If the Hallmark Channel decided to add profanity, it might look a little like “Anyone But You.”
Hardly a “Bridesmaids”-level rom-com, it spends considerable time at the beach, in the pool and on rescue boats, simply to get Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney into skimpy swimwear (or nothing at all).
When they’re not modeling the latest fashions, they’re sharing intel on everyone in the wedding party. The film, you see, is built around unheard truths that have a passing connection to Shakespeare (thus all the quotes plastered around various scenes).
In truth, the film is hardly that ambitious.
The two stars meet at a coffee shop where she’s desperate to use the bathroom but can’t wait in an oh-so-long line. He pretends to be her husband, gets the key and soon, the two are talking and dating. When an overheard comment suggests this isn’t leading to anything serious, the two split and figure that’s that.
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Flash forward and they’re both invited to a lesbian wedding in Australia. They go, but pretend they’re a couple to get the others off their backs. Then, it’s just a matter of getting him out of his swim trunks and her into the harbor and, supposedly, hilarity ensues.
Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney star in "Anyone But You."
Not quite.
Used to being second bananas in films like these, Powell and Sweeney have a bit of a hurdle making audiences believe they’re sincere. He has that half-cocked grin that worked in “Top Gun: Maverick”; she has that classic eye roll that made her a hit in “The White Lotus.”
Playing this sincerely becomes a problem – particularly for writer/director Will Gluck, who must embrace a Nancy Meyers world with classic sidekicks.
Once the wedding party is set (Dermot Mulroney, GaTa, Bryan Brown and Michelle Hurd are here, too), it’s just a matter of putting them into play with the two unlikely lovers. Powell seems game to move up the ladder (those abs, alone, should land him a TV series); Sweeney doesn’t quite know how to be the sweet law school dropout without playing the snark.
Australia's a great place for a wedding as Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell discover in "Anyone But You."
Gluck puts them in interesting situations (though someone should have rescued them from Sydney Harbour sooner) but doesn’t quite know how to pull them out.
Naturally, there’s a ruined wedding cake, a handful of euphemisms, a “Titanic” re-creation and another man who complicates the emotional dynamics.
All’s well that ends well, you might say. But there’s an awful lot of fussing about just to make this seem like it’s a comedy.
Movies in a minute with film critic Bruce Miller
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Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal.
