The Love Hypothesis appears to be an internet sensation: at least in comparison to the lawsuits and controversy that followed the last BookTok adaptation It Ends With Us. Based on the 2021 romance novel by Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis explores the ‘fake romance’ between PhD student Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart) and university professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman). This addition to Prime Video is another rendition of the classic ‘contractual relationship’ trope (lovingly seen in both Bridgerton and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before): charming, yet overly cliche.
I went into this movie completely blind having had no prior knowledge of the book. I fear I have a slight aversion or even literary snobbery when it comes to the ‘BookTok culture’. Nevertheless, I left feeling satisfied. The chemistry between Reinhart and Bateman is palpable and giddily romantic. The build-up of their relationship feels natural and moves at a slow enough pace to evoke the internet’s latest obsession with ‘yearning’.
A sense of humorous irony further underpins my liking for this movie. Hazelwood’s work was originally a Star Wars fanfiction based on Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren’s (Adam Driver) relationship. Ridley is now famously married to Bateman: the leading man of The Love Hypothesis and the actualisation of his wife’s co-star.
I also appreciated the focus on women in S.T.E.M. A neuroscience professor herself, Hazelwood’s decision to portray a romantic lead as a biologist and an academic is poignant and starkly feminist. Olive Smith is neither strictly masculine nor feminine, and she is not shunned into the box of a stereotypical intellectual woman (as depicted in the media). Think smarty-pants Laney Boggs from She’s All That: only when she dons a dress and makeup does she become the ‘attractive’ romantic interest. Smith is both.
The Love Hypothesis goes further however and generates important commentary on the struggles women face in the scientific field. In fact, this movie highlights what a 2023 study reports that 49% of women scientists have experienced: at least one incident of harassment in the workplace.
I did enjoy this deviation from the customary leading women such as Bridget Jones, Sally Albright or Andie Anderson. It seems the female journalist or the humanities themselves have become the epitome of the cosy romance. This movie is a breath of fresh air.
Not to deprive it of these virtues but I do also have my reservations about this movie. I couldn’t understand if Carlsen’s robotic and taciturn disposition was a result of bad acting or a character choice. Frankly, I think my doubts are enough to attribute it to the former. I’ve also been informed by a trustworthy source that a lot of the biological terms and theories mentioned are not exactly dripping in truth (this seems pretty lazy considering Hazelwood’s background, and kind of undermines my earlier point about appreciating the female scientist).
Overall, I enjoyed this movie and its paradoxically fresh interpretation of the ‘fake romance’ cliche. As a romcom enthusiast myself, however, it pales in comparison to the quality of those borne in the 90s or early 2000s. I am unsure as yet who to attribute this downfall to: The Love Hypothesis itself, or this generation’s inability to create an authentic and original romantic masterpiece.
3/5 Stars
