Sarah's thoughts on The Idea of You movie

From an overly obsessed fan of the book - don't worry, no spoilers!

This is not Solene’s house - where is the glass and midcentury furniture?

Izzy isn’t obsessed with the band anymore? She’s so much older.

Solene goes camping? That doesn’t seem right.

Those were my initial thoughts within five minutes of watching the movie. And it was at this time that I told myself that I need to let the book and the movie be separate entities if I was going to be able to enjoy this. And so, I tried to put the book out of my mind. I’ll admit, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Each time something was different, it took me out of it for a second. But, I’ve broken down my thoughts below, and I’d love to hear from those of you who have also read the book and watched the movie.

Quick Background

I first read The Idea of You by Robinne Lee back in 2020 and it remains the worst book hangover I’ve ever had. I thought about this book for MONTHS. This book affected me on such a deep level that I immediately started re-reading it when I was done because I didn’t know what had just happened to me. I’ve since read it six times and it’s in my top three books of all time. If you’ve been around RTL for awhile, you’ve heard me mention this book A LOT, so needless to say, I was hesitantly excited about the movie version coming out.

On Casting

I know one of the biggest concerns was over Anne Hathaway’s casting as Solene. And I was one of those people who didn’t think she could pull off sexy. Honestly, I was very surprised by how well I bought into her as Solene. She isn’t who I pictured in my head as I was reading the book, but even so, I think she pulled it off. And also, now I want bangs.

I actually had more of an issue with Nicholas Galitzine who played Hayes. Now, we know that my ultimate Hayes is Harry Styles and no one else would fit in this role. However, I really tried to give Nicholas a shot. He is absolutely beautiful, he oozes charm. But I just don’t think he was sexy enough to be Hayes. Hayes is portrayed as this young sex god, and I don’t think that came off at all. His style wasn’t the same, his hair wasn’t a big issue like it was in the book, but maybe that was the point.

The other members of the boy band, I was disappointed in their casting, too. They’re not at all how they’re described in the book - and again, maybe that was the point. Maybe they were trying to make it completely different from the book. But none of them felt like boy band material to me. Also, I found their scenes of onstage boyband singing completely cringey. Though I do wonder if I looked back at the boy bands I was obsessed with when I was younger, if I’d feel that way about them too now that I’m in my 40s. I did really enjoy Hayes’ solo music, though.

Izzy was gorgeous, but she was so much older than in the book, and because of that, the problems between Izzy and Solene became different. If they wanted a departure, that definitely worked in their favor.

On the Story

Smartly, I think, the story diverges quite a bit from the book. If I was seeing this movie without knowing about the book, I think I would’ve really enjoyed it for what it was. It’s a cute romance movie, the chemistry between Hayes and Solene is great, and on the whole it’s just a good time. And the steamy scenes were really good.

So many details have been changed, including pieces of the plot, that I think if you don’t separate the book and movie in your mind, you’re going to get really upset, thinking “but that’s not how it goes!”

I wish we got more of their romance and how they fell in love. Naturally, with a two hour movie, you can only fit in so much, but I didn’t get the passionate love story that I got when reading the book. In a book you’re able to bring so much depth and detail that is just lacking in a movie (this is why books are better than movies - fight me). But I think that we got enough of it that we were still rooting for these two.

I also wish we got more of the jetsetting. The locations were such a huge point of the book and while we did get small snippets of that, I definitely wanted more.

I’m not going to say anything about the ending of this movie. Or about the ending of the book. Because I think that’s something that needs to be experienced in both forms. But I did have big thoughts on it and if you want to email me directly to talk about it, I’m all ears.

Overall

I think as I mentioned earlier, had I never read this book, I would’ve been completely satisfied with the movie. And if I’m able to remove my thoughts of the book, I really did enjoy myself. This was a great rom-com, something we don’t get a lot of these days and my initial fears about the changes they made were mostly swept away. Again, if you take these as two separate entities. Honestly, I think I’ll watch it again now that I know the big changes they made so that I can sink into it a bit more.

They did a good job with taking the story and making it into something of its own. So, I’ll remove my side-eye from it and accept it as what it was. However, I’d be so, so curious to know Robinne Lee’s honest thoughts about the ways in which they’ve changed her incredible book.

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UPDATED THOUGHTS from 5/8/24:

This week I both re-read the book and re-watched the movie and I’ve got more thoughts, naturally.

I’ll say on this re-watch, I actually liked the movie more. Because I already knew all of the changes that were to come, I was able to completely separate the experience of the movie from the book - because they are completely separate things. I was able to be swept away in the story for what it was, and even the cheesiness wasn’t as bad this time around. Plus, Nicholas Galitzine really did something for me this time around. He still isn’t Hayes to me, but I liked him in the role a lot better. I’m entering my Nick Galitzine era now.

But, thinking about the two, I’m also more pissed this time around. They removed so much of what was good from the book from the movie and made it this completely watered down Hollywood version and I don’t think I’ll ever get over them taking the essence of the story and making it so bland. Two of the best parts of the book - the banter, and Solene’s strong in herself character - are completely missing from the adaptation and I just don’t understand why. They’ve made Solene into a character I don’t recognize, they’ve removed the absolute heartbreak of their love story, and they’ve glossed over the epicness of what they were going through.

I still don’t want to give any spoilers but removing a few key things:

• Izzy’s obsession with the band,

• The Oliver plotline,

• The actual business that Solene had,

All of those things have been changed and it makes the tension so much less important in the movie. And for that, I’m so sad. They could’ve put so much more into this movie and instead everything is seen at surface level with more time spent on ridiculous things (cleaning out a fridge, the weird art warehouse, dancing with chicken nuggets) when they could’ve brought the drama from the book into the movie.

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