Harry Styles has a lot to answer for. This film, that focuses on a forty year old woman and her relationship with a much younger guy, who happens to be English and in a successful boy band, could almost be sub titled The Harry Styles Story; he has had a string of relationships with older women since he found fame in One Direction, and this just feels that his dalliances with older women has been used as a template for this film.

It stars Anne Hathaway as an artist who falls for band member Harr-sorry, Hayes, played by Nicholas Galitzine.

Owner of an art gallery in Silver Lake, LA is Solène (Hathaway). She is about to head off camping on her own, with her daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin) off to music festival Coachella, where she has some meet and greet passes for the band August Moon, who up until recently were her favourite band.

Her dad, now Solène’s ex-husband, agreed to take her and her friends, but a last minute issue at work meant that he had to bail, and Solène ends up having to take them all.

It’s there that her path crosses that of 24 year old Hayes (Galitzine), who just so happens to be a member of August Moon. There’s an instant connection, with Hayes proving himself to be very charming company, but nothing could really come of it, could it?

US director Michael Showalter, who has helmed 2017’s entertaining The Big Sick, as well as 2021’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye, delivers something here with far broader strokes, that is seemingly targeted at a specific audience, that being an older female demographic.

It’s based on the debut 2017 novel of the same name by actress Robinne Lee; it may well be coincidence, but Styles up to this point had already dated a number of high profile, older women, including Caroline Flack, Nicole Scherzinger and Kendall Jenner – twice, so the similarities are definitely there.

That said, the film is a cheesy, generic romance, that clearly wants to be as smart and funny as a Richard Curtis script (Love, Actually, Notting Hill, etc), and although it does its best, it’s not in the same league.

It is a film that could certainly help young British actor Galitzine reach heartthrob status, with his rugged good looks, like a younger brother of Henry Cavill, which may well make him a contender for a Bond in the future. He certainly lights up the screen, and is certainly helped by Oscar winner Hathaway, who let’s face it, is far superior to this material in every way imaginable. It’s difficult to see why such a talented actress would stoop as low to indulge this lightweight mainstream fare, but the fact that she did elevates the material tenfold.

It’s the type of film where an audience of a certain age can indulge the fantasy, of being the one that the singer in the band picks out from thousands at the gig to join them on stage, only for it to be the start of a whirlwind romance, leaving their twelve year old and her friends in the audience to fend for themselves from this point on. This will of course be the closest any of them come to that, with the except that if they’re hot and catch the eye of a certain Styles on stage, so why not them just enjoy it.

It’s not the type of film we’d want Hathaway wasting her time on, when you could see someone like Cameron Diaz doing just as good a job in the role, but without her, it would be even more generic and predictable than it already is.

Just like a set list for a boy band du jour, you know what to expect with the Idea of You, and in that respect, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s light, frothy, and even a little racy in places, but by no means anyone's idea of an instant classic.