#MovieReview: Anyone But You tries to reignite rom-com staples
It unfortunately lacks a consistent tone and cannot decide whether it wants to be a rom-com or sex comedy and ultimately falls somewhere in the middle.
Anyone But You fails to live up to its modern rom-com classic promise, but is still a good watch.
The film serves as a vehicle for two of Hollywood’s most exciting young stars in Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, but cannot quite translate their real-life chemistry.
In theory, this was going to be the large scale rom-com to reignite the genre.
Sweeney has hordes of young fans from her time on Euphoria, and Powell is a proven comic presence as seen in Everybody Wants Some! and Set It Up.
Director Will Gluck was responsible for one of the best coming-of-age movies in recent memory in Easy A and serviceable rom-coms like Friends With Benefits.
Set in sunny Australia with a studio budget, Anyone But You had everything working in its favour.
It unfortunately lacks a consistent tone and cannot decide whether it wants to be a rom-com or sex comedy and ultimately falls somewhere in the middle.
Most of the jokes fall flat and Sweeney lacks the comic timing to keep up with Powell and her rom-com predecessors such as Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan and Kate Hudson.
But it feels like it has been made in good faith and despite the drawbacks, I still enjoyed most of it.
Mild spoilers to follow
Stockbroker Ben (Powell) and law student Bea (Sweeney) have a chance meeting in a café that leads to a whirlwind day and night together.
A series of unfortunate events conspire to make them both feel unfairly dealt with the next morning and their swift romance falls apart.
They don’t see each other again until Bea’s sister and Ben’s friend host a destination wedding just outside of Sydney.
After initially avoiding contact, they hatch a plan to use their mutual dislike to their advantage.
You can imagine what happens from there.
There are admittedly lots of things to like about Anyone But You and you will probably enjoy it if you don’t think too hard.
Find it in cinemas now.
Rated 18 for Language, Sex and Nudity.
2.5/5.
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