Much has been written about the death of the rom-com. Once a staple of the cineplex, the subgenre has all but disappeared. Despite the changing cinematic landscape, Anyone But You seeks to break through the recent romcom curse. It’s hard to fault director Will Gluck and the team for trying to revive rom-coms, as they have a clear star for the genre. Glen Powell, still simmering off Top Gun: Maverick, brings enough charisma to lift Anyone But You. However, Sydney Sweeney struggles throughout, and a poor screenplay does the cast few favors.
After a one-night stand, Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) find themselves in a hate-hate relationship. A few misunderstandings from the morning after created extremely bad blood. When Bea’s sister Halle (Halle Robinson) falls for Ben’s friend Claudia (Alexandria Shipp), they continue fighting. However, when Halle and Claudia plan a vacation wedding, Bea and Ben must travel across the world to Australia. Little do they know, but their former exs (Charlie Fraser & Darren Barnett) are also invited to the wedding. They agree to fake being in a relationship for the weekend to help Ben win back his ex and allow Bea to avoid hers. Yet through their faux flirtation, they realize some spark exists.
Part of the issue plaguing the romcom genre has been the stalwart nature of its biggest stars. Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Reese Witherspoon are still actively making these movies. Additionally, the lack of chances taken on young actresses and a lack of A-list leading men zapped a new generation of movies of their potential. The talent existed, but in an era of film dominated by comic books, audiences began favoring spectacle above all else. With studios also investing in five big-budget tentpoles instead of two dozen mid-budget movies, we watched the romcom wither.
Yet Anybody But You has moments that feel like water in a desert. It’s traditional, but scenes on a hike and a mistake on a boat feel pulled from 1990s romcoms. Anybody But You ultimately features a story about two attractive people discovering something special, and even with body positivity, it’s easy to be a sucker for the story.
With Powell and Sweeney on superstar trajectories, it’s a brilliant career move. Powell steps up to the plate and delivers in every aspect. It’s another step forward for him, and 2024 has quickly transformed into the Year of Powell. With Hit Man and Twisters in the pipeline, he will be a household name by year’s end.
Sadly, Sweeney struggles to make the dialogue feel naturalistic. After we were high on her performance from Immaculate, it was shocking how out of type she appears here. The screenplay for Anybody But You does her no favors. The dialogue struggles to feel like it comes from real people and oftentimes feels ripped from internet slang. Her chemistry with Powell keeps it engaging, but the performance is a huge miss.
The supporting cast gets fun moments, especially GaTa when he vibes with a Koala. However, their dialogue is awful. Every character appears weirdly obsessed with this couple so they will not mess up the wedding. The characters become one-dimensional and delusional. Perhaps worse than any other aspect of the movie, their logic and motivations are confusing.
The screenplay struggled to establish these aspects at any point. You could almost grow frustrated with the original Shakespeare – Anybody But You openly adapts Much Ado About Nothing. However, anyone who has seen Kenneth Branaugh’s 1993 classic knows how amazing the side characters can be in this story. We’ve seen dozens of Shakespeare adaptations crafted into modern romcoms. However, Anybody But You falls distantly behind She’s The Man or Deliver Us From Eva. Without getting much from the side characters (again, outside the hilarious GaTa), there’s not much here.
Despite its promise, Anybody But You struggles to live up to the hype. While Powell continues his ascent, Sweeney gets left behind as a miscast love interest. However, its status as a hit undeniably means we’ll see each of these actors in another rom-com in the years ahead. In many ways, they stand a chance to revive the subgenre. That matters more than even the quality of Anybody But You. Audiences crave a return to competency here, and this is a good start.
