By Chiara Piacentini
Staff Writer
Warning: This article contains spoilers.
While chick flicks may be going out of style, “Anyone But You” manages to make rom-coms look like they’re still part of the “in crowd.”
The beginning of the film was nothing special because it was somewhat cliché, but the plot gets better if you give the movie a chance. Or it may just be that the undeniable chemistry of the two main characters, Bea and Ben, saved the flick from becoming a flop.
Now that I’ve seen it all, I don’t blame the Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell relationship rumors. I would ship them if they were true.
The movie starts off with Bea and Ben meeting in a coffee shop. Bea is at the front of the long line to order her coffee, but she desperately needs to go to the bathroom. Ben saves the day by pretending to be her husband and orders her coffee for her. What follows is a night spent at his place, but she leaves without giving an explanation.
Then Ben’s friend, Pete, comes over and figures out that he had a girl over, but Ben has an ego, so he lies about his feelings for her. Bea comes back in time to overhear this, so by that time the Bea and Ben ship has sailed — at least for the time being.
It isn’t until six months later that they reunite for Bea’s sister, Halle’s, destination wedding in Australia. Halle is engaged to Pete’s sister, Claudia.
Both Claudia’s and Halle’s families knew that Ben and Bea hated each other, so they made it their purpose to get them back together. Ben and Bea caught onto their plot and started a fake relationship to make it seem as though it worked.
From there, I got the hint that it would be an enemy to lovers trope. I like the theme, but the hate between Bea and Ben was a little extra when their one night fling, along with Ben’s little white lie, was ages ago. If they had communicated, that wouldn’t be happening. But then there would be no movie, so I let it slide.
There were some wholesome moments, like when Ben tried to save Bea after she fell off of a boat, even though he wasn’t a great swimmer. Or when Bea sang Ben’s “serenity” song to calm him down as they were being rescued from the ocean by the helicopter, as Ben is afraid of heights.
The ending was somewhat rushed, but the thought of Bea and Ben together meant it didn’t matter. Both Ben and Bea had former love interests which is meant to complicate the romance plot. Towards the end of the movie, Bea saw Ben kissing his ex-girlfriend at the wedding reception and ran off. But she missed the part where Ben pulled away and told his ex he wasn’t interested in her.
Here’s where the ridiculous part came in: Ben pursues Bea by helicoptering his way to where she is. He explains the kiss and confesses his true feelings for her and they live happily ever after. If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to trust Ben when he explained away a moment in a few seconds that would take more like a few days to process in real life. But again, their on-screen chemistry along with them making out at all the right times gave it just enough intrigue to make it a worthwhile watch.
