Hollywood has long made movies about older women and younger men. There are likely a dozen examples that predate the famous Mrs. Robinson, but since she had an affair with a young Dustin Hoffman in the Graduate, this odd little genre has made film after film where an older woman is charmed by a younger man. And, The Idea Of You is that film. Again. Adapted from a novel, and now with enough fans to be asking for a sequel, the idea Of You felt like a retread, until it had the balls to do something the other films didn’t have the balls to do. yeah, I’m using crass language, because I had already tapped out, and suddenly the movie has this ending… and I was pleasantly surprised. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

I can think of tons of movies where the younger woman ends up with the older guy, but there are almost no films where the younger man ends up with the older woman. Here, the older woman is barely “old”, as Anne Hathaway feels like she barely qualifies. I may be getting old, but I do remember The princess Diaries, so color me shocked to see her playing a MILF. Hathaway plays a recently separated woman with a teenage daughter, whose friend takes her out for a night on the town, and she ends up hitting it off with the main singer of the hottest boy band around. He’s 24, she’s 40. And, he is played by the new He Man Nicholas Galitzine. And while we watch these two navigate through all the complications of this relationship, in a way that doesn’t feel adjacent to May/december, there are still those societal norms that seem to bog Hathaway’s character down. plus, the paparazzi, and her teenage daughter’s feelings, as well as an assertive ex (Reid Scott). So, as typical, she breaks up with him because it just can’t work out. Damn.

Then, the film has this interesting little coda that suggests that after a little space and time, he still comes back to her, because she is enough. Damn that age gap, older women deserve love too. Like I said, if this was a 40 year old man and a 24 year old woman, I’m not even sure the age gap would have been pointed out. That’s how commonplace it is. Meanwhile, we have movie (The Good Girl), after movie (Something’s Gotta Give), after movie (Eat Pray Love), after movie (P.S.), after movie of older women who don’t end up with the younger guy, for whatever reason. So, a big thank you to Michael Showalter for taking the chance that an audience would buy this type of relationship possibly working out.

it is surprisingly well acted for an Amazon original that skipped theatres, and the audio description done by The Media Access Group, narrated by Sherie’s McLaughlin, and written by Nick Provinder, Matt Cinema, and Josh Geekhouse (all of whom I’m certain I did not spell their names correctly), did a nice job of the specifics. I particularly enjoyed near the end of the film when our lead troubadour is on TV, and we are told it is the Graham Norton show, something a sighted audience would have recognized, instead of wondering what show this was. The performance itself was well described, as is a lot of the intimate moments between the leads.

I thought this would be another derivative romcom, but they end up together, and while I hate spoiling endings, it did greatly factor into my grade.

Final Grade: B+