Film Review: "Anyone But You" Shows How to do a Rom-Com Right
The new romantic comedy shows that there's still a lot of magic in the tried-and-true conventions of genre storytelling.
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It probably comes as no surprise to regular readers of this newsletter that I am a huge fan of the romantic comedy as a genre. I’ve always been this way, and to this day one of my all-time favorites is 10 Things I Hate About You, which for some reason called to the angsty queer teen in me. In fact, I’m a fan of Shakespeare adaptations in general, and it’s always fun to see what new ways people will come up with for taking the beloved Bard’s plays and rendering them into something entertaining for the present. The most recent high-profile attempt is Will Gluck’s Anyone But You, a loose adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing. I’d been meaning to watch this one for a while, and I’m so glad I did. It’s an absolute joy from beginning to end.
When the film begins, Sydney Sweeney’s Bea is an aspiring lawyer who nevertheless feels a bit aimless. Upon meeting the swoony Ben at a coffee shop in the epitome of a meet-cute, the two immediately hit it off, only for things to take a wrong turn the next morning, when a misunderstanding soon metastasizes into a bitter enmity. When they are both invited to the same wedding–Ben’s best friend’s sister is marrying Bea’s sister–they are set on a one-way path to love. But, as Shakespeare himself reminded us, the course of true love never did run smooth, and the two of them have to hit quite a few bumps before their happily-ever-after, particularly once they start to go along with their friends’ and family’s plan to get them together so their antagonism won’t upend the wedding.
As with any successful romantic comedy, much of the appeal of Anyone But You stems from its leads. Sydney Sweeney really made a splash in the first season of The White Lotus as the sulky and cynical teen, but she shows a softer (and much funnier) side of her here. As the film goes on she shows that she can do it all, from slapstick–one of her earliest scenes sees her trying to dry off her very wet jeans via a restroom dryer–to earnest struggle. Bea is a young woman who doesn’t quite know what she wants out of life, and though Ben seemed to be an answered prayer during their first night together, the truth was far different, or so she thinks. Fortunately Bea is no wilting flower, and Sweeney’s performance repeatedly makes it clear that she is more than capable of holding her own.
And then there’s Glen Powell. There are some men who are truly deserving of the appellation sex on legs, and my God he is one of them. From the very moment that we meet him he radiates sexy charisma, and there are times when the camera seems to be making love to his body and inviting us to be the same (even if, at the same time, Gluck also pokes fun at Ben via said body). Powell is one of those rare gems among leading men: someone who can take a joke made at his own expense and retain his sexiness and his masculine appeal. What’s more, Powell endows Ben with a rich emotional inner life, and it’s clear that the walls he has put up around himself are an attempt to shield himself from the pain of losing his mother. He’s not afraid to admit his own fears–particularly of flying–and it’s really quite charming and exciting to see a cisgender straight man render himself so vulnerable, both physically and emotionally. And, I won’t lie, it was a lot of fun seeing him naked.
The scenes that Sweeney and Powell share together positively crackle with comic and sexual chemistry and synergy. It’s there from the very moment that they meet in the coffee shop and it underlies all of their feuding and spatting in the lead-up to the wedding. Like all good rom-com couples (and Shakespeare ones, for that matter), their desire for one another is more often than not expressed through verbal sparring, with occasional forays into the physical. Every time the two actors share a scene together, you can almost see the sparks leaping from one to the other, just waiting to ignite the flame that will bind them together.
And, while Anyone But You doesn’t stint on the humor, it’s also a remarkably touching film, and the required scene in which Ben races to confess his love to Bea–while she is standing at the Sydney Opera House no less–got me into my feels (though, to be fair, many things do that). Since we’ve already spent so much time getting to know these characters and their wants and desires and fears, this moment feels more than earned. It’s what we expect out of a traditional rom-com, of course, but it’s to the film’s credit that it makes this outcome feel like the logical conclusion to their dynamic. They meet as true equals, and there’s a running bit about Natasha Beddingfield’s “Unwritten” being Ben’s comfort music that not only allows him to open himself up emotionally but also gives Bea a chance to comfort him.
While both Sweeney and Powell are at the top of their game, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the supporting cast, all of whom are uniformly excellent. GaTa is quite funny as Ben’s best friend Pete, Alexandra Shipp and Hadley Robinson have their own chemistry as the engaged couple whose wedding serves as the stage for this romance, and Dermot Mulroney is fun as Bea’s father.
The script is tight, without an ounce of fat. Every narrative clue that gets dropped throughout is picked up later, and the Shakespearean asides scattered here and there add a literary gloss to the proceedings. It’s also a beautiful film, with lots of shots of the gorgeous Australian setting.
Like some other films of recent vintage, Anyone But You smartly realizes that sometimes less is more. Just as Out of Darkness gave us a slimmed-down horror film, so this rom-com reminds us that there is a simple pleasure to be had in a film that tells a good story well.
Let’s hope Hollywood gives us more where this came from.