ANYONE BUT YOU ★★½
(MA) 103 minutes
Had been all of us duped? Sure, I believe we have been all duped.
For months, Anybody However You – the anticipated, Sydney-shot romantic comedy from director Will Gluck (Pals with Advantages, Peter Rabbit) – had constructed gorgeous momentum on its behind-the-scenes bona fides, leaked pictures of its enticing leads Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell canoodling off set and enjoying up the “Did they or didn’t they?” intrigue round their display chemistry, to the purpose that onlookers had already earmarked the movie as rom-com’s nice field workplace hope, a return to the massive, steamy, oversexed delights of the style’s Y2K-era peak.
Glenn Powell, Sydney Sweeney and Sydney Harbour go broad within the new rom-com Anybody However You.Credit score: Brook Rushton/Sony through AP
However now, all of it is sensible. Watch the film; there’s no approach these guys attached. No matter glowing chemistry we thought we noticed within the movie’s immaculate PR drip-feed, it’s barely there within the remaining product. (Coincidentally, what’s there’s a producer credit score for Sweeney’s real-life fiance Jonathan Davino – no marvel she was so unbothered by the intrusive headlines.)
Loosely based mostly on Shakespeare’s A lot Ado About Nothing, the movie follows Bea (Sweeney) and Ben (Powell), one-night hook-ups turned enemies, who’re pressured to spend every week with one another at her sister’s and his good friend’s vacation spot marriage ceremony in Sydney. It’s not simple for spurned lovers to be civil, however they comply with pretend a relationship, to maintain the peace for his or her households and pals (a motley crew together with Bryan Brown and Rachel Griffiths) and to induce the jealous attraction of their exes (Aussie newcomer Charlee Fraser and a criminally underused Darren Barnet).
Loosely based mostly on A lot Ado About Nothing, the movie hits all of the acquainted rom-com candy spots.Credit score: Brook Rushton/Sony through AP
A lot Ado A couple of Nothing, with its bickering lovers guarding finer emotions underneath barbed swipes and emotional subterfuge, has lengthy proved a template for screwball comedies and rom-coms, a framework so acquainted the dumbest AI may churn out a script. Gluck isn’t going for innovation – with its big-budget slickness, he’s not less than rescuing the style from Netflix’s low-cost dominance – however hitting fan-service beats the identical approach a Marvel epic may: there’s a clumsy meet-cute in a restaurant lavatory, a hijinks-heavy set-piece the place garments come off, a helicopter, a marriage dance and roll credit to a solid singalong.
For some, this could be sufficient. However the leads’ stilted chemistry – not less than when not half-naked – doesn’t assist.
