The Idea of You, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, explores a number of topics that audiences may not expect from the movie. Hathaway portrays Soléne, a recently divorced forty-year-old woman reclaiming her sense of self. Through her daughter’s nostalgic love of a boy band, she meets Hayes Campbell, Galitzine’s character, at a music festival. Though there is at least a sixteen-year age gap between the pair, they embark on a whirlwind summer fling turned romance. The Idea of You is based on Robinne Lee’s debut novel. Lee is a fellow actress known for Deliver Us From Eva and Fifty Shades Freed.

While the film is not the first to comment on the difference of age in relationships, it provides a unique perspective. In the past few years, there has been heavy discourse on the age gaps between men and women in relationships, usually focusing on an older man with a younger woman. The film explores this with Solene’s ex-husband, Dan, portrayed by Reid Scott, having cheated on her with a younger woman that he worked with. After Soléne and Hayes become an official couple, he judges her for “sleeping with a kid.” However, the film asks the audience to apply this logic of age gaps in relationships to the couple on-screen. While the age gap between the characters is not too drastic, it was changed from the books featuring 18-year-old Hayes. Solene’s daughter, Izzy, played by Ella Rubin, was also aged up to 16 years old instead of the book’s age of 13. With the age difference between the book and movie version, Hayes and Izzy are still close in a,ge or at least with a similar young mindset. So it begs the question: Given Solene’s situation, should she be held to the same standard as her ex-husband dating a younger woman or any other man dating people younger than himself?

The film also provides a look into the fan fiction-obsessed world from the perspective of an older woman. While following your favorite pop star does not have an age limit, it is more common to see younger people obsess over boy bands. The fictional band, August Moon, has a number of young fans in the film, as any real boy band would. However, there are just as many older fans, most of them mothers of the main fanbase, who also fantasize about the members. In fact, Soléne encounters a “Moonhead” mom who asks her which one is “her daughter’s favorite,” potentially saving her from the embarrassment of admitting her enthusiasm with a band of men younger than her. But Solene’s admiration of the band and Hayes Campbell grows when he dedicates a song to her during the concert. Regardless of age, it is any fan’s dream to be noticed in a crowd of many by someone you only fantasized about meeting but never thought the moment would come. Soléne lives out the dream of many fans by pursuing a romance with a pop star, which admittedly comes back to bite her.

Soléne could meet a man closer to age, but the film makes a point to demonstrate how boring or weird most of them are, at least in her city. And to be honest, who’s choosing a recent awkward divorcee over a pop star jet-setting worldwide? However, the insecurity of Solene’s age compared to Hayes’s group of friends does rear its head. She calls herself “40 and clueless,” which may speak to the complicated experience of women over a certain age dating people younger than themselves. While many fans believed the film was another Harry Styles-inspired fiction-turned-film, Lee, the author, debunked such assumptions.

However, the film does touch on the danger of para-social relationships, as large fan bases take ownership of celebrities they support. Suddenly, everyone in contact with the stars is subject to people’s judgment on the internet. Soléne experiences this as people criticize her relationship with Hayes, calling her a thirsty cougar and even condemning her parenting skills. There is obvious hypocrisy, as the tables would be turned if Soléne was an older man and Hayes was a young woman. Anne Hathaway shared this experience with her character as there was backlash about her casting in the film. Many fans of the actress could not understand why the multi-award-winning actress would act in a Wattpadd-esque film. She told Vulture, “I don’t want to be pigeonholed and don’t want to be placed in a box of what type of films I must make because of my age, gender, and because I won an Oscar. I want to have fun, dammit! It speaks to me.” A line from the film comes to mind: “People hate happy women.” Unfortunately, it rings true with society’s expectations for women, especially over a certain age. The Idea of You asks its audience to consider all of this while letting loose and having fun while watching. It is now available on Prime Video.