Anyone But You

Let’s take two of the most attractive people on the planet, put them in a beachy, summer setting and give them some reasons to fight and flirt and fall in love. 

Then let’s go print money. 

Easy to pitch it, somewhat easy to bankroll and film it. Damn hard to pull it off. 

Anyone But You gets romcom summer movie just right. Screenwriter Ilana Wolpert deftly sets up the situation, breezily moves through the plot and arrives at an ending that any rom com fan should love.

Taking the basic story of Much Ado About Nothing and modernizing it certainly gave her some help with the structure. But the biggest asset she and Director Will Gluck have is solid chemistry from leads Sydney Sweeney and Ben Powell.

They are perfect looking people and that both helps and hinders the proceeedings. I have a hard time believing Sidney Sweeney’s life is a mess.

But she and Glen Powell both have the goods here. I’m still not sold on the whole Powell is our next Tom Cruiseesque movie star but this movie makes a solid case to put him in the lineup.

Anyway, I thought all the jokes worked, I thought all the call backs worked and I thought the movie looked fun and made me happy.

If we lived in a different world they’d line up two more of these with different plots and characters like they used to do with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks or Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

Chemistry is undeniable on a big screen. And if they got it they should flaunt it.