There is an influx of new movies in theaters recently due to the end of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. Some of the most popular movies include ‘Wonka’, ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’, ‘The Color Purple’, ‘The Boys in the Boat’, ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’, and ‘Anyone but You’.
Anyone but You is a comedy and romance film that was released on December 22nd, 2023. Starring many familiar faces, the main roles are played by Sydney Sweeney as Bea and Glen Powell as Ben; other familiar faces are Darren Barnet, Alexandra Shipp, Hadley Robinson, Dermot Mulroney, Charlee Fraser, and more. It is directed by Will Gluck, with screenplay co-written by Llana Wolpert. The screenplay was written based on Much Ado About Nothing by the famous William Shakespeare.
The movie runs at 1 hour and 43 minutes and has collected roughly $27.7M at box offices. (Gross USA)
When the movie first starts its seen as a stereotypical rom com; Bea meets Ben in a coffee shop by accident, they have an almost instant connection and spend a romantic day together after only meeting that same day. After their date they fall asleep together on Bens’s couch, the next morning Bea wakes up and sneaks off without telling Ben. After a phone call with her friend on her walk home, Bea rethinks her decision and goes back to Ben’s apartment. When she returns, she’s quickly stopped in her tracks when she overhears Ben conversating with his friend Pete about the previous day. Bea is insulted when she hears the things Ben was saying about her and immediately turns away and leaves again before getting to see Ben for the last time.
Six months later, the two cross paths again due to Bea’s sister Halle dating Pete’s sister Claudia. When they meet again, Bea is engaged to her fiancé and rubs it in Bens’s face. Bea and Ben argue back and forth, they both blame each other for how things ended after their night together.
Next, Halle and Claudia announce their engagement along with their wedding plans. The wedding will be in Sydney, Australia. Bea is fresh out of a breakup with her ex-fiancé and recently dropped out of law school secretly. When she boards the flight, she is dismayed to find out that Ben is on the same flight as her, meaning they will be staying in the same house for the days leading up to the wedding.
To add, Bens ex-girlfriend Margaret and Bea’s ex- fiancé Jonathan are in attendance of the wedding trip, making things even more messy. Bea and Ben remain struggling to stay civil and the rest of the wedding party start to show agitation towards the couple.
To settle some of the drama Beas parents try to rekindle Bea’s and Jonathan’s relationship, while the others work tother to scheme a different plan. The attendees come up with the idea to set Bea and Ben up, but they’re smarter than that and realize what everyone is doing. The two have decided to make a deal to pretend to be together to make Margaret jealous and to stop Bea’s parents from pushing her back with Jonathan. Their first attempts to make the relationship believable are unsuccessful and obviously staged, until the couple is seen remaking a scene from the Titanic on the front of the party boat. The sweet moment is cut short when Bea falls into the Sydney Harbor, as the boat is quickly driving away Ben dives in after Bea despite not being able to swim. As the duo waits for a rescue helicopter on a buoy they have a conversation, Bea tells him that she had dropped out of law school, which was a detail about her no one knew. While floating on the buoy, Bea mentions how much she loves people watching and Ben plans a date with her to go people watch at the Sydney Opera House.
Bea and Ben are eventually rescued by a helicopter when Ben reveals his fear of heights. Bea starts singing the song no one knows about that Ben calls his “serenity song” to calm him and ease his nerves.
When they return to the house the two spend the night together, after Bea offhandedly says that her recent actions have all been mistakes, which hurts Ben and results in him disappearing in the night like Bea did the first night they spent together. Now, Bea is hurt in the same was Ben is due to the misunderstanding.
It is now the morning of the wedding and Margaret talks to Bea about her relationship with Ben, implying that she wants to get back together with him.
Bea’s parents rush up to her asking why she would drop out of law school, revealing that Ben accidentally exposed the private news to her family leaving Bea feeling betrayed.
While getting ready, Ben overhears Claudia and Halle’s staged argument and believes its real. Ben convinces Bea to continue the “fake” romance for the sake of Claudia and Halle to have a stress-free wedding. The ceremony goes swimmingly until the reception when Bea sees Margaret kissing Ben, which ends with Bea running off in tears. What Bea doesn’t see is Ben shutting Margaret down and telling her he’s not interested in her anymore. The wedding party tells Ben he needs to chase after Bea; he jumps in the harbor and gets picked up again by the rescue helicopter that saved the couple earlier in the film. The helicopter takes him to the Opera House where Bea is and apologizes to her, and tells her his real feelings.
The couple returns to the reception as a couple, when Halle and Claudia reveal that their argument was another ploy to get Bea and Ben together. Unexpectedly, Jonathan and Margaret get together, and everyone has a “happy love story” ending!
Audiences surveyed by Cinema Score gave the film an average grade of “B+” on an A+ to F scale
Tyler Skeen says: “Best rom-com in years. So refreshing to have two new great faces that are stars in Sydney Sweeney & Glen Powell. Shot in our beautiful country of Australia! Wow.
“
Rotten Tomatoes quotes “Anyone but You should hit the sweet spot for rom-com fans, even if this one gets a little raunchier than some might expect.”
To end, anyone but you is a must see feel good rom com! The movie is expecting a global Netflix release around April 20th, 2024 and will be leaving theaters sometime in February. See it while you can at a theater near you!
