In this piece, I lightly spoil the Amazon-MGM Studios film “The Idea of You.” To editorialize this spoiler warning, I don’t think what I say detracts much from the viewing experience, because the film is so predictable you could probably see the minor spoiler coming fifteen minutes before due to heavy-handed foreshadowing from the script.
I don’t know much about Harry Styles. I like some of his music, mostly his solo work post-One Direction, but I’m far from a fan. But something I do know a lot about is how the internet views Harry Styles, and more specifically, the types of fanfiction written about Harry Styles and his former bandmates. They run the gamut, from “One Direction bought a human being (illegal)” to “Harry Styles is dating Barack Obama (not illegal, and should happen),” and even “Harry Styles is the brother of Thanos from the ‘Avengers‘ movies.” I’m just kidding about that last one; that was an actual casting decision made by Marvel Studios.
The point is: Harry Styles has fan fiction, and sometimes fan fiction gets published into books. Sometimes books get turned into movies. Sometimes fan fiction becomes a book that gets turned into a streaming-exclusive movie, and sometimes that fan fiction is about Harry Styles. Sometimes this happens twice. The notorious Netflix original film franchise “After” has had yearly entries since the first film’s debut in 2019, and it has become widely accepted based on comments by the author that the main character Hardin is actually Harry … Styles. Not a different one. There are five of these movies. I considered watching them for this piece, but that’s not the movie I’m even talking about, and I value my time and mental health.
“I value my time and mental health,” he said, ignoring that he watched Amazon Prime’s “The Idea of You,” which is very explicitly based on One Direction fan fiction. I had to google if the film used their music (it didn’t). The first blow was a reminder that Amazon bought the historic Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer movie studio, because I just keep forgetting that that was a thing that happened recently. Then, they gave Anne Hathaway a bad haircut, likely to make her look ‘more normal,’ since the film will not stop reminding you that she is a ‘normal’ mom (despite having a great job as an art dealer, affording her last-minute cross-country flights, VIP tickets to Coachella and a ridiculously nice house). I should note that while Miss Hathaway’s character has a name (Solene), I refuse to use it and will only refer to her from now on as Anne Hathaway, as I’m certain anyone else who watched this movie also did.
After barging in on a private trailer, mistaking it for a VIP bathroom (a moment that my friend and I talked about extensively; those would look nothing alike), Anne Hathaway meets Hayes Campbell, played by Nicholas Galitzine (“Bottoms,” "Red, White & Royal Blue”).
The film was hilarious, and that was its greatest strength. I just don’t know if the filmmakers were aware of that when they were producing it. Directed by “Wet Hot American Summer” co-creator Michael Showalter, and written by him and Jennifer Westfeldt (a Tony-nominated Actress for 2004’s “Wonderful Town” revival), the film wasn’t the most innovative in plot or directing style, but it was redeemed by the fact that it could be wildly entertaining to predict what would happen next. Multiple times, my friend and I would call out plot points jokingly, only for them to actually happen, causing us to laugh even harder. The one time that this phenomenon didn’t happen was when I predicted a tracking shot across the house would demonstrate time passing from night to day, but instead the camera stopped tracking and focused on a painting on a wall instead for an oddly long time. Then the screen cut to black, and a five-year time skip occurred.
I think it’s weird to make fan fiction based on real people, even celebrities. I believe that simply being famous does not entitle the world access to your personal lives, and celebrities such as pop star Chappell Roan have recently brought this concern to light. But, if it gets us movies so laughably bizarre as “The Idea of You,” maybe Harry Styles can be the exception. I do not think this movie was good, but the night I spent watching with my best friend mocking it is an experience I wouldn’t give up for the world.
