‘The Idea of You’ review: Anne Hathaway’s sexy romance is better than you’d expect

Anne Hathaway’s career in Hollywood commenced 23 decades in the past with a spouse and children motion picture about each teen girl’s final fantasy — her geeky character found she was basically royalty.

Now 41, the actress has sent a next dose of impossible escapism with “The Notion of You,” an, ahem, steamier, R-rated flick plainly built for the more mature millennials who obsessed over “The Princess Diaries” again in the aughts.

Her newest fizzy project as a substitute realizes the dream of just about every bored lady in their thirties and forties: She performs an fatigued one mother who has a fling with a renowned, 24-yr-old British boybander. 

And why not? What enjoyment.

In any case, I suspect that aspirational viewers of “The Strategy of You,” a decadent diversion that’s centered on the preferred novel by Robinne Lee, would a lot somewhat jet set about Europe with Harry Kinds than are living in a moldy 300-calendar year-aged palace and slash ribbons. Just a hunch.

Directed by Michael Showalter without having far too significantly sentimentality or cheese, the guilty-satisfaction rom-com (emphasis on rom) is elevated by Hathaway’s layered effectiveness as a swept-off-her-toes California mother that goes very well further than the confines of its supermarket pulp storyline.

She’s believable in a entirely implausible plot, and never overacts even when the instances all but beg her to.

Hathaway plays Solène Marchand — a “Fifty Shades of Grey” identify, if I ever noticed a single — a 39–year-previous art gallerist who is pressured to travel her daughter Izzy to Coachella when her ex-partner bails on the bonding trip.

Whilst Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her pals wander off to yet another phase, their chaperone stumbles into a trailer wrongly considering its a lavatory and arrives confront-to-confront with Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) of a A single Route-esque pop band known as August Moon. 

Sparks fly — but so does Solène. Smitten, Hayes does some sleuthing, locates her gallery in Silver Lake and displays up unannounced. And so begins an unlikely, and dramatic, celeb-and-normie courtship. 

Galitzine, who is instantly the star of each and every film (“Bottoms,” “Red White and Royal Blue,” “Cinderella”), was shrewd casting for the suave rocker. Since Hathaway is so well-recognized and recognizable, it is a lot easier to get lost in the yarn when her like desire is a significantly less-famous, albeit chiseled, encounter. 

The pair has scorching chemistry with each other.

They canoodle at the Essex Lodge in New York, and then he invites her to be part of him on tour in Paris and Barcelona, though Izzy is absent at camp for a thirty day period. 

Small does she know that what she gets up to in the sheets will conclusion up in the rags. Gossip papers and internet sites get started submitting paparazzi images of the pair, and she will become an global lightning rod. 

The movie, with a sensible script by Jennifer Westfeldt, is a type-of reverse “Notting Hill,” but with out the ‘90s shimmer of the Richard Curtis-penned comedy. And with a ton additional crying. 

For instance, social media didn’t exist back in 1999, so “The Notion of You” explores, with a mild touch, the darker and additional invasive side of 24/7 fame. 

Some scenes with the woman’s jackass ex-husband (Reid Scott) appear off untrue. But those people are exceptional blips in an normally charming film.

Playing Solène was a powerful selection by Hathaway. People generally bemoan the demise of good quality passionate comedies (or, in this circumstance, an effervescent romance).

But what it usually arrives down to is an actor, director and author who treat the content with regard instead of pumping out, assembly-line, groaner nostalgia-bait (see Meg Ryan’s “What Comes about Later.” Or, alternatively really don’t). 

In huge portion because of to Hathaway’s human overall performance, “The Concept of You” is a lot a lot more than just a grabby idea.