Review: Film gives new light to romcom genre

Hadley Hoskins
Editor-in-Chief

“Anyone But You” (2023), a modern-take on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” is a fresh take on the Shakespearean remakes of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Filled with grand romantic gestures, hilarious and improbable situations and charismatic leads, the film is everything a romcom should be. It’s anything but serious, but still saw a huge success in the box office– making over $100 million in box office revenue, making it the highest-grossing R-Rated romance film since 2016.

As a remake of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” the film stays entertaining to new audiences while paying homage to the original work. Bea, played by Sydney Sweeny (“Euphoria”) and Ben, played by Glen Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick”) begin the film in a budding romance, complete with a coffee shop “meet-cute.”

Their feelings for each other quickly turn sour after a dramatic miscommunication, giving way to the witty banter “Much Ado About Nothing” is known for. Despite their hatred, the two are thrown back together for a destination wedding in Australia. Several hilariously catastrophic events later, their family and friends scheme to set the two up.

The plot evolves into a fake-dating trope as the two realize what the other wedding-goers are up to, giving way to a series of amusing– albeit sometimes stressful– and heartwarming scenes.

It’s impossible to talk about “Anyone But You” without also talking about the subsequent resurgence of “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield. The movie explains the song as Ben’s “serenity song,” and features Powell and Sweeny singing the song as they are lifted into the air by a helicopter.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a 52% rating for critics and a rating of 87% for audiences. Most criticisms of the show centered around it being too predictable and boring.

On the other hand, fans of the show praised it for this exact reason. Romcoms don’t necessarily have to be anything new to be exciting or fun. Remaking Shakespearean plays into romcoms has been a popular trope since the late 90s, with titles such as “10 things I Hate About You” (1999)– inspired by “The Taming of the Shrew”– and “She’s the Man” (2006)– based on “Twelfth Night”– being arguably some of the most iconic romcoms.

“Anyone But You” may simply be a remake of another famous work, but that doesn’t discredit it from being a worthwhile movie. It takes the fun, mindless aspects that other romcoms do best and takes it to another level with a fresh setting, a more diverse cast and funny quirks.

“Anyone But You” is available exclusively in theaters and is rated R for “sexual content, brief graphic nudity and explicit language.”