‘The Thought of You’ evaluate: Anne Hathaway dazzles in Harry Kinds–impressed rom-com – Cyber Tech

In Michael Showalter’s The Thought of You — which sees a middle-aged mom falling for a youthful pop star — fan-fiction fantasy collides with actuality in clunky methods. The outcome, nonetheless, is breathtaking for one purpose specifically: a career-highlight efficiency from Anne Hathaway, who additionally serves because the film’s producer.

The rom-com is seldom thought of a venue for such luminous on-screen work, however Showalter’s movie (penned by Kissing Jessica Stein‘s Jennifer Westfeldt) affords the Oscar-winning actress a enjoyable, releasing, and sometimes melodramatic half. Whereas the film too lazily expresses its social commentary via verbose declarations about double requirements for ladies within the public highlight, Hathaway incessantly speaks along with her eyes, bringing the story’s extra difficult feelings and needs to the fore in silent, thought of moments.

It is a rush of vitality at instances, and its weakest moments are solely fleeting inconveniences. Bottoms‘ Nicholas Galitzine holds his personal reverse Hathaway in a job that — although shallowly written — offers him with a star-making flip. However sufficient can’t be mentioned about what an incredible efficiency Hathaway delivers right here, virtually warping the film round her blazing display screen presence, till The Thought of You turns into a private mission assertion concerning the type of roles she is going to very probably command within the close to future. (In her personal phrases: “I wish to have enjoyable, dammit. It speaks to me.”)

What’s The Thought of You about?  

Primarily based on the 2017 novel by actress Robinne Lee, The Thought of You expands on the burgeoning cottage trade of movie based mostly on lightly-disguised fan fiction of One Course’s Harry Kinds. The place the five-movie After sequence — launched between 2019 and 2023, based mostly on a sequence of 2014-15 novels — options worldwide faculty scholar Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), The Thought of You has the extra straightforwardly Kinds-esque Hayes Campbell (Galitzine), a 24-year-old English heartthrob who ostensibly leads the boy band August Moon.

The group, now practically a decade outdated, continues to be widespread with tweens and moms, however to high-schooler Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her pals, they’re already a nostalgia act (“They’re so seventh grade,” she groans). When Izzy’s father, Daniel (Reid Scott), splurges on VIP tickets to the band’s Coachella meet-and-greet, she politely agrees to attend — whereas her mom Solène (Hathaway) is unexpectedly known as in to chaperone.

Solène is a 40-year-old artwork vendor in Los Angeles’s hipster stylish Silver Lake, and isn’t significantly enthused about hordes of screaming followers of August Moon — a band she is aware of little about. Nonetheless, a misunderstanding results in a meet-cute in Hayes’ trailer, throughout which the younger Brit is immediately smitten with the beguiling mother. Solène is extra amused than swooning. However the truth that she doesn’t appear to essentially know who he’s — and that she isn’t flustered or overwhelmed by his superstar — is refreshing to Hayes.

He pursues her with oodles of allure, resulting in a secretive whirlwind romance on his European tour. Sadly, a star affair can solely keep secret for thus lengthy. The dam inevitably breaks, revealing a flood of misogyny directed Solène’s approach via social media. 

This results in a somber detour, throughout which the movie insists on stopping to clarify its underlying social dynamics in broad, preachy statements for the digicam, even when it doesn’t have to. Hathaway’s quiet responses to every evolving state of affairs carry sufficient nuance to get the purpose throughout, making certain that The Thought of You stays tethered to its emotional core even when it verges on sermonizing. There’s not often a second the place the actress isn’t completely convincing as a girl making an attempt to fend off venomous media scrutiny as she makes an attempt to dwell her finest life. It’s a becoming function for Hathaway, given what she’s been via herself — Hathahaters gonna hate — however this is only one of a number of parts that makes her efficiency so unmissable.

Anne Hathaway is totally beautiful in The Thought of You.

The plot may appear run-of-the-mill, however the dramatic tensions between Hayes and Solène — stemming from their differing life, and the disparity in what they need and the way they learn varied conditions, given their 16-year age hole — are deftly expressed via wordless glances. You possibly can watch the movie on mute and nonetheless really feel one hundred pc of the electrical energy between its leads (although you’d miss out on the film’s earworm soundtrack within the course of, a becoming mixture of basic rock and August Moon “originals”).  Because it’s being launched straight to Prime Video, it’s a disgrace The Thought of You received’t see a correct theatrical launch, as a result of listening to (and extra importantly, feeling) a complete viewers being swept up within the film is one hell of a enjoyable expertise. It’s the type of movie that pulls not solely raucous laughter from a crowd, however excited hooting and hollering when issues get sizzling and heavy. 

The couple’s hesitance is palpable, however so is their mutual lust and their deeper, extra fulfilling connection. Showalter builds their respective needs via scenes of what they lack, or what they will’t discover elsewhere. Hayes makes an attempt to tune out the overzealous vitality of screaming followers, and Solène tries her finest to not be slowed down by the mundane, divorcé vitality of males her age. He needs one thing extra mature, and extra secure, whereas she yearns for the type of free-spirited journey she by no means had as a younger mom who married proper after faculty. These needs are at odds, however can they meet completely within the center?

Nicolas Galitzine isn’t any Harry Kinds. 

As a stage performer in The Thought of You, Galitzine lacks the pop prince’s excessive degree of panache. However he’s dedicated to rounding out the character with hidden layers behind closed doorways. Nonetheless, he incessantly brushes up in opposition to points within the movie’s writing and enhancing. 

We not often see the deeper, non-celebrity self of which he incessantly speaks, and which pulls Solène to him within the first place. His interiority is extra mentioned than revealed. Nonetheless, their dynamic is straight away enrapturing due to Hathaway’s suppressed pleasure. Even when you by no means really feel a factor for Hayes through the film’s 115 minutes, all you want is one take a look at Solène’s reactions to his longing stares in an effort to be satisfied. The best way she smiles along with her eyes tells a complete story by itself: of a girl who yearns to be seen and adored, and who lastly will get these items each time Hayes walks right into a room.

It is a thrilling efficiency, and it proves to be heartbreaking even when the film speeds via its interpersonal drama to skip between rom-com tropes, together with the inevitable rift between the lovers. Hathaway makes these rushed plot parts really feel entire, turning Solène’s insecurities inward within the type of concern, and outward as impulsive, self-destructive selections. It’s as if Solène, having been damage by males previously, is so terrified of affection’s potentialities that she has no selection however to cease the film useless. However it doesn’t matter what route it takes, Hathaway fills it with life.

How fantasy and actuality collide in The Thought of You.

Showalter tends to lack visible aptitude as a filmmaker, which surprisingly (maybe by accident) works to his benefit in preliminary scenes. Earlier than Hayes and Solène meet, the body at all times appears noncommittal, each in its staging and its use of shade. It’s by no means aesthetically offensive, but it surely doesn’t do a lot past take an unobtrusive, uninvolved, flatly lit take a look at Solène’s each day routine.

Nonetheless, as soon as Solène offers into temptation (after permitting herself to really feel the giddy rush of youthful anticipation), she will get swept up in Hayes’ life-style, and cinematographer Jim Frohna turns the body heat and intimate. His digicam captures every arousing first — their first contact, their first kiss, and Solène’s steamy first orgasm — with ecstatic vitality, because the characters get misplaced in ardour. However in addition they merely get pleasure from one another’s firm behind closed doorways, and get swept up in pleasure and laughter far-off from watchful eyes.

When the load of actuality comes crashing down on them, within the type of invasive superstar gossip and on-line vitriol, the results on Solène’s psyche are stark. However the impression of their relationship on Izzy finally ends up a key issue within the movie’s trajectory. In getting older Izzy as much as 16 (she’s 12 years outdated within the e book), she turns into a way more self-aware a part of the story, along with her personal ideas and her personal conflicting objections and acceptance. The movie employs her as a sly mouthpiece for its gender commentary — very similar to Barbie did with its opinionated teenager —however how critically it takes her enter appears to vary from scene to scene.

On the plus aspect, The Thought of You by no means falls sufferer to the brash, reductive framing of artwork and artistry discovered in lots of mainstream movies — particularly romance movies, the place {couples} bond over their distaste for perceived pretentiousness. What begins out as a scene of Hayes and Solène making enjoyable of contemporary, interpretive artwork takes on a way more significant tone as they discover connection within the summary. Solène loves artwork, in any case, and Hayes even learns to take it as critically as she does. Conversely, each time Hayes’ inventive insecurities bubble to the floor, Solène takes him critically too, regardless of his seemingly frivolous public persona. It helps that the music he produces — whether or not his soulful acoustic solos, or the group’s mainstream chart-toppers, which have a little bit of a Maroon 5 kick — is genuinely price listening to. 

The concepts these two individuals have of one another could also be idealized at instances, as is the case with any new relationship. However the film reckons with this as properly. It brushes up in opposition to the expectations of romantic comedies, at instances subverting them by delving deeper than anticipated into its couple’s private issues (on this case, stemming from Hayes’ dreamlike stardom). Nonetheless, The Thought of You can be fully unapologetic about its style, regardless of verging on deconstructive in its remaining act. It needs to have its cake and eat it too, and it largely succeeds.

Lee’s e book was criticized by a number of readers for its sudden, arguably disagreeable ending. The film doesn’t keep away from this side of the supply materials, but it surely does broaden on it in satisfying methods, that are anchored by Hathaway’s riveting efficiency, leading to a remaining shot destined to be remembered among the many actress’s profession highlights. She’s constantly delivered throughout her 23-year profession, whether or not in her Oscar-winning function in status musical Les Misérables, or in conventional dramas like Brokeback Mountain and Rachel Getting Married. Nonetheless, her work in rom-coms isn’t remembered fairly as fondly. Whereas this can be comprehensible for much less acclaimed movies like Bride Wars and Valentine’s Day, even 2010’s Love & Different Medication, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination, is seldom talked about in the identical breath as her strongest work. She hasn’t starred in a rom-com in practically a decade and a half, so The Thought of You marks a triumphant return to a style during which she hasn’t obtained her due, making it a crowning second for somebody who’s at all times had the potential to be a rom-com queen.

It’s a efficiency that not solely works inside the lighthearted confines of the rom-com, however one which calls for extra rigorous dramatic work as properly: a cinematic synthesis that requires an actress of her caliber. She’s so phenomenally in-tune with the fabric that she virtually transforms The Thought of You right into a profession rebirth, the place she’s capable of vogue a style in any other case thought of disposable fluff into one thing deeply transferring, writing a brand new chapter for herself as a personality who wrestles with whether or not or not she deserves a brand new lease on life. The reply, for each Hathaway and Solène, is an emphatic “sure,” and seeing them get every little thing they deserve is cinematic wish-fulfillment at its best.

The Thought of You premieres on Prime Video Might 2.

UPDATE: Might. 1, 2024, 3:43 p.m. EDT “The Thought of You” was initially reviewed out of SXSW 2024.