Romancey Pants

Duck: Friends, The Idea Of You has a simple plot. A forty-year-old woman, mother, and divorcee called Solene meets a young, stereotypically hot, and ultra-famous music star called Hayes. Big love ensues, as does MASSIVE mutual beak action … and the romantic conflict? Cruel societal attacks from ducks. No, wait. From humans of course.

Star: And maybe a reason we appreciated it was because of a super-ducking important theme: age difference in romance and the way society oppresses this.

Duck: Why is there so much QUACKDUCKERY about age differences among humans? Ducks don’t give a DUCK!!!

Star: Silly, isn’t it? Worse, it’s super-ducking oppressive. And the film does a good job of showing this. What Solene goes through is frankly cruel, and society’s objectification of her and Hayes is flipper-strides beyond stalking.

Duck: Now, you’re over forty, right, Star?

Star: Yes!! This astonishes people because I look much younger. Honestly, I don’t think about my age much. As a queer, nonbinary person who’s neurodiverse, survived a religious cult as a child, has had disabilities, tends to make friends with folks of diverse ages, has been freelance for ages, and immigrated to the USA from the UK many years ago, I find doing and envisioning life differently to be super-ducking important. I do have the privilege of looking younger than I am, which certainly makes a big difference. But when I watch a movie like The Idea Of You, I remember how the *idea* of age and attraction can be stereotyped to the point of societal violence. And it makes zero ducking sense. Who you fall in love with is your alone to define. Beauty is yours to perceive. No one gets to choose your partners for you. Nor should they.

Duck: It’s true! I give ageism The Flipper whenever I can. And to be fair, so does The Idea Of You. In fact, the ageism from this fictional world is clearly widespread with about as much flipper-tickle as an ailing trout—probably very true to life. It raises the stakes for sure! But while avoiding pond-suck spoilers, I would have liked to see more from those who felt liberated and excited by Solene’s dating of Hayes. We only see a little hint of that. And (again avoiding spoilers) I think some of the sacrifices characters had to make could have been tempered by some ducking feminist self-love fire! Some attempts to preserve your own duck-darn heart as well as those of others!

Star: I agree! We need to start focusing there as a society too, so that was an opportunity missed, I think.

More variety and intersectionality would have been appreciated in this film, too. Art needs, IMDO, to try and model what it wants to see in the world while still exploring gritty reality, especially when it comes to diversity and intersectional feminism. That said, age differences in romance are important diversity. I really do commend this movie for that!

Duck: There could have been more diversity too. Much as I appreciate the diversity of the main characters, which totally wets my whistle-holes, by the way, and makes this a better ducking world, there was an opportunity for more of a variety of LGBTQIA+ characters. And the movie’s racial diversity could have been a bit stronger too.

Star: But the performances were seriously phenomenal. Anne Hathaway (Solene) and Nicholas Galitzine (Hayes) rocked our flippers with their intensity, emotional complexity, and gorgeous chemistry. Captivating together! Like ballet-dancing swans!

Big-pond kudos to Ellie Rubin too, who played Solene’s daughter Izzy, and to the always outstanding Annie Mumolo whose comedy we adore—we love to see her playing a role so deftly in a more serious drama, while still making us chuckle. Yes, world, femme actors can be funny and serious in the same ducking role! Go Annie Mumolo!!

Duck: Quack quack, Star!

This film was also as deep and intense as my midnight quacking during that performance of Phantom when I played the title role. But in a super-ducking awesome way! The romance between Solene and Hayes was intense yet gentle, sizzling yet fun, empathic, deep, sexual, ducking EXPANSIVE, and beautifully romantic. We super-ducking enjoyed it!

Star: In spite of our several criticisms, this movie really stayed with us—vivid, super-ducking important, and beak-to-flippers compelling. That’s why we’re giving it four flippers up. More like this please, Amazon Prime!

Duck: DUCK yes!!!

At the time of writing, you can watch The Idea of You on Amazon Prime.

Featured image: Photo taken via screenshot from the movie’s trailer on YouTube. Design by Star Tavares.