Review: Anne Hathaway seduces and destroys in Prime Video's semi-steamy The Idea of You

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• The Idea of You
• Directed by Michael Showalter
• Written by Michael Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt, based on the novel by Robinne Lee
• Starring Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine and Annie Mumolo
• Classification N/A; 116 minutes
• Streaming on Prime Video starting May 3

Have we all admitted how rotten we once were to Anne Hathaway?

Back in 2012, it seemed that the entirety of pop culture was united in a bizarre wave of Hatha-hate, everyone tripping over themselves to slam the actor as an inveterate try-hard who didn't deserve her Oscar for Les Misérables - yet did deserve to be stuck with a smarmy James Franco during their Academy Awards gig the year before. The pile-on is as ridiculous to recount today as it was to witness back then. Yet to her credit, Hathaway took the hit parade as a dare, spending the next decade turning out consistently excellent, layered, committed work in fare both deserving her talents (Interstellar, Colossal, Dark Waters) and falling beneath them (The Hustle, The Last Thing He Wanted, Ocean's 8).

Which brings us to The Idea of You, a fizzy romcom that, were it not for Hathaway's generous participation, might go pop and disappear at the tiniest provocation. One of Prime Video's latest attempts to blur the line between streaming-level ephemera and theatrical-level event after the Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House and the John Cena comedy Ricky Stanicky, The Idea of You frequently looks, feels and sounds like a made-for-television endeavour, all sitcom-level supporting characters and interchangeable locations. Yet whenever the camera is on Hathaway, which is almost always, the film feels a hundred times more rich and substantive.

Adapted from Robinne Lee's bestselling novel - though by all accounts stripped of the smut that made the book such a hot commodity - The Idea of You casts Hathaway as Solene, a Los Angeles art dealer facing a This Is 40-level crisis. Still healing from her divorce, Solene accompanies her teenage daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) to the Coachella music festival, where she has a meet-cute with Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), the 24-year-old Harry Styles-esque lead singer of a world-famous pop group. After fighting the attraction, Solene gives in to the romance, age-gap be damned, and embarks on a globe-trotting affair.

The bumps that follow are predictable enough - from Izzy's mixed reaction to the incredulity of the tabloid media - just as the visuals are mostly rote. Director and co-writer Michael Showalter gets the job done with minimal fuss, but his presence remains a stubborn curiosity - this is the comic anarchist who once gave deeply surreal life to the seminal sketch groups The State and Stella, to say nothing of his work on new-comedy classics Wet Hot American Summer and They Came Together? Hell, it was only a year or two ago that Showalter co-created Search Party, the most delightfully cynical series to come along in ages. Now he's faxing in L.A. family drama and hotel-suite sex scenes like a deeply discounted Nancy Meyers? (No disrespect to the director of The Intern, another stone-cold Hathaway classic.)

Maybe Showalter is just cribbing from the bland Prime Video house style, or maybe he wanted to take it easy after getting ignored (not unjustly) for his last effort, the watery drama Spoiler Alert. Either way, Showalter at least has a sometimes nervy script to work with, co-written by Kissing Jessica Stein's Jennifer Westfeldt, which if nothing else pierces the story's heart with one killer line delivered by Annie Mumolo, playing Solene's best friend: "Oh right, did I not warn you? People hate happy women."

Hathaway could have used such spice in her dialogue, though the actor still comes out on top. In her hands, Solene is searing, sexy, solidly alive. While Galitzine seems often in over his head, Hathaway levels out the heartthrob at every turn - their quickly ignited romance is beyond believable, instantly getting the audience on their side. While the sex scenes are largely tame - semi-steamy, as if taking place under a broken shower-head - there is a quiet heat to the pair, especially because the power balance is weighted in favour of Hathaway.

The actor balances desire with determination, leading Galitzine, and the audience, to exactly whatever position she deems fit. Fantine could learn a thing or two.