Review: 'The Idea of You' elevates the romantic drama, with Anne Hathaway radiant as a single mom in a surprising relationship with a young pop star

The swoon-worthy drama “The Idea of You” performs a double service by reminding viewers of the intrinsic value of two much-maligned aspects of the movies: Anne Hathaway and the very notion of romantic movies for grownups.

Hathaway, who’s one of the movie’s producers, stars as Solène Marchand, an art gallery owner in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood, living with her 16-year-old daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin). Solène is looking forward to a solo camping trip while her ex, Daniel (Reid Scott), takes Izzy and her friends to Coachella for a VIP meet-and-greet with the boy band August Moon. But when Daniel flakes out, Solène suddenly has to chaperone Izzy instead.

While chilling in the VIP area, Solène goes looking for a bathroom — and ends up accidentally in the trailer of August Moon’s charming lead singer, Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine). It’s an awkward meet-cute, but it’s hard to ignore the sparks flying between them. For Hayes, it’s a rare instance where he’s meeting a woman who isn’t a fawning fangirl. Solène, on the other hand, intuits that there’s more to Hayes than good looks and a charming English accent.

So it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise when Hayes shows up at Solène’s gallery and offers to buy every item on display. Solène stands up to that rich-boy arrogance, and speaks eloquently of the labor and thought that her artists expended to create these works. Hayes wants to see more art, so Solène takes him to the studio of one of her artist friends — sneaking him out of the neighborhood through the paparazzi and August Moon fans who amass wherever he’s spotted.

It doesn’t take long before the two are kissing. Not long after that – after Solène conveniently drops Izzy off at summer camp — Hayes invites her to New York, where they spend a day or two in a hotel having some excellent sex. (Or so we assume. The bedroom scenes are tastefully shot, and usually cut away before anything that would scare the Prime Video viewers.) By the end of the weekend, Hayes invites Solène to join the band on their European tour, and she says yes.

Director Michael Showalter (“The Big Sick”) and co-screenwriter Jennifer Westfeldt (“Kissing Jessica Stein”), in adapting Robinne Lee’s novel, find more meat than is typical in modern romance movies. The script tries to tackle some hard emotional issues — about divorce, trust issues, the choice to lean into a new love, and both characters’ reluctance to open up about what they’re really feeling — and does so with intelligence and a full heart. Only in the last half hour do the plot mechanics kick in, with Solène and Hayes dealing with the reality of the entire internet learning of their relationship.

Galitzine is definitely a charmer, and digs into a character who’s broader and deeper than the boy-band stereotype. And, as those who saw him as Camila Cabello’s prince in 2022’s “Cinderella” can attest, he can sing, too.

But it’s Hathaway who carries the movie’s emotional weight, and does so gracefully. She delivers Solène’s full range of feelings — the surprise and joy of a new relationship, the self-doubt when it seems to be going too well, and the guilt at keeping the relationship secret from Izzy — in a fully realized performance. Hathaway makes “The Idea of You” one of the sharpest, most honest romances you’ve seen in a long time.

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‘The Idea of You’

★★★1/2

Starts streaming Thursday, May 2, on Prime video. Rated R for some language and sexual content.  Running time: 115 minutes.