Anyone But You opens in theaters on December 22, 2023
Halfway through Anyone But You, I thought I knew what I’d gotten myself into. Here’s this romcom, right? And It’s got all the necessary parts for the formula: banter, hijinks, beaches, and of course, a couple of hotties at its center. I was ready to laugh it off, eat my popcorn, write this review and never think about it again. But then, something movie-magical happened: It…won me over?
Anyone But You certainly isn’t the apex of movie-making, but it’s not floating around somewhere in the dregs either. Instead, it occupies this interesting in-between space, held aloft by breezy watchability and surprising sincerity. It stars Glen Powell (an actor who seems to always operate on a 15 out of 10 on the charisma scale) as Ben and Sydney Sweeney (who truly can cry with the best of them) as Beatrice, sort-of-exes whose first date ends in disaster. Fast forward to a few years later and they implausibly decide to pretend to be a couple at the wedding of their respective loved ones, Beatrice’s sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) and Ben’s childhood friend Claudia (Alexandra Shipp).
The setup is riddled with romcom cliches – some that work, and some that really don’t. Lots of comedies, romantic or otherwise, have silly premises but this particular one reads less like a plot and more like a loosely connected series of tropes. The severity of Bea and Ben’s conflict doesn’t at all match the intensity with which they hate each other, and their reasoning for pretending to date is half-baked at best. Even the banter is middling, with the quips characters throw around sometimes delivered in a stilted “I Am Telling A Joke” sort of way. Not every gag is dead on arrival though, and several bits – e.g. Ben applying unhinged anecdotes from his drug-fueled days at Goldman Sachs to present-day situations – play excellently.
What Powell and Sweeney lack in convincing comedic back-and-forth they certainly make up for with hilarious physicality. In fact, physical comedy is ultimately where Anyone But You truly sells the “com” portion of its romcom pitch. Whether it’s the world’s least sexy attempts at PDA (performative displays of affection, get it?) or bright-eyed Australian wedding guest Beau (Joe Davidson) performing impossible feats of human athleticism, this movie is at its most fun when everyone gets to be a little ridiculous.
There’s even more to enjoy if you consider yourself a literature nerd. This is a comedy of errors in true Shakespearean fashion (complete with quotes from the bard himself sprinkled throughout). As Claudia’s parents, Michelle Hurd and Bryan Brown play opposite each other like a veritable Titania and Oberon. Characters like Halle, Claudia, and Claudia’s brother Pete (GaTa) implement poorly planned schemes to unite Ben and Bea. There are ample references to Much Ado About Nothing, including character names that are drawn from that very play (somewhere, my 10th grade Literature teacher is cheering that I knew that).
These references and quotes are a little heavy handed, and Anyone But You never quite lives up to what it’s attempting to do by including them. Overall, though, it's harmless shorthand hearkening to the tradition of goofy ensembles and silly misunderstandings that make stories like this enjoyable in the first place. In the genre of these Shakespearean almost-adaptations, Anyone But You is a slightly declawed sort of successor to 10 Things I Hate About You – but one with much more gravity than She’s The Man.
Anyone But You may not be a bold new take on traditional romcom formulas but it is charming, owed in large part to its unexpected commentary on familial, as well as romantic, love. This film makes it so easy to care about the side characters (a cast including Dermot Mulroney, Charlee Fraser, and more) because it very deliberately includes them. Robinson and Shipp, for instance, play the brides-to-be with lively energy that convincingly casts them as real, loving nearly-newlyweds rather than flat background dressing for Ben and Bea’s romance.
In moments of downtime, the camera pans over these characters simply enjoying time in paradisiacal Sydney, Australia. They lounge, they chat, they laugh together just because they clearly love to be with one another. In one particularly sweet vignette, Halle’s mother finishes up her daughter’s makeup as Claudia’s mother soothes her daughter’s pre-wedding nerves. These moments aren’t plot-relevant, they’re just illustrations of a family making a lovely memory.
The technical aspects of Anyone But You are understated yet specific in a way that truly enhances the setting. Costume Designer Amelia Gebler drapes Sweeney in gauzy, breathable fabrics that play on the soft ethereality Sweeney has evoked in her performance on HBO’s Euphoria. Under the supervision of Art Director Sandra Nieuwenhuijsen, the production design crafts a lushly decorated set of island wedding festivities that reads as sophisticated rather than kitschy. In simple terms, I did leave the theater dreaming of daiquiris.
Really, Anyone But You is a film about the people we love and the memories we make when we’re young. One can map the liveliness of Ben, Beatrice, and crew on the faces of the older couples among them – parents who have lived the lives that come after romantic grand gestures. A closing montage features the entire cast, in varying combinations, belting Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten with all of the joy that comes from recognizing that every single moment can become a memory to cherish in the future. It’s corny, sure – though as a diehard fan of the romantic comedy, corny is the kind of thing I live for.
Does Anyone But You sit alongside recent romcom greats like Palm Springs, Fire Island, or even Powell’s own Set It Up? Maybe not. But it is an unexpectedly introspective meditation on the lives we live with the people we love the most.
