Anyone But You | Reelviews Movie Reviews

Hey nonny nonny?

One of the small pleasures in a romantic comedy replete with
them (but generally lacking in what one might consider a “large pleasure”) is
the recognition that Anyone But You is, in fact, a twisted and
repackaged version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Expectations,
however, should be set for Elizabethan fans in search of a 21^st
century fix. The source material has been pretty thoroughly obliterated by Ilana
Wolpert and Will Gluck’s screenplay. (Gluck also directed.) Still, those
familiar with the 425-year-old play (or perhaps Kenneth Branagh’s considerably newer movie version) may recognize some of the quotations that pop up along the
way. The dead give-way can be found in the names of the constantly-bickering
couple. Just as every “reworking” of The Taming of the Shrew inevitably
has its Kate, so this one has its Bea(trice) (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben(edick)
(Glen Powell).

Keeping in mind that Much Ado About Nothing owns one of
the half-dozen-or-so rom-com plot staples, it should come as no surprise that Anyone
But You is short on surprises, twists, and anything else that would give
the movie a reason to watch beyond the chemistry between the leads. There’s
plenty of that, to be sure – probably enough to keep the dedicated viewer
engaged for the full 105 minutes – but there are times when the screenplay
seems underwritten and the dough feels a little on the mushy side.

Anyone But You opens with a meet-cute prologue in which
Bea and Ben have an awkward initial encounter that leads to a long night of
talking and canoodling before a miscommunication results in each of them thinking
poorly of the other. They coincidentally reconnect some time later when both
are invited to a wedding in Sydney. While there, various friends and family
seek to push them together…a tactic that might work if they weren’t so committed
to hating one another. However, when Bea’s parents bring in the Old Milquetoast
Boyfriend, Jonathan (Darren Barnet), and Ben finds himself pining for an ex,
Margaret (Charlee Fraser), who might be interested in a reunion, both decide
it might be advantageous to pretend they’re a couple. (This would have the
double advantage of chasing away Jonathan while making Margaret jealous.) And, of
course, the harder they work to convince everyone of their devotion, the closer
that becomes to the truth.

Rom-coms with formulaic structures allow viewers to
concentrate on the cleverness of the dialogue, the sophistication of the
comedy, and the chemistry between the leads. The late Nora Ephron often worked
with tropes and cliches but she had a keen ear, a sharp pen, and access to some
of the most appealing actors in Hollywood. Despite having a Shakespearean
advantage, Ilana Wolpert and Will Gluck don’t achieve Ephron-esque levels. The
dialogue is often pedestrian and the comedy is as apt to cause cringing as chuckling.
That puts an awful lot of weight on the shoulders of Sydney Sweeney and Glen
Powell.  They’re up to it – to a point.
They make for great fencing partners, whether they’re dueling with verbal
rapiers or jousting under the sheets. (Despite this being an R-rated movie, the
sex/nudity is strictly PG-13.) Sweeney, who has shown her gifts for comedy and
drama in past projects, has a couple of genuinely poignant moments where she
isn’t required to say a word. In one, her eyes project a loneliness that raises
that scene to another level.

There was a time when throwaway rom-coms like this were
common multiplex fillers. But the genre has fallen out of favor with audiences
and movies like this are being given outsized profiles simply because there are
so few of them. Saying this is one of the “better holiday-season rom-coms of
2023” might be damning with faint praise because I’m not sure there are any
other “holiday-season rom-coms of 2023” in competition for the title. It’s an
enjoyable enough parfait but far from a theatrical destination.

Anyone But You (United States, 2023)