Just now, my fingers accidentally typed “The Idea of You” as “The Ikea of You,” and there is indeed a follow-the-directions-very-carefully feeling to the movie premiering on Prime Video May 2.
Anne Hathaway basically saves it from itself. Just when you may be drifting out of interest range watching director/co-writer Michael Showalter’s adaptation of the 2017 Robinne Lee novel, script co-written by Jennifer Westfeldt, along comes the Big Monologue delivered by Los Angeles art gallery owner Solène Marchand, handled so well by Hathaway you forget — for a while — about why you drifted out in the first place.
Three years divorced from her oily, cheating husband, Solène’s at home with her young lover-to-be, the British pop star Hayes Campbell played by Nicholas Galitzine. They share some dicey personal history after sharing a sandwich in her perfect bungalow, away from the paparazzi Hayes attracts everywhere his cheekbones go.
Reluctantly at first, Hathaway’s character talks about the infidelity that led to their breakup. Galitzine’s character is a child of divorce, as is Solène’s teenage daughter (Ella Rubin), and takes heart from this, having just cracked open some psychological scars from his own unsteady family dynamics.