Directed By Will Gluck

Starring – Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp

The Plot – After an amazing first date, Bea (Sweeney) and Ben’s (Powell) fiery attraction turns ice cold – until they find themselves unexpectedly reunited at a destination wedding in Australia. So they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple.

Rated R for adult language throughout, sexual content and brief graphic
nudity.

ANYONE BUT YOU – Official Trailer (HD) – YouTube

POSITIVES

If you put aside the fact that these are two perfect physical specimens, with absolutely no relatability to the conventional audience, then the film opens your eyes to some charming elements that keeps this from being a truly dreadful engagement. The first is palpably most felt in the dynamic in chemistry between Sweeney and Powell, with eagerly energetic panter between the two that makes them mesmerizing to watch, while believably convincing of their unshakeable affections towards one another. While most of that reason could translate from off-screen rumors about the two supposedly hooking up, it’s still front and center at the movie’s appealing benefactors, carving out two devilishly delightful performances between them that, especially in Powell’s case, feels gift-wrapped for romantic comedy captivity, with glowing smile and physical attributes in tow to swoon the ladies in the audience. Aside from the dazzling duo, the film is unapologetically adult with its hard R-rating that pulls no punches. In the case of sex and nudity, the scenes are shot tastefully enough so that they don’t come across as perverted or slimy, and while the dialogue reaches for as much hip lingo as it can find on its way towards consistently annoying the audience, the cursing brought all of the anger and awkwardness of the conversations to life with humbling humanity. This did bring forth more laughs than I was initially expecting, especially with Sweeney and Powell’s comfortability with humiliating themselves for the camera, which should move the needle for even the biggest curmudgeon’s in the audience. Lastly, while much of Gluck’s techniques are lacking any kind of substance in sizzle, the cinematography here from Danny Ruhlmann does a remarkable job of framing the exotic imagery of the Australian seaside in and around the blossoming love between its leads. It matters so much more that the film was shot on location, especially since the movie’s visuals go a long way in immersing the audience in the magentism of the moments, crafting a seductive appeal in the imagery that glows and matches the passion of its protagonists.

NEGATIVES

Despite everything previously commended about “Anyone But You” that does keep it from falling further, this is still a very flawed and at times annoying film, beginning directly with the movie’s established conflict. Aside from the fact that this movie is heavily predictable, like most romantic comedies, and the fact that we know where it’s headed by film’s end, the bigger problem is the emotional charade between Bea and Ben, which begins with one of those miscommunications between them that could easily be resolved with a truthful conversation, before carrying over forcefully to the film’s next hour of bickering between them. Because the script goes directly out of its way to continuously illustrate how these two supposedly hate each other, it simply doesn’t reflect how this started to begin with, crafting these gags of physical humor between them that doesn’t feel logical even from the perspective of fictional storytelling, and with the balance of the script rushing so many of the developments and perspective beats between its characters, it constantly feels like the film is steering our characters instead of vice versa. These aforementioned gags are the worst spins with humor that the movie conjures, especially since tonally and conceptually they materialize out of thin air, removing the subtleties of interaction for the spontaneity of a 90’s Jim Carrey film, where anything can and often will materialize with little to no believability. Other problems pertain to the dialogue, with its aforementioned consistency of hipness that feels like it was catered for a teenage, but with a rating that totally defeats this purpose. This brings out the worst in Ben, particularly, because at 29-years-old his character feels too old to be dropping lines like “That’s some deep op shit” or “What if we met at Chipotle and Lady and Tramped a burrito”, but aside from him the surrounding ensemble doesn’t make it any better, and soon we find ourselves with no levity from lines so artificially phony that you can practically hear the pen that’s cranking them out as the film is persisting. Finally, the film is obviously plagued by every romantic comedy trope or cliche that were summarized in total by the year 1997, but the biggest of those that were most detrimental here was the tonal whiplash between respective halves that sacrifice one sharp emotion for the other. In my opinion, this film works best during the opening act, when some awkward humor between Bea and Ben helps to break the ice between them, but by the film’s midway point, when those feelings between them start to unfold, it sacrifices the impact of this appeal by transitioning wholeheartedly to dramatic waters, which it never earned in the ways it consistently built these character personalities. Because it eviscerates the comedy in ways that make it conspicuous by its absence, it noticeably wears off what little charm and appeal that was garnered from those opening interactions, in turn weighing heavily on the film’s third act pacing, which grinds it to a screeching halt that hinders momentum.

OVERALL
“Anyone But You” isn’t half of the catastrophe that was advertised, but it’s still an overly predictable and heavily familiar exercise in futility that wastes away the seamless chemistry of Sweeney and Powell. While the refreshing return of mature material in this subgenre does give the film the much-needed boost of humility that is needed to ground the perfection of its protagonists, nothing in the film feels relatable or believable in context, in turn cementing a sinking love story that can’t match the fireworks of its off-screen controversies.

My Grade: 5/10 or D