Available to buy on UK digital platforms is the romantic comedy, Anyone But You. Directed by Will Gluck, and loosely based on William Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, the movie stars Glen Powell, Sydney Sweeney, Alexandra Shipp, Dermot Mulroney, and Bryan Brown.
In the film, up-and-coming lawyer Bea and bank employee Ben meet at a coffee shop. After sharing an instant connection they spend the day together before falling asleep on the sofa in Ben’s apartment.
In the morning, Bea leaves the apartment without waking Ben and makes a call to her friend where she talks about her day date. As the conversation ends, she decides to return to Ben’s apartment to pick up where they left off.
Before Bea walks back inside, she overhears Ben insulting her while talking to his childhood best friend, Pete. Upset she walks away, unaware that Ben is not being honest with Pete and he actually really likes Bea.
Six months later, Bea and Ben have another chance encounter at a bar. As both are under the impression the other person ruined their date, they are frosty with each other.
At this moment in time, Bea and Ben would happily never speak again, however, they soon discover this isn’t to be. Bea’s sister and Pete’s sister are getting married, Bea and Ben are both invited to the wedding, and soon they will share time together at the special occasion in Australia.
It’s fair to say Anyone But You is a perfectly fine movie. It is bright and playful, mildly amusing in places, and it is certainly watchable.
Sydney Sweeney is delightful, Glen Powell is suitably hunky, and all the supporting players do all the things supporting players do in a successful rom-com. On paper, the film has many of the right ingredients for an enjoyable time, and the overall story is acceptable.
However, while the film is ‘OK’, it never moves beyond this level. The story works as well as it does because the template is Shakespeare, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of this adaptation it is not quite the sum of its parts.
This isn’t to say Anyone But You is bad – far from it – but it is to say it could be better. The film requires a bit more energy and a few tweaks here and there, to get it to where it could be.
At times you can almost see the mechanics of the movie in play. You can see how the director is moving his actors around the set, how he is encouraging them to interact, and how he’s trying to draw out humour from occasional set pieces (an encounter with a spider, a boat incident, a dog ruining a cake, etc).
Everything feels a bit staged, and as a result it struggles to flow as effortlessly as it needs to. Instead of scenes gliding along, the movie goes from one moment to the next as though each sequence has been bolted together and this makes it a tad clunky.
The script required another pass before filming and scenes needed to be ironed out a little more too. The whole thing needs more oomph injected into it and this is noticeable at times.
However, now I’ve made this clear, this is where I stop talking about the downsides of the film. As highlighted above, Anyone But You is fine, if you can overlook its shortcomings it is likeable, and I certainly don’t want to pick apart the picture to the Nth degree.
The Sydney Sweeney/Glen Powell combo is quite delightful and they share decent on-screen chemistry. It is easy to buy into the idea Bea and Ben could be attracted to each other, and the two actors sell their parts well.
The movie also benefits from being fairly frothy in places, and the soundtrack is good too. A montage sequence which plays over the end credits, accompanied by the sounds of Natasha Bedingfield, suggests the cast had a ball making the film and this leaves things on a positive note.
Overall, there’s enough good stuff in the film to make up for its issues. This doesn’t push Anyone But You into the realms of being a top tier adaptation of a Shakespeare play (it’s certainly no 10 Things I Hate About You), but it is enough to grant it a pass.
While Anyone But You is unlikely to wow anyone, it shouldn’t bore or anger anyone either. If a simple to follow rom-com is all you’re after, or you merely want a distraction for a couple of hours then Anyone But You does the job fine.
It’s not amazing, but it’s not bad. It has the potential to be a much stronger film, but it is what it is and on this occasion this is enough.
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