Sweeney, Powell battle saturated soundtrack in appealingly pugnacious rom-com ‘Anyone But You’
“Anyone But You” -- 2.5 stars
After about an hour or so, Will Gluck’s appealingly pugnacious “Anyone But You” slowly succumbs to a dreaded rom-com syndrome I like to call Death by a Thousand Needle Drops.
This occurs whenever filmmakers incessantly flood a movie’s soundtrack with snippets from so many mood-setting songs that they begin to sap the focus away from more important story elements.
Nervous filmmakers sometimes use this tool as audio insurance when they don’t trust the screenplay and actors to keep audiences engaged.
This hardly seems necessary here considering that writers Iiana Wolpert and Gluck modeled their screenplay on one of the greatest rom-coms of all-time, William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
(We don’t need to guess this. One sign quotes “A skirmish of wit,” a reference from Act 1, Scene 1. Near the end, we see another sign proclaiming “Much Ado About Nothing,” just in case we didn’t get that earlier clue.)
In “Anyone But You,” Gluck re-creates Shakespeare’s comedy as a high-energy, appropriately cheesy, and pleasingly ridiculous R-rated movie seemingly inspired by the reality TV series “Bachelor in Paradise,” in which attractive women and men maneuver for romance on hot sandy beaches while wearing the briefest swimsuits allowable at posh resorts.
The first half of “Anyone But You” sets up the plot’s promising premise with a catchy blend of physical comedy and rapier dialogue.
Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) meet cute in a coffee shop where she desperately needs to use the restroom, but only customers can get the key, and more people are waiting in line than scalpers at a Taylor Swift concert.
Ben, at the counter, comes to her rescue by ordering her a drink.
After some embarrassing hijinks in the restroom worthy of an Amy Schumer sketch, Bea decides to hang out with Ben. They spend their impromptu first date giddy in the throes of love’s first blush. But both commit misinterpreted acts that turn them into romance casualties, victims in their merry war of words.
They now despise each other.
“You’ll always be my rock-bottom!” Bea advises Ben on where he ranks on her romance spectrum.
Fast forward.
Both Bea and Ben have been invited to the wedding of her sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) and Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) at a luxurious destination celebration in Sydney, Australia.
Among the guests: Ben’s bestie Pete (rapper GaTa, star of the FXX series “Dave”), Bea’s well-meaning but meddlesome parents Leo and Innie (Dermot Mulroney and Australian star Rachel Griffiths), plus Claudia’s mom and dad, Carol and Roger (Michelle Hurd and Australian star Bryan Brown).
Bea can’t believe Dad and Mom invited her ex-fiancé and childhood sweetheart Jonathan (Darren Barnet) to the wedding in a brazen attempt to rekindle their old sparks.
Ben can’t believe that his ex-lover – Claudia’s cousin Margaret (Charlee Fraser) -- has decided she screwed up letting Ben go. She intends to make a play for him, but only after she dumps her brash, Crocodile Dundee-ish Australian beau, Beau (a cheerfully game Joe Davidson).
“Maybe we should just tell everyone we’re together,” Bea tells Ben. He agrees that some deceptive practices might just solve their problems.
Emanating the cool macho swagger that defined his cocky fighter pilot in “Top Gun: Maverick,” Powell easily convinces us that Ben can be a real (rhymes with “stick”). He is less successful in projecting genuine vulnerability and demonstrating contrition, qualities required in standard-issue rom-com leading men.
Sweeney steeps her sentences in sassy sauce while crossing sharpened verbal swords with Powell, never pandering to the camera or trying too hard to court our favor.
She carries this film with charm and polished aplomb, although she can’t quite match what I consider to be Emma Stone’s first Oscar-grade performance in Gluck’s breezy 2010 teen sex comedy “Easy A,” based on the novel “The Scarlet Letter.”
But to be fair, Stone had fewer needle drops to compete with then.
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Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, GaTa, Bryan Brown, Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths
Directed by: Will Gluck
Other: A Columbia Pictures theatrical release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations. 100 minutes