In May, the new streaming service Max launches the Norwegian original series MILF of Norwaybut already next week you can see Anne Hathaway as an alluring MILF, in a film that aspires to greatness but never reaches its level of ambition.
Hathaway (The Hustle) plays the slightly despondent single mother Solène, who after a brutal divorce (from an unfaithful bastard of a husband) has devoted all her time and work to her teenage daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her art gallery.
Only days from her terrifying 40th birthday, she is almost forced to go to the hip music festival Coachellawith the daughter and her friends – simply because the ex-husband (scumbag) dumped the agreement, and prioritized work, hours before departure.
Here, the highlight will be a meet-and-greet with the popular boy band “August Moon”, with frontman Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine, Red, White & Royal Blue); but it turns out that the teenage daughter has grown from the hopeless music – but the mother has not…
By chance, Solène meets Hayes in his private trailer, and sweet music appears like lightning from the sky. But can a 24-year-old young man really date a “mature” woman of 40?! What will the music press, the world‘s SoMe hell and, not least, the daughter, say?
Michael Showalter is both director and (co)screenwriter, and he has one clear agenda: Show how “unfair” it is that society almost applauds a man who has found a woman 20 years his junior, but despises it if the relationship turns upside down . And credit to him for that, because for our part, women must also be allowed to “prey children” without being frowned upon, but it’s just that Showalter & Co have wrapped their agenda in a particularly generic story, with stereotypical and predictable characters.
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And no, you won’t get a hefty prize from us for guessing how this sweet drama ends. Despite the fact that Solène ends up in a shitstorm on social media, and is almost spat on by her (envious?) fellow sisters, she clings to her young suitor, until “reality” hits her in the middle of the planet. But does she really intend to dump her dream prince?
The Idea of You (Foto: Prime Video)
Hathaway does a solid, and charming, role as the slightly whimsical and coquettish 40-year-old who suddenly finds himself in the middle of the adventure of a lifetime, surrounded by lavish luxury, jet-setting around the world with his young stud. But the story never really takes off, and the caricatured gallery of characters that surrounds her is more unnerving than real. We find ourselves reaching for our mobile phones to check the latest news about Biden/Trump, the Ukraine war and the level of interest rates, simply because history never manages to capture us.
The fact that Showalter has chosen to “spice up” large parts of the film with ear-splitting boy band music certainly doesn’t help. We are convinced that this is exactly the kind of music the Americans torture Guantánamo prisoners with, to make them crack.
The Idea of You (Foto: Prime Video)
What should be a fascinating drama, with a slightly cheeky twist, becomes more of a two-hour slow yawn. In doubt, and slightly charmed by an energetically infectious Hathaway, we reach for 3 weak stars.
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The Idea of You can be streamed from Prims Video from 2 May.
The Idea of You (Foto: Prime Video)
The Idea of You
Fact:
- Prime Video
- Release: May 2, 2024
- Regi: Michael Showalter
- Med: Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin, Reid Scott, Annie Mumolo, Perry Mattfeld
- Genre: Drama
- Country: USA
- Year: 2024
- Time: 1:55 h.
- Characters: 3
- IMDb