Lights! Camera! Action! “Rom Coms” (Romantic Comedies) are many people’s favorite types of movies. Unfortunately, not many have appeared in theaters recently. So when “Anyone but You” appeared in theaters, hopeless romantics are buzzing with excitement.
Background information
“Anyone But You” was released by Sony Pictures in theaters on Dec. 22. It reached 80 million dollars with a 25 million budget. The movie was directed by Will Gluck and wrote by llana Wolport.
A quick fun fact: the movie is based on William Shakespeare’s comedic drama “Much Ado About Nothing”. The movie stars Syndeny Sweeny (known for playing Cassie in “Euphoria”) and Glen Powell. The movie is Rated R, so expect to see sexual content, explicit language, and brief nudity. The movie is one hour and 46 minutes, not too long but not too short either.
Synopsis
Book readers and hopeless romantics love a good “enemies to lovers” trope. At first, that is exactly what I thought this movie was going to be. Instead, it’s more of strangers to lovers to strangers and enemies to friends to pretend lovers to real lovers; that’s quite the rollercoaster! At first, Bea and Ben look like the perfect couple. But after a remarkable first date, something happens that makes their attraction turn into disgust and hatred. Later on, they find themselves unexpectedly together at a destination wedding in Australia. To not ruin the wedding, they act as mature adults and pretend to be dating while hating each other’s guts… not for long though.
Personal Opinion
When I walked into the theater, I had high expectations for this movie. Since it’s a trending movie, TikTok and Instagram constantly market the movie on people’s For You Pages, which urged me to watch it even more.
When Bea and Ben first met in the beginning of the film, it was a sweet meet-cute but it was very short-lived once Ben messed things up. The beginning of the movie was too quick where they show how the dislike first started was too quick. They could have done the “enemies” part of the film better. It felt as though they were always flirting with each other somehow, even though they were supposed to hate each other. Otherwise, the way they progressed into friends and lovers was super cute and entertaining to watch. The great gesture at the end of the film when Ben ran over to Bea after jumping out of a helicopter and facing his fears added a nice touch, that made it a real Rom Com. Overall, I rate this film a 4.7/5 stars.
People’s Ratings
According to RottenTomatos.com, “Anyone But You” has 4.4 out of 5 stars so far, and the audience rating is 87% from over 1,000 verified ratings. There are many mixed opinions on this movie. While some say that it was a funny, perfect rom-com, others say it was just not good enough acting to be hyped up so much. The one takeaway that fans seem to notice is the chemistry between Sweeney and Powell. One review says, “The movie is bad, but the chemistry: it’s good.” Some even believe that the two have something going on behind the scenes.
Where to watch
As for right now, “Anyone But You” is only playing in theaters. The closest theater in Kinnelon is in Wayne, NJ; it is about a 20 minute ride from Kinnelon. The AMC and Cinemark theater are almost directly next to each other, and they are both showing the movie. The movie is expected to be released to other platforms like Amazon Prime around April, and will be released on Netflix on Apr. 21 according to The Economic Times.
