In its own super-contrived way, the plot dynamics of Will Gluck’s rom-com, Anyone But You, should offer assurances to those of us who have always appreciated the genre for the way it’s challenged good screenwriters to come up with witty sexual banter. Essentially, it’s about two beautiful people who spend a sexless night together completely misunderstanding each other and then embarking on a fake romance in order to achieve dubious goals that only prove to the audience how insecure they are without knowing it. Unfortunately, the mechanics of the actual scheme have little in common with anything that resembles reality, which wouldn’t normally be a problems, but even among the upper middle class types that populate Hollywood rom-coms these days the action on display is baffling. More to the point, Gluck cast two able comic actors whose roles and lines take scant advantage of their talents, thus forcing them to fall back on charms that are, let’s say, less cerebral. For Glen Powell, it’s his abs; for Sydney Sweeney, her cleavage. 

After their one-night misadventure, Ben (Powell) and Bea (Sweeney) end up attending the wedding of Bea’s sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) to Ben’s friend, Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), in Australia, where one of the brides is from. Bea pretends to be with Ben in order to stave off ex-fiancee Jonathan (Darren Barnet), whom her parents want her to get back with, while Ben plays along to make his own ex, Margaret (Charlee Fraser), who is also attending the wedding, jealous and drop her Australian bimbo BF (Joe Davidson). For the most part, Powell and Sweeney stir up believable chemistry through their playacting as moony lovers, but the situations dreamed up by Gluck and his co-scenarist Ilana Wolpert can’t quite split the difference between crazy and cringe—even when cringe is the obvious goal, as when Bea and Ben attempt “full Titanic” to distract and end up falling into Sydney harbor. The only really funny aspect of the script is that most of the people at the wedding see straight through the subterfuge, but Gluck doesn’t know what to do with this idea and lets it run out of gas before allowing the movie to sputter to a bland, predictable climax. 

Even the exceptionally large and recognizable supporting cast feels superfluous in that they trade in tired stereotypes (the dads get high together; Margaret’s BF is a pillow-headed surfer dude) without being given the opportunity to make sufficient fun of those stereotypes. And the token dramatic moment—Bea has to confess to her parents that she’s not going to become a lawyer, as they wished—totally fails to make its point, which is to reveal the self-doubt she’s been toiling under her whole, privileged life. In the end, as you wonder whether you’ve seen this rom-com before, you realize that you don’t really care. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Anyone But You home page in Japanese