Good fan fiction should transport you to a dream world where you can have adorable encounters with your favorite celebrities and fall hopelessly in love. Your IdeaWhen Solène (Anne Hathaway) happens to meet Haze (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of her daughter's favorite childhood band, at Coachella, sparks fly. Haze can't walk around Silver Lake because the paparazzi are chasing him, but she's a sexy gallery owner who doesn't care how famous he is, and so a relationship begins. At first, the movie seems like sexy, lighthearted fun, but when you recall a time when kissing a celebrity in a crowd was enough to give away your identity, Your Idea Maybe it's like a horror movie.
Before watching this movie, I was expecting to see a clever and sexy story. Your Idea It taught me one thing very clearly: the only thing worse than being famous is being a woman. Date The scene where Hayes first meets Solène and then chases her is certainly mesmerizingly beautiful, especially when you imagine him as a 2024 version of Harry Styles (the real person he was based on) from his One Direction days. But there are only a few fun moments throughout the film. The only time Solène seems to be having fun is when she is playing a groupie on the band's European tour. At that point, no one knows about her relationship with Hayes, not even her teenage daughter, who has not known where her mother is all summer. A secret love affair can be sexy, but in this film it becomes a source of tension, it stops being fun and starts to move towards tragedy. I don't think having to keep quiet about your relationship with the lead singer of the most popular boy band in the world is actually exciting, but if this is fan fiction, I don't want to be reminded of the real-world consequences of an age-gap relationship between an older woman and a younger man. many.
No matter who the couple is, there will always be trolls when celebrities are involved. However, trolls are quicker to pounce on women than men, calling her a predator for dating a younger man, regardless of the size of the age gap. Olivia Wilde was already a celebrity when they met, but the amount of hate she received from Styles' fans while dating him (10 years younger) was unbearable. There were countless hashtags praying for the couple's downfall, numerous social media comments suggesting that dating the singer had something to do with her being a bad mother, death threats, and constant chatter about the nature of their relationship. Most of his crazy fans conveniently ignored the fact that the relationship began when Styles was 26 years old. Most of the negative press was overly fixated on Wilde, with Styles' fans claiming that he was the “victim.”
Photo: Alisha Weatherill/Alisha Weatherill/Prime
in Your ideas, As soon as their relationship becomes public knowledge, Solène finds herself under the scrutiny of millions of people, most of whom despise her for dating a famous singer. In the real world, she knows she'll have her haters. (Another couple I couldn't help but think of while watching the film was Bad Bunny and his ex-girlfriend Gabriella Berlingieri, who now has a legion of online followers who follow her every move.) To the film's credit, it does try to suggest double standards for women by contrasting Solène's new relationship with Haze to her strained one with her ex-husband, who once cheated on her with a much younger woman. He naively assumes that Solène's behavior is the same as his own, and while the irony of the situation is clear, there's something unnecessary about the contrast between the two relationships in the film. In the end, when her ex-husband confronts her about it, further embarrassing her in front of the paparazzi, it's not a funny enough moment to make up for the awkward encounters Solène and her daughter continue to have with strangers because of her relationship with Haze.
And there's a sense that this whirlwind affair should be attributed to Solène, who at times even seems to internalize the blame: If only she hadn't been so selfless as to take her daughter to Coachella instead of her ex-husband's absentee, cheating father! If only she hadn't been so careless as to be spotted flirting with a younger hottie on the beach in St. Tropez! After all, I signed up to read erotic fan fiction, not some half-baked meditation on misogyny.
I was happy to see Solène doing better after her divorce and dating a hot, rich guy, but I don't think the pain she went through with dating a celebrity (like being trashed on TMZ instead of being praised as a MILF) was worth it. There are no moments of peace in these relationships. Want to eat a bagel when you're hungover and looking shabby? Think again. Want to avoid tipping the cold coffee you just ordered because you're broke? Don't let transitivity make your boyfriend look stingy! Imagine having a million cameras outside your house. I can barely run without thinking about how I look to others, and I wouldn't stand to be photographed by bystanders running out of breath (or worse, taking a TikTok while your face is red). It's unfair what happened to Solène, but I guess that's the reality. This movie makes it clear that the only good way to develop a relationship with a celebrity is simple: meet them, kiss them, and forget them.