Anyone But You
- -After an amazing first date, Bea and Ben’s 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.
Photos
Storyline
Details
Box Office
Company Credits
Technical Specs
It’s Not Enough That Sydney Sweeney & Glen Powell Look Gorgeous In This New Rom-Com!
The romantic comedy genre is making a comeback on screen with Anyone But You, but regrettably, the film doesn’t accomplish anything novel to merit this chance.
What’s Good: Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney both have amazing looks. They both appear fantastic!
What’s Bad: The jokes and speech are offensive and reminiscent of the raunchy comedy era of American Pie.
Summary:
Romantic comedies used to be the most popular genre in theaters; they were so inexpensive to produce that studios turned to them instead of horror films in order to turn a rapid profit. But the genre went straight digital with the advent of streaming platforms, so it’s strange to see films like this in cinemas these days. The film that aims to revive the genre on the big screen is Anyone But You.
Plot:
Ben is a Goldman Sachs finance employee that Bea, a law student at Boston University, meets while attempting to obtain a toilet key at a coffee shop. The two hit it off right away and spend the rest of the day together before falling asleep on Ben’s couch.
Bea goes without waking him in the morning. After giving it some thought, she goes back to the apartment where she hears Ben making fun of her in front of his friend Pete. After a six-month hiatus, they finally reunite when Bea’s sister Halle starts dating Pete’s sister Claudia. The two have a chilly relationship and blame each other for the bad date outcome.
Later on, Halle and Claudia become engaged and decide to get married in Sydney. Ben is on the same trip to Australia as Bea, who has broken up with her fiancé and secretly dropped out of law school. Bea is shocked to learn that they would be spending the days before the wedding at Claudia and Pete’s parents’ house.
When Ben’s ex-girlfriend Margaret and Bea’s ex-fiance Jonathan show there, the other guests in the wedding party start to become irritated by Bea and Ben’s animosity. To make sure the wedding goes off without a hitch, the other guests come up with a scheme to bring Bea and Ben together as Bea’s parents try to force her to make amends with Jonathan.
Bea quickly spots the plot holes in Ben’s plan, and they agree to pretend to be together in order to appease Margaret and avoid Bea’s parents from pressuring her to reconcile with Jonathan. Until a boat party where Bea and Ben dance together and recreate a scene from the movie Titanic, which culminates with Bea plunging into Sydney Harbor, early attempts to sell the relationship are fruitless.
Ben follows Bea in jumping in, and as they wait for help on a buoy together, they talk. They arrange a date to see the Sydney Opera House together after she informs him that she has decided to drop out of law school.
They have sex after coming back to the house, but Ben is disappointed when Bea casually implies that her recent behavior was all an error. He disappears during the night, which depresses Bea.
Margaret asks Bea for permission to pursue a romantic relationship with Ben on the morning of the wedding. She nods and says that their involvement is transitory only. Through a chat with Pete, he subtly informs Bea’s parents that she has quietly dropped out of law school, leaving her feeling deceived.
Ben persuades Bea to pretend to get back together for the wedding when he overhears her and Halle fighting. Everything goes well at the ceremony, but when she returns to the Opera House crying, she discovers Margaret kissing him during the reception. But Ben rejects Margaret, claiming he was mistakenly fixated on a memory and that’s why he no longer feels anything for her. He dives into the bay once more, this time persuading the rescue helicopter to take him to the Opera House after the wedding party persuades him to pursue Bea.
Ben tells Bea he’s sorry and that he thought their connection might turn into something else he would regret leaving. After they make up, they head back to the reception together, where Halle and Claudia confess that their quarrel was just a lie to win each other back. Meanwhile, their former partners reunite.
Examining The Screenplay:
The romantic comedy genre has become easily accessible due to the growth of streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video. Numerous new romantic comedies are launched on these platforms each year, but they quickly lose their audience’s interest. Regretfully, Anyone But You may not be the genre savior everyone has been waiting for. It is extremely unfortunate that an entire genre has been brought down to such low standards.
Anyone But You needs to be trying something different to win the role of savior and bring rom-coms back to theaters. This is because theaters have recently evolved into special movie-watching venues, so you should be doing something that will show people that rom-coms are worth more than they previously realized. Rather than doing any of it, Anyone But You only employs the same tired clichés that have dogged the genre for years.
Although the film chooses to follow the American Pie school of humor, there are still plenty of raucous moments and sultry sequences featuring our stunning leads. However, having such a gorgeous couple is insufficient. A romantic comedy needs to be more than just humorous; it also needs to be poignant and take the plot beyond the tried-and-true formula that has been in use for decades.
When you start viewing Anyone But You, you already know how it ends. While some viewers find solace in this, others think that the lack of any kind of surprise or sense of discovery makes the film as uninteresting as it gets. The character development is not poor, but it is essential to take these people’s personalities into account rather than treating them as walking concepts.
But when it comes to the supporting cast, the majority of the character development is conspicuously lacking. Numerous outstanding romantic comedies feature a group of supporting characters who end up becoming audience favorites due to their coolness, helpfulness, or sheer cuteness. Anybody However, it’s unfortunate that you don’t have that kind of supporting cast because Alexandra Shipp, who is incredibly gifted, deserves much better on television.