The Love Hypothesis

Amazon MGM Studios seems to have found an area where it works pretty well: adapting young adult romances that already come with an established community behind them. The Love Hypothesis is another example. The film, directed by Claire Scanlon, adapts Ali Hazelwood's novel, which also has a pretty interesting origin: it started out as fan fiction and eventually became a New York Times bestseller. The story follows Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart), a brilliant PhD student who has a much clearer idea of where she wants to take her scientific career than what she wants from her love life. Everything changes after an impulsive kiss leads to a fake relationship with Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman), a professor known for his difficult personality. And from there, the movie knows exactly what it wants to be. What I liked most is that it doesn't try to hide the fact that this is a romance. It doesn't seem embarrassed by its intimate scenes or try to make them completely sanitized just to fit a platform. The movie lets its characters be adults, lets there be genuine attraction between them, and gives that part of their relationship real weight within the story. But above all, it works because of its leads. Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman have a chemistry that makes the relationship believable. There are moments when you simply buy the fact that these two characters are into each other, and that may sound basic, but in a romance, it's probably one of the most important things. The critical reception has also been pretty positive, with 86% of reviews being favorable on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. I don't think The Love Hypothesis is reinventing anything. It doesn't need to. It's a movie that understands exactly what kind of story it wants to tell and, for now, seems pretty comfortable telling it without apologizing for being a romance.