Anyone But You revives the 2000s romcom cliché we’ve all been desperately missing in a well-executed fake-dating trope.
Starring a shirtless Glen Powell and bikini-clad Sydney Sweeney, the film follows the tumultuous and comedic love-hate relationship between Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) during a destination wedding in Australia.
The film kicks off with Bea and Ben immediately falling for one another after a café meet-cute. The duo experiences a romantic, innocent, and emotionally vulnerable night together, only to end in disaster when an inexperienced Bea hastily sneaks out of Ben’s apartment the next morning, only to return and overhear him calling her a “nothing” and “a disaster.”
Unaware their actions stem from a place of hurt and naivety, the two protagonists choose animosity over basic communication. Months later, Bea and Ben are circumstantially brought together again when Bea’s sister is engaged to Ben’s best friend and they’re both in the wedding party alongside their most recent exes.
As the pre-wedding events unfold, marked by accidental fireworks, immature side eyeing, and clever name-calling, Ben and Bea find themselves at each other’s throats, causing chaos to befall the wedding plans. To ensure peace at the wedding, the families scheme to get Bea and Ben to fall in lust with each other.
Aware of the parents’ plan and their exes’ presence, Bea and Ben devise a plan of their own: to fake a relationship to get the parents off their back and avoid causing concern about ruining the wedding, all while making their exes jealous in hopes of rekindling their respective past relationships.
Any rom-com connoisseur is well acquainted with the fake-dating trope. Viewers expect for the lines between faking being in love and truly falling in love to blur, especially when two hot exes are involved, who—let’s face it—will get together when the protagonists come to their senses that they don’t remotely hate each other anyways. In this movie, both scenarios take place.
To complain about the film’s predictability would be ridiculous—viewers knew what they were sitting down to watch when they bought tickets. The film wasn’t opting to be a hard-hitting commentary on romantic relationships; the trailer literally shows Sweeney pull a spider out of Powell’s pants, prompting him to freak out and strip naked.
The objective of the film was to offer a return to movie formulas like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Proposal, and 10 Things I Hate About You—romantic and sincere moments, feelings under the masquerade of hate and dispute, underscored with hilarity. Anyone But You did just that.
What makes the film so great despite its predictability, and what offers differentiation from traditional romcom formulas, is the top-tier comedy of the film. The film is peppered with hilarious moments that will leave audience giggling in their seats.
While the film does conform to similar structures, Anyone But You doesn’t come anywhere close to the aforementioned 2000s favourites—though some TikTokers will try to tell you otherwise.
One of the film’s drawbacks lies in Sweeney’s acting, which is shocking considering her acclaim in Euphoria. At times, her portrayal of distaste towards Powell appears more ambivalent than annoyed. While their chemistry is undeniable in their romantic, intimate, and heartbroken scenes, during some of the banter-filled scenes, her expressions seem bored and dismissive.
Luckily for the hopeless romantics who sit down to watch the film, it’s the romantic moments we really crave anyway: the longing stares, the emotionally intimate moments, and the jealousy when the other is with someone else. Even if these miss the mark for some viewers, nothing melts the heart more than an enamored and handsome Glen Powell.
Anyone But You delivers all the heart-melting moments accompanied by several comedic scenes that will land with any audience member, giving us what we’ve desperately waited for: a classic 2000s-formula romcom.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].