a certain level of discomfort with the kissing and he kept on pressing forward. I'm not going to say that it rose to eh level of assault, but it definitely made me uncomfortable because he wasn't respecting what she was saying until she physically pushed him away. I know this is a romantic trope, but it is one that I am not fond of and that makes me uncomfortable.
I appreciated how the movie showed the difficulties Solene was facing as a 40-year-old woman in a relationship with a 24-year-old guy. Watching the difficulties she was facing, I got really upset because of the complete and utter sexism and misogyny. If the situations were reversed and she was a 40-year-old man in a relationship with a 24-year-old woman, then people would be cheering him on and talking about how it showed how virile and desirable he is. But because Solene is a woman, most people act like this is the worst thing ever. To his credit, Hayes calls out this disparity when Solene brings in up in a fight when she is getting ready to leave France alone. I will say that at the point where they have this fight, their relationship isn't public, so most of the issues are there because Solene knows how people will react and because Hayes' friends are not treating her very well.
When they get back together and their relationship goes public, the misogyny that Solene feared shows itself in full force. The comments and headlines that we see are truly awful. They say that she is a bad mom because she's dating Hayes. People are coming up to her and telling her that their' little girls, who had a crush on Hayes were heartbroken. Sorry, but this is the stupidest thing to say. I mean, I'm sorry that your child who had a crush on a man was hurt, but to blame Solene for that is the most ridiculous thing ever. And her ex-husband was the absolute worst. He cheated on her, then divorced her and married the woman he cheated on her with. And he has the audacity to think that he has any right to talk with her about her entirely appropriate relationship with Hayes? He had one good point in that the whole thing was negatively impacting their daughter Izzy, but the way he just came at her and the way he acted as if he had any sort of leg to stand on was infuriating.
And Izzy is the reason the two of them broke up. Not that Izzy asked her mom to break up with Hayes, but all of the attention and awfulness was too much for her to handle. She had students at her school asking for a pic of Hayes' dick. And a guy she likes asked her to tell Solene that he turned 18 in a month. Yes, it may be typical high school stuff, but it was beyond awful too. So I can't blame Solene for stepping away from the relationship at that point. Yes, he made her happy and she made him happy, but the negative impacts on Izzy were too much for Solene to deal with.
I loved the fact that they changed the ending from what it was in the book. In the book, Solene and Hayes break up and remain broken up. In the movie, after she breaks up with him, he goes to her house where they kiss one last time and he asks her to reconsider her decision in 5 years after Izzy is out of college. She agrees, but insists that if either of them find something before then that they take it. So 5 years later, Hayes is now a solo act and visits her art gallery and they seem to be getting back together. I get that some people may prefer the books ending because it is a commentary on women being expected to give everything up for people around them. But I preferred the movie because it said that while women may be asked to (or need to) give something up now, it doesn't mean that they need to give it up forever. And it demonstrates that love is not something that can just be denied, it will wait as needed. Yes, I'm a sap. Deal with it.
In addition to both of their acting, I love Nicholas' voice. He has a gorgeous singing voice and the songs August Moon and Hayes Campbell sang were quite fun and enjoyable. I've had "Guard Down", "Taste", and "Dance Before We Walk" going through my head off and on since I saw the movie. Yeah, super catchy.
So that's it. I will be talking about the movie on my podcast Queerly Popular on a special episode on Thursday, June 27th. I'll go more in depth on the plot and expand on what I've written here. Check it out if you enjoy my thoughts.
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