In what might be a rom-com first, the lovers of Anyone But You have their meet-cute during a bathroom emergency. Bea’s (Sydney Sweeney) desperate path to a public restroom key is blocked by the unjust bureaucracy of café purchases, and Ben (Glen Powell) swoops to her rescue, going overboard on the bit and posing as her husband who’s purchasing her a tea. Immediately, it’s clear that Powell can play the rom-com guy like he emerged from the womb with million-dollar smirks and quippy comebacks, but Sweeney labors to embody the hapless rom-com girl: The woman floundering between girlhood and adulthood who hasn’t quite figured out the secret to having it all. There’s something about Sweeney that doesn’t sell cutesy insecurity, a lilt in her voice suggests a struggle to make it all seem real. In a real-life scenario, Sweeney wouldn’t be stumbling, stuttering and blow-drying her jeans with a restroom hand-dryer after spilling sink water all over the crotch. No rom-com leading lady would be, mind you, but we still have to buy into the fantasy.
Once Sweeney settles into moods of aggravation and aggrievement, however, she finally finds her groove, one that she cleared for herself playing the manic, volatile Cassie on HBO’s Euphoria. Not quite needing to hit the emotional highs of that particular character, Sweeney plays annoyed and sultry better than silly and clumsy. These latter two are traits that her scene partner, Powell, clearly embodies more effortlessly, unsurprising if anyone’s seen him in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens, this year’s Hit Man or another rom-com, Set It Up, from 2018. Following in the proud footsteps of films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Clueless as a loose Shakespearean adaptation, Anyone But You is Sydney Sweeney’s romantic comedy debut, and it’s evident that at least the second half of that subgenre is not in her wheelhouse. But after the pair’s chaste yet emotionally profound post-meet-cute sleepover, in which commitment fears, miscommunication and a conversation that wasn’t meant for certain ears leads to Ben and Bea holding a mutual grudge against one another, fate shows that it has other plans.
It’s a small world, and Ben is the best friend of Pete (GaTa), who is the brother of Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), who is the soon-to-be wife of Bea’s sister, Halle (Hadley Robinson). Halle and Claudia announce their nuptials for a destination wedding in Australia, where Claudia’s family lives, and Ben and Bea are forced to confront their years-long, simmering hatred for one another in close quarters at the family’s home with the rest of the wedding party. When it becomes clear that the two may carelessly allow their distaste for one another to ruin the big day, Claudia and Halle hatch a plan to force Ben and Bea to rip off the band-aid, have sex and release all this unresolved tension.
Unfortunately, that plan is far too half-baked, leading to a hilarious scene in which Pete and Claudia’s father (Bryan Brown) makes Ben all too obviously “overhear” their conversation about how much Bea actually likes him. But Ben and Bea end up hatching their own plan, to make the rest of the wedding party believe that their plan is actually working. Bea’s overbearing parents (Dermot Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths) fly her ex-fiancé all the way out to Australia in their plan to get Bea’s life back on track. So, Ben and Bea, in agreement, pretend to really be into one another, to get Bea’s parents off her back and to make Ben’s Australian ex Maggie (Charlee Frasier) jealous while she’s dating a stereotypically meat-headed Aussie (Joe Davidson).
This nesting doll of schemes naturally leads to foibles and shenanigans, many of which got genuine belly-laughs out of me and the two middle-aged women who were the only other people in my theater. Some situations—like a fireworks snafu leading to an ablaze flower arrangement and singed hair, or Bea and Ben overextending a bit in which they attempt to squeeze one another’s butt the most believably—are the obvious sort of awkward “whoopsie-daisy” situations where the comedy is supposed to come naturally from the objective inanity of what you’re watching, not because anything funny is actually happening. But I was impressed by the relative lack of these kinds of gags in Anyone But You—too many comedies now are made up of scenes in which actors go overboard on a bit, trying to improvise their way into making it funny, but instead overstaying its welcome. (I’m looking at you, Bottoms.)
Anyone But You’s more intentional, focused comedy and funny lines got good laughs, partly because they often came out of nowhere; little moments of absurdity in an otherwise polished universe. I was happily taken off guard by dialogue like, “I don’t see faces, I just see souls” and “Honey, no one’s 29,” (as a person who is going to be 29 in *shudders* two weeks) not to mention the entire first scene with Peter and Claudia’s father—a surprising display of comedic chemistry.
The ones who don’t have very much comedic chemistry are Sweeney and Powell, although they do have chemistry together. Two actors who are attractive while not aggressively-so, they’re fun to watch bicker and fall in love. Sweeney is gorgeous, but has strong facial features that make her appearance unique; Powell could be interchangeable from a guy you might pass on Wall Street, but he’s got kind eyes and nonthreatening charisma—and he’s funny. Together, they make a cute couple, and by the end of Anyone But You, it’s hard to not simultaneously laugh and get misty-eyed as Natasha Bedingfield’s millennial classic “Unwritten” plays as the soundtrack to their burgeoning love. They’re beautiful and likable, and a brief almost-sex scene is shot well and very nearly salaciously by Danny Ruhlmann. But the funniest scenes are not typically the ones between Bea and Ben, even though they consistently held my rapt attention. I was invested in their outcome and won over by their charms, in spite of the uneven script and imbalanced comedic abilities.
Anyone But You might not be the most compelling argument for a robust return to studio romantic comedies. It relies too heavily on the archetypes and plot checkpoints of yesteryear (like the goofy-yet-wise Black friend), and some may watch and feel like it’s only more reason for the subgenre to stay dormant. It’s also almost too blemishless and pristine, the city of Sydney shot not unlike a travelogue. But despite Sweeney’s uneasy performance, there is something present between Sweeney and Powell, and in the text of the film, that feels fresh—or, at the very least, like a homecoming. Anyone But You is sweet, silly, uncomplicated and feel-good, but it’s also very obviously made for adults (it’s rated R). These are all descriptors which could also be used to define the modest, mid-budget success of this summer’s No Hard Feelings. It just feels good to give in to the silly universe of a story where true love wins out in the end, with no detached, ironic acknowledgment of just how silly this type of story is. With superhero films taking a blistering nosedive, maybe this really is the mark of a cultural shift. At the very least, mainstream audiences seem tired of condescension. They might want to watch real films with real feelings again.
Director: Will Gluck
Writer: Will Gluck, Ilana Wolpert
Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, Rachel Griffiths
Release Date: December 21, 2023
Brianna Zigler is an entertainment writer based in middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts. Her work has appeared at Little White Lies, Film School Rejects, Thrillist, Bright Wall/Dark Room and more, and she writes a bi-monthly newsletter called That’s Weird. You can follow her on Twitter, where she likes to engage in stimulating discussions on films like Movie 43, Clifford, and Watchmen.