ANYONE BUT YOU - Mark Reviews Movies

Anyone but You, Sony Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 21, 2023

If anything, Anyone But You serves as a good reminder that the clichés of the romantic comedy are at least as old as the age of William Shakespeare. Here, after all, is a pseudo-adaptation of the Bard's Much Ado About Nothing, a fact that would probably go over even the heads of scholars of Elizabethan drama, if not for the main characters' names and the constant quoting of the play.

The basic premise of the central relationship, in which two people who secretly love each other hide it by way of constant bickering, is nothing new, and it's such a common setup that we can't really refer to it as old, either. It is so familiar that the notion has basically transcended the concept of cliché.

It is a law of the genre, essentially, like a miscommunication that could easily be cleared up with a single line of dialogue, except that it sets the plot in motion, and the climactic gesture of such extravagant romance that any misunderstanding or transgression can be forgiven on the spot. By the way, the screenplay, written by Ilana Wolpert and director Will Gluck, also uses those two scenarios—just in case one might think the premise is a one-off in terms of genre staples here.

To fault a genre exercise for simply following such laws is too easy and inherently pointless, though. The important thing isn't what a movie does, after all. It's how the movie does those things. This one follows the rules to the letter, gives us half of a convincingly bickering/romantic pairing, and certainly gives one the impression the actors and filmmakers had a good time making it. The material definitely isn't helped by the reminders of Shakespeare, since this turns out to be little ado about a very familiar thing, indeed.

The main gag involves the love-hate relationship between law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney), whose full name is Beatrice, and stock broker Ben (Glen Powell), whose name likely isn't Benedick—although, if one says that name aloud, it could be a good description of how he has been at almost any given moment of the story. The two meet in a sort-of cute manner at a coffee shop. Bea needs to use the restroom, and Ben pretends she's his wife, for whom he's ordering, so the barista will let her have the key to the facilities.

There's also a sort-of amusing bit of Bea trying to dry the front of her pants, after accidentally soaking them with a spray from the sink. The movie is filled with moments that sort of, maybe could have worked with a little more tinkering or a lot more comedic imagination.

Anyway, the two spend the rest of the day together hanging out and talking, before falling asleep from all the talking—and only talking—on Ben's couch. Bea sneaks out in the morning, worried about how much she likes this guy, and upon returning to explain why she left without a word, she overhears an insulted Ben insult her to his best friend Pete (GaTa).

Months pass, and separate animosity between the two escalates, only for Bea's younger sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) to become engaged to the friend's stepsister Claudia (Alexandra Shipp). With the constant ill-will and arguing between the two in the build-up to the wedding in Sydney, the soon-to-be brides and Pete decide to trick Bea and Ben into consummating the obvious sexual tension between them.

There's a lot more going on here, as Wolpert and Gluck try to justify why these two would pretend to be a couple instead of just, you know, trying not to be so openly mean to each other for a couple days. It has to do with Bea's ex-boyfriend Jonathan (Darren Barnet), who shows up for the wedding, and Ben's former flame Margaret (Charlee Fraser), with whom he thinks he's still in love. None of this is a particularly convincing excuse for the charade, but it does mean the fake couple gets to do a terrible job at pretending, even as they start to realize they might have feelings for each other.

Powell is surprisingly funny here, as a guy who's only half-aware of his flaws as a potential romantic partner and his shortcomings in being the good guy he believes himself to be. Sweeney shows some flair for physical comedy, such as in the opening scene in the restroom and some reactions to Ben's foolishness, but mostly, her performance gives one the impression that even she isn't sold on the story's central conceit. In other words, that indefinable spark of chemistry, which is another of those laws of the genre, simply isn't present, save for those moments when the humor and the romance are communicated without words.

Yes, that's a significant limitation for the movie, especially since so much of the relationship and comedy depends on Bea and Ben's back-and-forth bantering. Anyone But You has the right idea. It might even be a slightly clever, self-aware one, but those notable miscalculations prevent the movie from reaching that potential.

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