Anyone But You whisks you away to Australia to watch some of the hottest stars in Hollywood fall in love. By including a koala bear, jokes about local coffee and a sweet gesture at the Sydney Opera House, it offers a great escape.
Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) have undeniable chemistry, but their love story needs some editing. The opening scenes are great! After their meet cute in a coffee shop, a misunderstanding makes them go separate ways. Then they have dramatic reunions at a bar and on an airplane because her sister is marrying his friend.
The first third of the movie makes you invest in their relationship and the last third ties up the story really well. However, the immature scenes in the middle detract from the movie’s impact.
Anyone But You effectively shows the cast having intimate conversations in interesting places. For example, Bea and her ex-fiancé Jonathan (Darren Barnet) catch up over a life-size chess game on the lawn.
Then Bea and Ben confess their feelings on a buoy in Sydney Harbor in the movie’s most iconic scene. Their cringeworthy Titanic pose makes them fall off a boat and reveal what they’re really thinking while waiting to get rescued.
From the buoy scene to a montage in the final credits, it’s adorable how Anyone But You features Natasha Bedingfield’s song Unwritten. It’s the theme song for MTV’s The Hills, the show that inspired me to launch this website. I was excited to see how it originally appeared in the movie before it spiked in popularity on TikTok. Now it’s easy to understand the song’s cultural resurgence.
Ultimately this feels like a timeless romantic comedy and digital detox. The beautiful actors are immersed in the gorgeous scenery and there is barely a phone in sight. Of course, conflicts will arise when a group shares a vacation home and confronts their relationships before a wedding, but it’s not because of any text messages!
How long is Anyone But You? 1 hour 43 minutes
Disclosure: I received a copy of Anyone But You from Sony Pictures for review. Thank you!