"Anyone But You" is much ado about hot, charming stars

Anyone But You (2023)

In the light-as-air, refreshingly R-rated romantic comedy “Anyone But You,” nothing goes better with William Shakespeare than hot people. The impossibly attractive Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney pretend to be impossibly attractive people who hate each other and then pretend to be in love before actually falling in love for real — got it? Writer-director Will Gluck ("Easy A," "Friends with Benefits") and co-writer Ilana Wolpert aren’t quite up to the standards of “10 Things I Hate About You” (or even the under-seen “Get Over It” and “Deliver Us From Eva”) with their contemporary Bard revamp, but it all boils down to likable leads carrying the day. 

Ben (Powell) is a hot finance bro, and Bea (Sweeney) is a hot law student. After a meet-cute at a coffee shop that leads to a great evening of eating grilled cheese, talking, and falling asleep in each other’s arms with their belt buckles untouched, a misunderstanding pits these two against one another. With this being a movie—and a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”—Ben and Bea (much like Benedick and Beatrice) must both attend a destination wedding in Sydney, Australia; he’s best friends with the bride, Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), and her sister, Halle (Hadley Robinson), is the other bride. As Movie Contrivance would have it, Bea’s meddlesome parents (Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths) have invited her hot ex-fiancé, Jonathan (Darren Barnet), and Ben’s hot Aussie ex, Margaret (Charlee Fraser), is a bridesmaid. The families think Ben and Bea have chemistry, so they try playing Cupid, and Ben and Bea decide to play along. A “skirmish of wit” ensues!

For the better, “Anyone But You” does feel like a throwback to the romantic comedies of the early aughts, and its success has much ado about the stars, individually and as an on-screen pair. Powell could come across as smarmy with that toothsome grin, but he’s extremely charming, and Sweeney is charismatic with an untapped knack for physical comedy (her hijinks with a bathroom hand dryer and in an airplane seat are both nimbly played). There’s only a little to each of these characters—Ben’s mother died, and Bea doesn’t really want to be a lawyer and doesn’t know how to let a grilled cheese cool down before taking a bite—but they do have a tart, snappy banter (not in iambic pentameter) and an instant heat between them. The problem is, the conflicts are mighty flimsy, and there isn’t much tension or chemistry between Ben and Bea and their respective exes. We always know that our good-looking leads will be getting together, no questions asked, and that’s okay. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: B -

Sony Pictures Releasing released "Anyone But You" (103 min.) in theaters on December 26, 2023.