Metacritic reviews

It’s a warm, approachable movie that you’ll get blissfully lost in.

This is Hathaway’s movie, and she owns it: independent, desirable and never, ever desperate.

By the end of this adaptation, we get the full picture of this romance and the two people involved.

It's genuinely funny while also basking in the very believable romance of it all.

Deceptively courageous and perceptive on parasocial celebrity culture — and on the fallacy that women have expiration dates — The Idea Of You has good, clean fun with two characters it’s impossible not to love.

Hathaway, who produced The Idea of You, provides a solid center to the film, with the steamy romance plot coming second only to Solène’s character development.

The Idea of You is an example of the romance novel adaptation done right, an outstanding balance of chemistry and joke density that never talks down to its audience.

While putting attractive stars onscreen in lavish locations isn’t new, here’s a film that does it well and isn’t afraid of showcasing authentic, character-driven humor that nowadays almost seems old-fashioned.

In the hands of lesser performers and lesser filmmakers the premise could have fallen apart quickly. The Idea of You, however, has performers who know exactly what they need to bring to deliver a believable, compelling romance worth getting swept up in.

The Idea of You functions best as a carefree treat — a feel-good romantic comedy that delivers some laughs and bursts with the magnetism of its lead. That it manages to wiggle in some lessons about self-discovery is merely a bonus.