The Idea of You director reveals why movie avoided “tragic” book ending

The Idea of You director get candid on why the movie decided to deviate from the book’s sad ending to a more hopeful one.

Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine’s book-to-movie adaptation The Idea of You definitely leaves viewers in a better place than the source material did.

The rom-com follows art gallery owner Solène Marchand who falls in love with boy band front man Hayes Campbell and the two embark on a sort of forbidden romance due to their large age gap.

While the book left readers on a sad note, director Michael Showalter has revealed why the movie decided to side-step ending on a downbeat moment. Warning: spoilers for The Idea of You below!

“There’s a tragic quality to the way the book ends. And as a filmmaker and as a genre person that’s not the genre that this movie is,” Showalter told The Hollywood Reporter. “This is not a tragic love story. That’s not what this movie really wants to be for me. I’m sure that there will be fans of the book that really wish it weren’t that way.

“But we also want these characters that [author] Robinne [Lee] created to find new audiences as well. I think this genre, it’s not to say that they live happily ever after. I don’t think the movie says that. But it certainly doesn’t say for a fact that they don’t. I think it leaves it a little bit open.” 

In the book, Solène and Hayes permanently break up after Solène lies to him and tells him she never truly loved him, just the idea of him.

Lee ends the novel with the heartbreaking line, “And then one day, they stopped. Long, long before I had stopped loving him.”

However, in the movie, the couple go on a seemingly temporary break up due to how the public relationship is effecting Solène’s teenage daughter Izzy.

Hayes suggests they pick up where they left off after Izzy is done in school and, after a five year time jump, Solène sees him on The Graham Norton show where he reveals that he’s taking a break from touring with his band and heading to L.A.

The movie ends with the couple meeting in Solène’s art gallery and they have a heartfelt reunion with the future left unclear for their relationship.

Showalter expressed complete contentment with the direction the movie takes, saying, “Obviously, like before the five years later, there is a good ending to the movie there because you could still feel like, well, who knows?

“Maybe five years later, they will re-meet. But again, I just sort of feel like for the kind of movie that ultimately this is, which is a very positive movie, and hopefully a very uplifting movie and all of those things, I think we just felt like it wasn’t a bad thing to let the audience leave having seen the movie with a feeling of maybe they will be together.”

The Idea of You is now streaming on Prime Video. Once you’re done catching up on the latest rom-com, make sure you check out all the movies, TV shows, true crime documentaries, and K-dramas streaming this month.