’The Idea of You’

Saccharine sweet rom com as divorced 40 year old finds herself involved in a serious love affair with the lead singer of British boyband August Moon.

With her husband having walked out for a woman almost half his age, Solène (Anne Hathaway) immerses herself in work and teenage daughter Izzy (Ella Rubin). Attending a music festival with Izzy and her friends, a brief, flirtatious encounter with Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine) results in Solène being tracked down to her Silver Lake gallery by the singer – as well as the ever attendant paparazzi. As their affair snowballs, Solène’s life is turned upside down by Hayes’ superstar status: the challenges of constant attention and age-shaming may be too much for her and Izzy.

It’s cute and superficially addresses the reversal of older man/younger woman midlife crisis trope. Hathaway equips herself well in the role but a little more overall bite would have provided depth to the narrative’s exploration without necessarily deflecting from the rom com template. But The Idea of You is better than anticipated.

Rating: 53%

Director: Michael Showalter (The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Big Sick)

Writer: Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name is Doris, TV’s Search Party), Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein, Friends With Kids) – based on the novel by Robinne Lee

Main cast: Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables, Rachel Getting Married), Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue, Bottoms), Ella Rubin (The Rewrite, TV’s The Chair)

’Mary & George’

A rare foray into English Jacobean history as Mary Villiers plots and cajoles the moulding of her son George to the court and become the lover of King James I.

On the death of heavily-in-debt husband Sir George Villiers (Simon Russell Beale), Mary (a splendid Julianne Moore) finds herself and adult children penniless and without a home. Manipulation and a proposal hard to refuse, the coarse and uncouth Sir Thomas Compton (Sean Gilder) agrees to marry Mary and pays for George (Nicholas Galitzine) to attend the equivalent of a finishing school in France.

With a new home for her base, intrigue aplenty by Mary follows as she looks to secure a court position for her second son on his return to England. Eldest son John (Tom Victor) with his parlous mental state is a lost cause. The main obstacle for Mary is the Earl of Somerset (Laurie Davidson) who has shared the king’s bed for many years.

But Mary has two advantages – Queen Anne (Trine Dyrholm) is tired of Somerset’s arrogance and many of the court also despise Somerset. As James I (Tony Curran), the king rules England. But as James VI, he is also King of Scotland. Son of the beheaded Mary, Queen of Scots he succeeded to the English throne on the death of the childless Elizabeth I. Suspicious of the English court, James surrounds himself with fellow Scots and rewards loyalty with money and titles. Somerset, the king’s favourite, is one such beneficiary. The likes of privy council members Sir Edward Coke (Adrian Rawlins) and Sir Francis Bacon (Mark O’Halloran) are less than happy. Surreptitiously, help for Mary is forthcoming.

Audacious and entertaining, this historical psychodrama finds no holes barred as court protocol and manners are shredded over the seven part miniseries. Nudity and profanity is in abundance as hedonism reigns supreme at court resulting in a romp in extremis and which will undoubtedly upset and offend many. But Julianne Moore is at her devious best as an arch manipulator and tactician who not only gets her way, but destroys virtually all who stand in that way. Even the not-so-bright George is not adverse to being put in his place by the schemes of his mother, by now Lady Buckingham, as her successes begat further successes. George may be the all-powerful lover of James, but he still needs guidance from mom. Sadly, it’s Nicholas Galitzine who is the weak link in Mary & George – an unconvincing petulant, pig-headed, privileged Eton schoolboy-type courtier with little charm and even less deep-seated deviousness to win favour above the other jockeying pretty boys at court.

But it remains lewd, wicked and a lot of fun based loosely on true events.

Rating: 68%

‘Red, White & Royal Blue’

Clichéd, predictable and shallow, the gay royal romcom presents every stereotype possible as the son of the American president hooks up with the ‘spare’ British prince.

Maverick yet charming son Alex Claremont Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) is tasked with representing his mother, President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman) at the royal wedding of heir to the British throne, Prince Philip. An altercation between Alex and the younger Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) involving the overpriced wedding cake results in a PR disaster for the ‘uptight’ Brits and ‘loud, uncouth’ Americans. The two need to fix it. Cue a litany of awkward moments that evolve eventually into a love affair that challenges all around the privileged couple.

Progressive platitudes abound in Red, White and Blue but in its lightweight silliness, director Matthew López fails on virtually all counts to build on them. We are presented with the first female American president, a Democrat from Texas and married to a Mexican; the first black female British PM (Sharon D. Clarke) – the list is endless. Skewed to the American side of the narrative, Perez’s story is more of the focus: written by three American scriptwriters, the ‘worst’ of the tropes are to be found on the other side of the Atlantic.

Rating: 40%

Director: Matthew López

Writer: Casey McQuiston, Matthew López (TV’s The Newsroom), Ted Malawer (TV’s Halston, Rise) – adapted from the novel by Casey McQuiston

Main cast: Taylor Zakhar Perez (The Kissing Booth, 1UP), Nicholas Galitzine (Handsome Devil, Cinderella), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction), Clifton Collins Jr. (Traffic, Capote), Ellie Bamber (Nocturnal Animals, TV’s The Serpent)