How 'The Idea of You' movie compares to the book
The premise of The Idea of You might sound familiar: a middle-aged mother/creative and a twentysomething British boy-bander fall in love, much to the media and fans' chagrin. I am, of course, referring to the endlessly discussed romance between Harry Styles and Don't Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde. However, the source material, the Robinne Lee novel of the same name, dates back to 2017 — years before Spitgate, Miss Flo, and salad dressing Instagram Stories. But Styles did inspire Lee to write the novel.
The book garnered its own devout readers during the height of the pandemic, when Styles' popularity skyrocketed. It follows the romance between 39-year-old Los Angeles-based art gallerist and mother Solène and superstar Hayes Campbell.
What with all the fanfare around the similarities between the story and Styles and Wilde, fans of the book and beautiful people appreciators ran the trailer numbers for the film adaptation up to a record-breaking 125 million views, making it the most-watched trailer for a streaming movie to date.
Now, with the movie coming to Prime Video, you might be wondering how much screenwriters Jennifer Westfeldt and Michael Showalter (who also directed) strayed from the source material. Here are the biggest differences between The Idea of You's novel and movie.
How much of The Idea of You is inspired by Harry Styles?
In 2017, Lee told blogger Deborah Kalb, "I was up late surfing music videos on YouTube when I came across the face of a boy I’d never seen in a band I’d never paid attention to, and it was so aesthetically perfect, it took me by surprise. It was like … art." She told her husband about her newfound love and he encouraged to write a book about it. Later, during the book's pandemic resurgence — partially due to Styles' skyrocketing popularity — Lee told Vogue about the inspiration for the love interest, "I made him into my dream guy, like Prince Harry meets Harry [Styles]."
Hayes has a "wide mouth, full lips, perfect teeth, dimples" and is covered in tattoos that scream "This is how I'm spending my first-ever big paycheck!" His boy band, August Moon, is a quintet that doesn't dance, wears tight black jeans, engages in roughhousing on stage, and releases albums with questionable names, like Wise of Naked. Sounds similar to a band that starts with "one" and ends with "direction," no? The main difference is August Moon is a "posh boy band," while the members of One Direction all came from a working class background.
The movie not only handles the Harry elephant in the room, but Westfeldt and Showalter improve upon the book, transforming it into something anyone, not just horny Styles fans, can enjoy.
Aging up lead characters lessens the cringe
In the book, Hayes (Bottoms' Nicholas Galitzine) and Solène (Anne Hathaway) first meet when she brings her 12-year-old daughter Izzy to a meet-and-greet in Las Vegas for his band, August Moon. Their secret affair spans about a dozen August Moon tour stops, with time spent in Paris, Miami, and the Hamptons. The primary conflicts of the book are Solène's guilt over abandoning her tween daughter to have crazy sex with someone 20 years younger, and the stress when the band's fans and the media discover their relationship.
The adaptation outright fixes many of the book's problems, like Izzy's obsession with Hayes and comments about Hayes being "barely legal" by bumping both Hayes and Izzy's ages up four years to 24 and 16, respectively. By doing so, there's immediately less conflict between Solène and Izzy (played by Ella Rubin), because Izzy isn't harboring a schoolgirl crush on her mom's famous beau. Additionally, the film lingers on establishing their rock-solid mother-daughter bond through several heartwarming scenes where the duo sings along to August Moon and King Princess in the car together.
The film also course-corrects some of the classicism inherent in Lee's book. For example, Lee wrote that the members of August Moon met at an Oxford/Cambridge feeder prep school. In the book, Solène and Hayes bond over their "good breeding."
Showalter and Westfeldt knew that wouldn't fly in 2024. So they set Solène's life in Silver Lake rather than Malibu; omitting all the luxury brand name-dropping also makes Solène much more down-to-earth, though still wealthy enough to be able to take a weeks-long break from running her gallery. Hathaway's natural charm elevates these changes. She turns Solène into a quirky rom-com heroine that you can't help but root for.
The Idea of You isn't fan fiction; it's a rom-com.
Showalter and Westfeldt transform a wish-fulfillment fantasy about not-quite Harry Styles fingering an older woman in a series of glamorous locations (Rome! Paris!) into a bona fide rom-com, which means a charming "meet-cute" is required. This demands a stark change from the novel, where Hayes and Solène meet across the table in Vegas, with her tween daughter in tow.
In the book, Hayes asks during this brief encounter for Solène to bring her 12-year-old-daughter and her friends to the boy band's afterparty. It's later revealed when he saw Solène in line for the meet-and-greet, he whispered in his bandmate's ear, "I just want to fuck her mouth."
The movie takes a less sleazy approach, setting up a meet-cute away from Izzy altogether. In both the book and the film, Solène is not a fan of the boy band. She only takes Izzy and her friends to meet August Moon because her cheater ex-husband flakes at the last minute. Because of the age change, in the film, this gift is misguided because 16-year-old Izzy now finds August Moon "so seventh grade."
In the film, Solène barges into Hayes' trailer — thinking it's the VIP bathroom. And he's so charmed by her that — in true 24-year-old fashion — he asks, "Do you want to hang out?" But he's quickly caught up with his wardrobe team, and she slips out the door. Mere hours later, they reunite at the fan event, where he flirts and peppers her with questions. During August Moon's headlining set, Hayes announces, "I met someone tonight," and dedicates the band's song, "Closer" to her.
Hayes Campbell is not fanfic Harry Styles
While movie Hayes is still British with a patchwork of ill-advised tattoos, he's decidedly not Styles. Hayes' characterization in the book relies on the sexed-up fan-created persona of Styles often found in fan fiction. Lucky for viewers, Showalter and Westfeldt's Hayes is entirely his own boy-bander. First of all, he can dance.
After Solène and Hayes finally have sex in the movie, the film cuts to Hayes ordering chicken fingers from room service. In perhaps the most charming scene of the film, he proceeds to dance around in his underwear with the chicken fingers, joined by Solène — something that would never happen in the book. Showalter and Westfeldt's writing chops add extra dimension to flat characters, and their leads' charisma certainly doesn't hurt.
Film Hayes is a guy whose biggest fear is that he's a joke to people, not that he'll get his DNA on an underaged girl. Yes, that's a genuine conversation Solène and Hayes have in the book.
Izzy finds out... and the ending is dramatically different.
Solène and Hayes' whirlwind romance gets complicated in both the book and movie when Izzy — and the world — find out about it.
In the book, Izzy freaks out when she finds out about Solène and Hayes, because she is 12 and believes she is in love with him. In the movie, Hayes isn't even Izzy's favorite of the August Moon boys. After much consolation and Izzy moving back in with her dad, she accepts Solène and Hayes' relationship, only to be bullied at school.
The exact same incident is the breaking point for Solène in the book and movie: A group of older girls asks Izzy for a photo of Hayes' "dick," and her crush asks her to "tell her mom he's almost 18." After a final rendezvous with Hayes in Japan, Solène breaks it off for good and returns to her life at the gallery and with Izzy.
In the film, this older Izzy is more supportive. The news of their romance breaks the day Solène picks Izzy up from summer camp — after Solène has already broken up with Hayes. Izzy is disappointed that Solène lied to her, but quickly forgives her. She even encourages her mother to give Hayes another chance, urging, "Why would you break up with a talented, kind feminist?!"
However, the harassment of both Solène and Izzy by Hayes' rabid fanbase and Izzy's classmates — which is the same as in the book — becomes too much for their family. Solène breaks it off with Hayes again. However, he suggests that in five years, once Izzy is in college and "living her best life," they will give their romance another chance.
Where in the book, Solène must choose between her love life and her child's well-being, the movie doesn't force her into such a corner. The novel includes lots of heavy-handed commentary about older women becoming invisible, and ends with the heroine returning to a quiet existence to protect herself and her family.
The movie rejects this theme of invisibility, perhaps because Hathaway (who also produces) is far from it. All the book's attempts at late 19th-century feminist messaging are undermined by its ending, which asserts mothers can't have it all. But the film's ending resists the idea that mothers must choose between their happiness and the happiness of their children. You can get the (famous) guy and a stable childhood for your daughter — at least in the movies.