Bea and Ben get ready to board a yacht with their families while staging a fake relationship to help each other solve their problems. photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Anyone But You is the most recent rom-com that features the beauty of complicated relationships that lead to romantic love stories.
Anyone But You is a phenomenal new romantic comedy starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. It follows the story of two young adults, Ben and Bea, who are enemies that attend their best friend/sister’s wedding but are forced to interact with each other. A major song associated with this movie is Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. This song emphasizes the power people have to create their own love story.
Anyone But You begins with Ben and Bea meeting at a coffee shop. They get along well and decide to head back to Ben’s apartment. Once there, they talk for a long time and fall asleep on the couch together. When Bea wakes up the next morning she decides to leave while Ben is still asleep. While on her way home, Bea realizes that she shouldn’t have left and she heads back to Ben’s apartment. However, once she arrives at the apartment, Ben is awake and she overhears him saying bad things about her to his friend. A couple years later they find out that Bea’s sister and one of Ben’s friends are getting married, and they end up both being invited to the wedding in Australia. While preparing for the wedding, they decide to pretend to date in order to help Ben get back with his ex-girlfriend and convince Bea’s parents to stop pestering her about her ex-fiance. In the end, they rekindle their love for each other and start dating.
Anyone But You follows a similar storyline as the rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You: the transition from enemies to lovers. In both movies, the male and female leads find love in a relationship that they thought wouldn’t work. I love how Anyone But You starts with the two main characters falling in love because it adds more depth into Ben and Bea’s complicated relationship by providing the audience with context. It also allows the audience to pick up on subtle expressions and words of affection which illustrate that Ben and Bea still admire each other deep down despite their supposed dislike of one another. One of my favorite scenes is when Ben and Bea recreate the iconic Titanic scene at the front of a boat but then Bea falls into the ocean and Ben jumps in to save her without hesitating. It is such a romantic moment where both of the characters realize they still have feelings for each other.
To add onto the drama of the movie, rumors about Sweeney and Powell dating started to circulate the internet. As the pair took steamy photoshoots and filmed flirty interviews to promote their new movie, audiences believed that the two had a secret relationship even though they both had partners. Sweeney later confirmed that these rumors were false and that she is in a happy long-term relationship with her boyfriend Jonathan Davino. Unfortunately for Powell, he and his girlfriend broke up during the filming of the movie.
Anyone But You is an astounding rom-com that captures the image of love in present day. The unexpected shifts in Ben and Bea’s relationship keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. It is truly a wonderful movie, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys romance movies or is looking for something new to watch.
