Anne Hathaway The Idea of You Movie: Why It Matters

FYI Hollywood, ladies over 40 are scorching *and* worthy of display time. Simply look to ‘The Concept of You’ for proof.

Once you assume coming-of-age motion pictures, likelihood is your thoughts flashes to the standard suspects: Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, Juno, Mona Lisa Smile, Dead Poet’s Society and (my private fave) Someone Great. They’re all extremely entertaining movies starring expertise usually at first of their careers, enjoying characters who’re slowly however absolutely coming into their very own over the course of the film.

One thing else all these movies have in widespread? The character experiencing this monumental private development, whether or not it’s falling in love with their hometown or determining that life after eighth grade does get higher, are all the time younger — of their teenagers or early 20s, to be precise. In some ways it is sensible. These early years are when lots of people make a few of their greatest, and most formative errors, with the implicit permission to take action. The concept being that the older you get, in fact the wiser you might be, and that by the point you’re out of your twenties you’re speculated to have your life completely discovered.

You’re an grownup, so that you’re performed rising, proper?

Not fairly. As any 30-year-old who’s lived on this planet will let you know, this film fantasy is far from actuality. (Me having my sh*t collectively? On this financial system?! No means). Which is what makes Anne Hathaway’s newest film, The Idea of You, so refreshing. Tailored from author Robinne Lee’s 2017 book of the same name and inspired by Harry Styles, the Prime Video film follows Hathaway’s character Solène, a 40-year-old mother and gallery proprietor, as she embarks on a romantic relationship with 24-year-old music heartthrob Hayes Campbell (performed by the extremely hunky and bedroom-eyed Nicholas Galitzine).

It’s a story as previous as time: Lady meets boy at Coachella (the place she occurs to be together with her 16-year-old daughter), woman and boy fall in love, woman doubts herself and her skill to like, woman messes up her probability at happiness, woman realizes she has quite a bit to supply and may make choices for her personal life, and ultimately….effectively, you recognize the remaining. The one distinction is that, on this situation, woman simply occurs to be in her 40s. It’s scorching, it’s steamy (I imply look at the material they’re working with?!), and it’s sensible (other than the entire popstar romance, in fact), however it’s additionally one thing we not often see on-screen.

That mentioned, ladies over the age of 30 haven’t been completely ignored lately. The previous a number of years we’ve witnessed an increase of romcoms, adventures and coming-of-age tales for girls *of a sure age,* with movies like Book Club, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Hello, My Name Is Doris that includes actresses like 78-year-old Diane Keaton, 64-year-old Emma Thompson and 77-year-old Sally Subject as characters who discover themselves later in life.

The 2023 awards season additionally noticed a slew of women over the age of 60, together with Jennifer Coolidge, Michelle Yeoh, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jamie Lee Curtis and Angela Bassett, take dwelling awards for his or her work on display. And whereas not the entire initiatives acknowledged had been coming-of-age movies and TV exhibits, per se, no less than when it got here to awards recognition, there was a visible uptick in stories about older women and their unique experiences, which is 100 per cent value celebrating. However regardless of this, there stays a dearth of flicks and TV exhibits about ladies within the in-between, not fairly 30 however not but getting the seniors low cost on the motion pictures.

Which is the place The Concept of You is available in. This new perspective on the coming-of-age story is what drew Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway to the venture. Chatting with media on the SXSW premiere of the movie on March 16, the 41-year-old actress said of her decision: “For some purpose, we speak about coming-of-age tales as being one thing that occurs to you within the earliest a part of your life, and I don’t find out about you, however I really feel like I hold blooming.” 

The concept we proceed to develop and bloom as we age is a crucial one, permitting individuals the grace to proceed making errors, studying and most of all altering. It’s an particularly essential assertion — and story — given the truth that ladies’s tales are so usually both relegated to the background or confined to 1 dimensional characters, each within the motion pictures and IRL, as they age.

Solène herself struggles with the concept of seeing herself as a mom and somebody who’s worthy of a rompy, lustful love. Centering this story as enjoyable, campy and doubtlessly outrageous as it could initially appear is validating, emphasizing that not solely do ladies proceed to evolve as they age, current as greater than only one model of themselves, but in addition that this development is legitimate and essential to see. Life doesn’t finish if you hit 30, 35, 40, 50 and even 85.

To not point out, this development is scorching *and* completely marketable. If movie execs are frightened about motion pictures about “older” ladies not being a scorching ticket merchandise, Hathaway’s movie ought to quell these fears. The primary trailer for the movie, launched in early March, has already broken records, racking up 125 million views within the days after its launch and turning into the most-watched trailer of any original streaming movie. And, the movie at present has a 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Early critiques of the movie (obtainable to stream on Prime Video beginning Could 2) are raving, and Galitzine and Hathaway’s film — initially written off as a Harry Styles fanfic — is being heralded because the true return of the romcom style and “shatters tropes about motherhood and binary choices.” FYI Hollywood, mothers — and ladies — over the age of 40 are scorching, and it’s about time they get their recognition.