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A movie like Anyone But You is a throwback to the typical romcoms of the 2000s in which Matthew McConaughey usually played a himbo trying to get Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson or Jennifer Garner to see that he’s the perfect man for them. These movies were about people who were way well to do and had enough money they could just hop on a plane and leave to an exotic place at a moment’s notice.
But by the end of the 2000s, McConaughey turned 40 and he didn’t want to continue to play 30-somethings who still acted like they were in their 20s. So, this script, which was probably written for him, was thrown into a drawer where it continued to gather dust for about a decade. As studios decided they wanted to make more blockbusters and the occasional Oscar bait contender, most romcoms were delegated to the wastelands of streaming services. However, Covid shook up Hollywood and during that time, someone found the script and decided to give it a polish hoping for the best.
Intended as a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Glen Powell slides into the McConaughey himbo role as the hunk with a washboard abdomen and a smile that makes women moist. Sydney Sweeney is in the role that Hudson or Garner would’ve played. Glen is Ben, a Goldman Sachs employee living in Boston who helps out Bea (Sweeney), a Boston University law student who needs to use the restroom at a posh coffee house. Ben tells the staff Bea is his wife and buys her a drink making her a paying customer so she doesn’t have to wait in the long line behind Ben.
They have a spark and some goofiness ensues as both of them try to play it so suave. Ben and Bea ended up having a great time together ending the night having sex at Ben’s place. The next morning, Bea leaves early but thinks twice as she is calling her sister, Halle (Hadley Robinson), as why she’s walking away. She goes back but overhears Ben upset with her to his friend, Pete (GaTa), because he feels Bea ditched him. This time, Bea walks away for good.
Six months later, Ben and Bea are reunited again by an odd coincidence. Halle is marrying Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), who is the sister of Pete. And they are in the wedding party that is to take place in Sydney, Australia. Of course, Ben and Bea are both angry at each other for what happened, so they spend most of the movie not getting along while trying to show they are getting along. Apparently, everyone at the exotic beachfront house where they’re all saying tries to make them think they like each other by talking close to them so they won’t interfere with the wedding activities. But Ben and Bea catch on to the ruse and decide get back by faking it.
This actually does lead to some funny moments in which Ben and Bea try to get handsy with each other but it leads to Bea pulling a Hunstman spider from her hand in Ben’s shorts. And he quickly disrobes screaming telling Bea to look as he bends over naked as a jay bird. It’s refreshing to see an R-rated romcom like this that isn’t afraid to push the envelope. Yet, the humor isn’t exactly there the way it was in the Farrelly Brothers’ There’s Something About Mary. When the F-bomb is dropped here, it seems more like they’re doing so the studio wouldn’t request scenes be reshot to get a more family-friendly PG-13 rating.
Altogether, it made about $220 million worldwide, so there’s definitely an audience that wants to see these comedies. However, I think more people went in wanting to see Sweeney nude but she only appears in bikinis. There’s no full-frontal scene like Jennifer Lawrence pulled off in the hilarious No Hard Feelings. Powell shows off his bum but his little hangman is covered up. Charlee Fraser, who plays Ben’s former girlfriend Margaret, does a topless scene and Joe Davidson, who plays Margaret’s boyfriend, Beau, gets nude and shows his down under.
Will Gluck, who directs and co-wrote the script with Ilana Wolpert, seemed to be trying to make it more farcical. But the tone isn’t there and the pacing is off. He loads the plot down with so many characters and doesn’t give them much to do. Margaret chews scenery for the obligatory scene in which she decides she wants to give Ben another chance and will kiss him only for Bea to see and run away. Also on the trip is Jonathan (Darren Barnett), who is Bea’s former fiance. But he’s basically useless and extraneous.
Out of the dozen characters who make out the main cast, only half of them are really necessary. The parents of Claudia and Pete, Carol (Michelle Hurd) and Roger (Bryan Brown), and Bea and Halle, Leo (Dermot Mulroney) and Innie (Rachel Griffiths), seem to stand around and mostly react. It’s a shame because all the actors have been in better material and they’re all capable of doing comedy. Mulroney and Griffiths were both in Iand I’m sure it wasn’t a coincidence they were hired here.
However, Powell and Sweeney have enough chemistry to keep the movie flowing from beginning to end. And while they don’t really have a background in comedy, most of it works out as some subtle parody of the format. Gluck was a writer on the underrated Andy Richter Controls the Universe and directed the teen comedy Easy A, which was very well made. His last movies for the past decade were the Annie remake and the Peter Rabbit movies. I feel he was so eager to play it naughty since 2011’s Friends With Benefits that he threw it up on the wall to see what sticks. A lot does. But too much doesn’t.
What do you think? Please comment.