A lot of chatter about AI taking over writing after the recent strikes has been all over the internet, what if an entire movie FELT like AI wrote it? Well, then you would have Anyone But You. Directed by Will Gluck (Easy A) and written by real-life human Ilana Wolpert, comes a story of two people at weird places in their lives who meet by chance, like each other, hate each other and then are forced to go on a holiday to Australia to watch their friends get married. It is a fairly stock standard story here with all the standard rom-com tropes that have made the genre so successful. Under any other director or cast of actors this could easily have become a laughable, shlocky affair. Fortunately, the acting is solid, and the directors and performers know what kind of movie they are in and lean heavily into making it a whole lot fun. The actors appear to be having the most incredibly fun time on set, and it becomes extremely infectious to watch invoking a sense of fun that it is impossible not to fall head over heels in love with this film.
Ben (Glen Powell) is a finance f-boy dude bro who runs into Bea (Sydney Sweeney), and after an intense night of talking, grilled cheese and “fun”, the two have a falling out the morning after Bea does a runner and scurries back to hear Ben talking to his best friend Pete (GaTa) trashing her out. A six-month time jump and Bea and Ben are reunited when Ben’s sister Claudia (Hadley Robinson) starts dating Bea’s sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) and they are both part of the wedding party and on their way to the couple’s fancy destination wedding in Sydney. Their disdain for each other causes some pre-wedding hijinx, and the brides-to-be hatch a plan with the in-laws to make Bea and Ben fall in love for real this time to save their wedding. If that wasn’t enough, Bea’s parents Leo (Dermot Mulroney) and Innie (Rachel Griffiths) bring Bea’s ex-boyfriend Jonathan (Darren Barnet) to win her back along with Ben’s ex-girlfriend Margaret (Charlee Fraser) confesses her regret over breaking up with him, it all gets a little too complicated.
This story is very loosely based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, just about as much as 10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming of the Shrew. Quotes from Shakespeare’s work are littered throughout the movie, plastered all over Sydney scenery, propelling the story forward and offering commentary on the previous scene or what is coming up.
The rom-com has dwindled down to almost exclusively be a streaming release now, with recent outings like Marry Me and Ticket to Paradise not making a huge splash at the box office; despite having big names like George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, it feels almost brave of Sony to release this one with two relatively unknowns in the lead. Fortunately, their incredible on-screen chemistry transcends the shortcomings of the script. Powell is a confident and cocky tour de force who makes his extremely unlikeable character and evokes a sense of empathy and understanding as the story progresses. On the other end, Sweeney is strong and fiercely unrelenting. Her stagnancy with her career and uncertainty about the future laid out for her by her parents is an interesting arc, and how Ben fits into that is part of what makes this story so interesting.
Gluck either has a deal with Natasha Bedingfield or gets a commission for every song of hers he puts into a film. Like Easy A’s “Pocketful of Sunshine” Anyone But You features “Unwritten” as a character’s coping song (and a HILARIOUS outtakes montage at the end). This kind of consistency is great if you are in the know, and the song is a great connective tissue across the course of the film.
Anyone But You could easily have fallen into typical rom-com territory and been a complete disaster. Fortunately with some great performances and a spectacular setting, you cannot help but fall in love with this film. Sweeney and Powell are a powerhouse, leading the film through its often tropey script, to make a memorable holiday rom-com classic you can take the whole family to see.
Anyone But You is in cinemas now.
