Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine in a rom-com for adults
that would be a bad or at least uninteresting film: a sickly, bland, trope-laden rom-com about an older woman and a younger pop star. But none of those would have been directed by Michael Showalter., which closed out the 2024 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, should be a car crash between two clunky narrative devices. First, it’s a May-December romance, with a 40-year-old divorced mother, Solène falling for a smoldering yet sweet 24-year-old, Hayes Campbell .
That May-December element is more April-August, removing any implication of cradle-snatching ickiness from the story. But there are so many reasons for Solène and Hayes to not work out. The age gap, the culture gap, his celebrity, the rawness of her divorce from the adulterous Daniel , and her role as mother to teen Izzy . Importantly, all of those areisn’t wish fulfilment fan fic about a cougar bagging a Harry Styles proxy.
It’s a perfect role for Hathaway, who balances the dramatic weight of Solène’s complicated life with the giddiness of the whirlwind affair across continents, but can still crack the screen open with a goofy grin and signature explosive laugh. Her undeniable chemistry with Galitzine brings out the best in him, making Hayes so much more than just some doe-eyed fuckboy.
And the nuanced demands of a rom-com are something Showalter understands. He began his feature directorial career lampooning the genre’s conceits in 2005’s. What distinguished his coma-com was a truly sensitive depiction of the complexities of the human heart, and how it can navigate the harshest of conditions – all while nurturing a profound and warming belief in romance.
Showalter makes rom-coms for adults who have had their hearts broken a few times but still come back for more: they just know that those hearts and flowers take tender care to stay healthy. The script for, which he co-wrote with Jennifer Westfeldt from the book by Robinne Lee, keeps the humor light and the romance delicate, while also pushing Showalter into new territories as a director.
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