Anyone But You - Movie Review
Anyone But You - Movie Review
Critics Score - 7 of 10
General Audience Score - 7 of 10
SYNOPSIS - The opening scene of the film shows us Bea (Sydney Sweeney) moving quickly across a city plaza in an almost sheer white shirt and her . . . ample qualities . . . bouncing as she hurriedly trots across and into a coffee shop. As I said, this film and all the characters within it know exactly what they're doing. Bea is in a hurry to use the restroom and as she asks one of the disgruntled and unsympathetic baristas about getting the bathroom key, she's shot down with a, "It's for customers only." She offers to buy a loaf of bread that's sitting on a shelf, but then she's directed to the checkout line which is predictably about a mile long. As Bea whimpers out more pleas to the woman who continues to ignore her while handing out caramel lattes, unsurprisingly, the tall and handsome Ben (Glen Powell), who is next in line looks on in amusement. “Honey”, Ben breaks into Bea’s exchange with the server, “I’m about to order, you want your usual?”, to which Bea looks over at him with a deer in the headlights look of confusion. Ben continues to order for “my wife” as the flabbergasted Bea finally starts getting with the program and begins to play along. He pays, she gets the bathroom key and he holds her coat as she runs into the restroom. It’s a tale as old as time, girl just needs to pee super bad but can’t, guy swoops in and saves the day. After a series of bathroom shenanigans and despite both of them being dressed for work, Bea finally emerges and the two decide to play hooky on whatever business meetings or appointments they had lined up that day and hang out. All day long, they walk around, visit a park, chit chatting about themselves until they finally make their way back to Ben’s apartment where they cook grilled cheeses with the loaf of bread from the coffee shop that morning. Although no sex takes place, they fall asleep fully clothed, on the couch in each others arms, because hot people don’t have sex after a great first date.
Flash forward to the next morning and Bea wakes up with Ben still asleep behind her. She slides out from under his arm and tries to sneak out, but the creaking floorboards wakes him, because apparently he was so sound asleep him arm being moved didn’t phase him. She’s able to get her shoes on and slip away as he sits up on the couch, a confused look on his face as he wonders why Bea left without a word. As she’s walking down the street talking on the phone about how great Ben is to a friend, we cut back to Ben’s apartment as his best friend Pete (Gata) arrives and begins teasing him about being in love. After Bea talks on the phone a bit she begins to ask herself why she took off so quickly that morning, so she heads back to see him. Ben gets defensive about Pete’s accusations of love and replies “Fu*$ that! I couldn’t get her out of here fast enough”, just as Bea walks up and overhears, then turns away heartbroken. Insert eye rolling emoji. Six months later they bump into each other at a club and after an exchange of bitter comments, they discover that Pete’s sister Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) and Bea’s sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) are getting married in Sydney Australia, and they’re going to be seeing a bit more of each other over the next few weeks. As was mentioned, some of the scenarios are downright silly and borderline ridiculous, but the movie understands this and simply asks that you play along as it sets things up. Once in Sydney, Ben’s ex, Miranda (Nat Buchanan) pops up, who he considers trying to get back with, while Bea is frustrated with her parents who are trying to set her up with an old family friend Jonathan (Darren Barnet). In an effort for this feuding pair to each get something they want, they decide to cooperate and put on the facade of being together. As they set out to feign interest in each other and convince everyone they’re in love, the most unlikely thing happens, I’ll let you figure that one out on your own. But the film moves along at a nice clip and offers some quality laughs in somewhat new and creative ways as it goes about it’s business of telling us one of the most common stories to ever hit the film reel.
The majority of this film's romantic comedy story beats were as standard and predictable as they come. But the goofy humor was one of the key ingredients that kept this film afloat and made it a real delight to watch. Once the film entered it's third act and predictably took a turn towards the serious, focused on it's love story and subsequently took it's foot off the gas pedal with the laughs, it hit the low point for my enjoyment. The screenplay from Ilana Wolpert and Will Gluck, (who also directs) follows all the silly cliches of films like The Proposal and basically every Matthew McConaughey film from the early 2000's, but it does so knowing exactly what it's doing and leans into it all with a pure sense of lightheartedness. Some of the line deliveries, like when Powell's character is trying to swim and is struggling, she playfully accuses him, "Oh my god, you're hot girl fit", to which he responds "I'm not hot girl fit!", were tonally spot on. Speaking of the acting, while Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are giving perfectly adequate performances for what the film requests of them, it's really not asking much and they're effectively able to hit on exactly what this film needs. Frankly, this film not only doesn't deserve much more, but if they'd tried to deliver ultra serious line readings of "I'll affectionate the sh!t out of you", this film wouldn't have landed as solidly as it does. The usage of the 2004 song Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield was also a fun and amusing anecdote the film returns to continually throughout it's runtime. Although the pace suffered a little into the finale, as I mentioned, when it tries a little too hard to sell us on the love, it also wisely keeps things moving and wraps up at just a little past the hour and forty minute mark so as not to overstay it's welcome. In the end there's a perfectly decent movie and enjoyable watch available for anyone looking to have a date night or even just drool over some finely chiseled bodies and have a few laughs with this latest effort from Sydney Sweeney and company.
SUMMARY - This is about as uncomplicated a viewing experience as they come. It’s an upper tier romcom with a good dose of sex appeal thrown in for both the male and female audiences to get an eyeful. If perchance you hate seeing hot people fall in love in amusing ways, well then, this film is made for Anyone But You.
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