Anyone but You

Anyone but You explicitly lifts plot points from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, but don’t be fooled by the hifalutin reference: This spiritless romantic comedy exists mainly to get its wildly attractive leads down to – and even out of – their knickers as much as humanly possible within the confines of an R rating.

That isn’t the worst excuse to make a movie, but for anyone on the hunt for a compelling love story or playful comedy, it’s a letdown. Not a disaster, just a letdown – especially from director/co-writer Will Gluck, who a long time ago sticky-fingered another high school syllabus standard for the romping The Scarlet Letter-rip-off Easy A. Lately Gluck has been making Peter Rabbit movies; I suppose one way to wash the Beatrix Potter out of your system is to have a buff Australian squeeze his penis in a sight gag straight out of There’s Something About Mary’s playbook. But the effect, both literally and figuratively, is bringing real limp-dick energy.

More’s the pity, because Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Richard Linklater's upcoming Hit Man) was born to play a bickering would-be lover. (In fact, he already has, in the terrific Netflix rom-com Set It Up.) Here, he’s stockbroker Ben, who hits it off with law student Bea (Sweeney, of HBO’s Euphoria) until a misunderstanding derails their love connection. Fast-forward a couple of years and they’re forced to share space, then become unlikely allies, at a destination wedding in Australia. It’s a good destination! The scenery is winning, and there’s a tiny bit with a koala bear I was charmed by. I will never understand the internet’s fascination with Sweeney, who appears to be scowling even when she’s smiling, but she and Powell both bodily throw themselves into their parts. The effort is there. It’s just a shame the material they’re working with isn’t better.