Have they taught us – or at least tried to teach us – that “love is not an age”, but is it really so in everyday life or is it only in songs and movies?
Fifteen or even twenty years of difference, do they really count little in a loving relationship? And if to be the most “elder” of the couple then, it was a woman, really there would be no judgments, criticism or preconceptions? Imagine a woman of forty years, divorced and with a daughter of sixteen, fall in love with a 20-year-old who sings in a boy band and enjoys world fame among teenagers all over the world: what would other mothers say at school? What about the neighbors or the family? What would they write, haters and not, on social media? How bad, envy and embarrassment would it create the whole story? In a world where every day we fight for free love, love beyond every barrier, race, sex and religion, how much difference would it make, the age difference between a man and a woman?
This and other questions, are at the centre of The Idea of You, a film that marks the return of director Michael Showalter, after six years, at the SXSW Film Festival, where he debuted and presented numerous projects such as Hello My Name is Doris (2015) and that little jewel of The Big Sick (2017). The film comes from May 2 on Prime Video and sees in the cast the beautiful Anne Hathaway (the forty-year-old that every twenty-year-old with a little pumpkin salt should want to be) and Nicholas Galitzine, a famous actor among teenagers around the world for having recently interpreted the character of Prince Henry in the lucky Red, white and blue blood (always on Prime Video).
The Idea of You, una storia d’amore…
Except for the eponymous and acclaimed novel by Robinne Lee, released in 2017, the film was premiered at the SXSW Festival on March 16 as a closing film, and brings on the screen the story of Solène (Anne Hathaway), single mother forty-year-old and Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), twenty-four-year-old singer of August Moon, the most popular boy band of the moment. Forced to accompany her teenage daughter to the Coachella Music Festival, Solène accidentally encounters Hayes, with whom from the first moment she strikes an undeniable spark. The two undertake a passionate relationship, but it doesn’t go long before Hayes’ superstar status poses inevitable challenges to their history and that Solène realizes how life in the spotlight could be more than expected, especially because of age difference.
…contemporanea
The Idea of You is a contemporary love story, a predictable film in its simplicity, reassuring in its smoothness. It deals with current themes such as fame, success, prejudices, privacy and social networks: it speaks of love but in the context of today’s society, and it definitely does not manage to do so as acclaimed romantic comedies of the calibre of Notting Hill, but also has its own because, that is to tell the present.
The August Moon – of which Hayes is a member – are a real boy band with lots of songs, official Instagram profile and music videos waiting for the launch of the film on Prime Video that will present them to the world: if this is not contemporary, what is it at the end?
It tells a story “impossible”, or rather “surreal but beautiful”, precisely to quote Notting Hill, and in doing so it tries gently to highlight the contradictions of a society filtered by social, populated by keyboard lions, people grumpy and judging, from a world that has always tried – uselessly – to want to believe in love to the word freedom, when at the bottom so free is not. And if you don’t need these reasons to see it and spend an hour and a half of smart lightness, remember that The Idea of You also marks the return of Anne Hathaway in a romantic movie, and any romantic movie with her is always a good idea.
The Idea of You in streaming
The film will be streaming live on TV8.it is in Prime Video’s catalog and is on hire and or purchase on CHILI, Apple TV Store, Amazon Video, Rakuten TV.
The article The Idea of You: but is it true that love has no age? – The film review tonight on TV8 comes from Dituttounpop.it.
