Good fan fiction ought to transport you to the world of your goals, the place you adorably meet your favourite superstar and fall hopelessly in love. In The Concept of You, when Solène (Anne Hathaway) bumps into Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of her daughter’s favourite childhood band at Coachella, sparks by chance fly. He’s unable to stroll round Silver Lake with out the paparazzi trailing behind, she’s a sizzling gallery proprietor who doesn’t actually care how well-known he’s, and so their entanglement begins. At first, the film units us up for what seems to be like horny, lighthearted enjoyable, however whenever you keep in mind that we stay in an period when you possibly can’t even make out with a celeb in a crowd with out having your id uncovered, it turns into clear that The Concept of You would possibly as properly be a horror flick.
Going into this film, I assumed I used to be going to get a smooth-brained horny story, however The Concept of You has made one factor very clear to me: The one factor worse than being well-known is being a girl relationship somebody well-known. I’ll admit, the preliminary assembly and subsequent chasing of Solène by Hayes is swoon-worthy — particularly once I imagined him as a 2024 model of 1D-era Harry Kinds, the actual individual upon whom he’s loosely based mostly. However there are merely a number of moments of pleasure all through the movie. Solène solely seems to be like she is having enjoyable whereas she’s taking part in groupie on the band’s European tour. At that time, nobody is aware of about her relationship with Hayes, together with her teenage daughter, who has been blissfully unaware of her mother’s whereabouts all summer season. A secret romance will be horny, nevertheless it’s such some extent of pressure on this film that it stops being enjoyable and begins to veer into tragedy. I can’t think about that I’d truly discover having to maintain quiet about my relationship with the lead singer of one of many hottest boy bands on the earth arousing, but when that is purported to be fan fiction, I don’t wish to be reminded concerning the real-world penalties of age-gap relationships between older ladies and youthful males too a lot.
Irrespective of the couple, when a celeb is concerned, there’ll at all times be trolls. However they shortly activate ladies extra typically than they activate males, calling her a predator if she dates a youthful man, whatever the dimension of the age hole. Despite the fact that she was already well-known after they met, the quantity of hate Olivia Wilde acquired whereas relationship Kinds (ten years her junior) from his fan base was excruciating. There have been infinite hashtags praying for the couple’s downfall, quite a few social-media feedback suggesting that relationship the singer correlated to her being a nasty mom, dying threats, and fixed chatter concerning the nature of their relationship. Most of his crazed stans conveniently ignored the truth that the connection started when Kinds was 26. Many of the destructive press was hyperfixated on Wilde, with Kinds’s followers claiming he was a “sufferer.”
Picture: Alisha Wetherill/Alisha Wetherill/Prime
In The Concept of You, as quickly because the world discovers their relationship, Solène finds herself beneath the extreme scrutiny of hundreds of thousands of individuals, most of whom despise her for relationship a well-known singer. In actual life, we all know that she would have haters. (One other couple I couldn’t assist however be reminded of whereas watching the movie was Dangerous Bunny and his ex-girlfriend Gabriela Berlingeri, who now has a horde of on-line followers monitoring her each transfer.) To its credit score, the film does attempt to gesture towards the double commonplace that exists for girls by juxtaposing Solène’s new relationship with Hayes in opposition to her strained relationship together with her ex-husband, who as soon as cheated on her with a a lot youthful girl. He ignorantly assumes Solène’s actions are equal to his and the irony of the state of affairs is evident, however one thing concerning the distinction between the 2 relationships on this movie feels pointless. Finally, when her ex confronts her about it and embarrasses her additional in entrance of the paparazzi, it isn’t even a humorous sufficient second to make up for the uncomfortable encounters Solène and her daughter proceed to have with strangers due to her relationship with Hayes.
After which there’s the sensation that we’re purported to view the whirlwind affair as Solène’s fault. Solène even appears, generally, like she has internalized that blame. If solely she hadn’t been so selfless that she took her daughter to Coachella as an alternative of her philandering absentee father of an ex-husband! If solely she hadn’t been so careless as to let herself be noticed making out with a youthful hunk on the seaside in St. Tropez! Finally, I signed as much as watch some attractive fanfic, not a half-baked meditation on slut-shaming.
I used to be completely happy to see Solène stay somewhat after her divorce and date somebody sizzling and wealthy, nevertheless it’s onerous to consider that every one the ache — like being lambasted on TMZ as an alternative of praised for being a MILF — of getting concerned with a celeb can be price it. There are not any moments of peace in most of these relationships. Wish to seize a bagel hung-over, trying like shit? Assume once more. Low on cash and hoping to keep away from tipping for that chilly brew you simply ordered? Don’t you dare make your boyfriend look low cost by the transitive property! Think about infinite cameras outdoors your own home. I can barely go for a run with out eager about what I appear to be to others, and I wouldn’t survive onlookers snapping pictures of me whereas I huff and puff. (And even worse, movie a TikTok whereas I’m purple within the face.) It’s unfair what occurs to Solène, however I assume it’s actuality. This film has made it clear that the one good path ahead with a celeb is straightforward: You meet them, you kiss them, and also you overlook them.