The popular new rom-com “Anyone But You,” directed by Will Gluck, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, has caught the attention of many, but did it really deserve all the hype it received? The acting was mediocre, the storyline had too many conflicting elements, and a lot of the film was unrealistic, making it hard to relate to.
A good movie should connect with the audience and make you feel something. This movie failed miserably – in fact, the only emotion felt watching it was one of intense annoyance. There were not any moments where the audience was meant to feel anticipation or excitement and there was no connection of emotion between the characters and audience.
After spending what felt like a great first date together, Bea and Ben’s new relationship goes down in flames until the two coincidentally discover that they are stuck back together when attending Bea’s sister’s wedding. Ironically, Bea and Ben’s exes are both at the wedding. In addition, wedding guests were pressuring the two to rekindle their relationship. To annoy their exes and get everyone off their backs, Bea and Ben decide to fake their relationship in a true rom-com manner to survive the wedding.
“Anyone But You” had potential in the eyes of the public just based on casting, however, the young actress and her co-star didn’t perform up to the expectations. The movie heavily relied on their assumed offscreen chemistry alone to distract from the unrealistic and cheesy plot. Many people believed Powell and Sweeney to be in a relationship and watched the movie to pick up “hints” of this. However, the onscreen chemistry was lacking and only reinforced the poor acting on both parts.
Aside from acting, the amount of overlapping and irrelevant storylines within the main plot added to the overall confusion when watching the film. When Ben takes Bea home he brings up the giant wrench in his living room that’s meant to be a token of remembrance to his mother. Although the intention was to paint Ben as sweet and sentimental, it just felt forced and irrelevant. Ben made a point of defining the metaphorical meaning of “fixing things,” as something supposedly his mother always said, but it was unnecessary and only made it cringey. His deceased mother was brought up several more times in the film but had no impact on Ben’s character or the plot, making it a completely pointless addition to the storyline.
Similarly, it is indicated later in the film that Bea dropped out of school and put her dreams of being a lawyer on hold. While this could be an interesting plot line to explore, it’s never made clear why she stopped pursuing her dreams. What doesn’t make sense is how young she is in the film. Typically college students studying law would have graduated around the age of 25, the same age Bea is assumed to be in the movie, so how is she dropping out after graduation? Further, like many other storylines throughout “Anyone But You,” this part of Bea’s life is brought up in a seldom, dramatic fashion and does nothing to connect the audience to her character.
Adding to the pile of random stories, Bea’s ex-boyfriend Jonathan comes into the picture when her parents, who are still fond of Jonathan, invite him to the wedding. The film does a terrible job of developing Jonathan’s character. The backstory between the two is complicated and not clearly explained. From the viewer’s perspective, he’s just a lonely ex-boyfriend who shows up randomly throughout the film for no reason other than to demonstrate his jealousy towards Bea and Ben’s fake relationship. As if it wasn’t a corny enough ending, it isn’t until the credits that we see a closure in Jonathan’s character when he dances with Margo, Ben’s ex-girlfriend.
In addition to the unnecessary stories and poor acting, the movie had far too many unrealistic aspects. One of many occurrences was the night of the wedding rehearsal dinner. In an attempt to prove their love is real, Bea and Ben perform the famous Titanic scene for everyone at the dinner to see. Following this scene Bea trips and falls into the water. Ben watching his damsel in distress immediately jumps into action quite literally when he dives in to save her. A normal response would be to tell the others on the boat and grab a floating device of some sort to throw to the person in the water. What tops it off is the fact that previously in the film, it is mentioned that Ben is a poor swimmer, so how does he expect to “save” Bea when he can barely keep himself afloat?
Overall this film was poorly acted, unrealistic, overly forceful with separate storylines, and predictable with hardly any moments where the audience was meant to feel anticipation or excitement. There was no connection of emotion between the characters and the audience. In short, if you don’t mind suspending reality or need a good excuse to take a nap, this movie could be for you. However, in our opinion, there are about a million better ways to spend an hour and 43 minutes.
