The Love Hypothesis
Pop Culture Happy Hour
The hosts review the Prime Video film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood's 'The Love Hypothesis'. They discuss the film's reliance on romantic come
Key takeaways
- Lily Reinhart's performance is credited with elevating a 'mid' movie through her charm and charisma.
- The side characters, such as Ahn and Malcolm, are often more engaging and well-developed than the protagonists.
Main topics
- The Love Hypothesis movie review
- Book to film adaptations
Notable quotes
I found it as a movie to be quite mid, just middle of the road.
Conclusion
The film serves as a competent visual summary for fans of the book but
Transcript preview
Speaker 8 (0:00) This November, there's a wave of Democrats running for office who are all members of the clergy. But can they convince the party's secular base? I don't think Speaker 7 (0:08) religion should play Speaker 1 (0:09) into government Speaker 7 (0:11) and politics at all. I thought the country was founded on that. On Speaker 8 (0:14) the Sunday Story, how Democratic pastors are reframing the role of faith in American politics. Listen now to the Sunday Story from the Up First podcast Speaker 1 (0:22) on the NPR app. You're listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour, the podcast that keeps you plugged in about the latest and greatest in pop culture. Now, if you're a pop culture enthusiast that's not following the show yet, we're recommending you fix that right away by following Pop Culture Happy Hour on your favorite podcast app. It's really, really common in rom-coms, really common to... Speaker 5 (0:45) Center it around this really kind of lovable female lead character and kind of not bother to write the guy. And I think this is one where I'm not speaking about the book, but in the movie. Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:04) The best-selling rom-com novel The Love Hypothesis brings the beloved trope of fake dating to the setting of science and academia. And now it's a movie full of misunderstandings, suppressed feelings, rifts, and reconciliations. I'm Linda Holmes, and joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is Margaret Willison. She's a culture writer who is also teaching a class about Jane Austen. Hello, Margaret. Welcome back. Hi, Linda. Thanks for having me. Of course. Also with us is Christina Tucker. She's the co-host of the podcast, Wait, Is This a Date? Welcome back, Christina. Speaker 2 (1:39) Hello, hello. I'm thrilled to be here on this day. Speaker 1 (1:42) It is always so wonderful to have both of you and both of you together. The Love Hypothesis is based on the bestselling 2021 novel of the same name, which was the debut of author Allie Hazelwood. It tells the story of a Stanford graduate student named Olive, played by Lily Reinhart, who's a cancer researcher. She's got a tight circle of friends, and she realizes that her best friend, Ann, is holding back from pursuing a guy they both know because she thinks Olive is interested in him. Olive decides, as only a character in a romance, Speaker 5 (2:31) So we're fake dating? Speaker 7 (2:33) Yes. Sorry. Speaker 5 (2:35) No, it's just, I mean, it's just so... Speaker 7 (2:38) Unbelievable that you would date Dr. Evil. Speaker 5 (2:40) You get absolutely no points for guessing whether Speaker 1 (2:42) Adam will turn out to be less mean than everyone thinks he is or for guessing whether they will fall in love. But of course, as always, it's about the journey. The Love Hypothesis is streaming now on Prime Video, so we should note Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content. Christina, I'm going to start with you. How did you like The Love Hypothesis? Speaker 2 (3:04) Here's the thing about the love hypothesis. I found it as a movie to be quite mid, just middle of the road. I was not offended while watching it. I was not furious while watching it. I just kind of was watching this movie for the duration of the time it was on the screen. I will say what I do really appreciate. I do think Lily Reinhart is deeply charming. And I find her ability to kind of elevate just kind of based on her charisma alone, the source material, very refreshing and I think needed. And I think it could have been unwatchable had her presence not been there. But I do think she brought what would have been kind of bad mid, kind of closer to. an acceptable mid. But we are, just to be clear, staying in Speaker 1 (3:49) mid. Margaret, how about you? What'd you think about the love hypothesis? Speaker 3 (3:54) Yeah. When I set out to see if my screener would work, the good thing was I got immediately sucked in. And I was just watching the movie and I was like, okay, well, that's got some momentum to it. But when my computer battery died an hour and a half in, I was like, okay. I'll get back to it when I do. So I feel like that's the space we're in. It's like surprisingly watchable. Again, I would credit Lily Reinhart for that. And I would also credit, I feel like, I haven't read the source material, but because I live in the world of romance readers, I feel like I know of it. I think I could have told you who to recommend it to. Speaker 4 (4:30) Right. Just Speaker 3 (4:31) by vibes. So knowing it comes from source material, I think I'm glad that they did as much as they did. to ground the significance of the friendship that prompts the fake dating trope. Because I could easily see that being something that kind of got left on the cutting room floor as you're adapting what is meant to be a romantic love story. What could you possibly see in Dr. Evil? I mean, I get it, he's super hot. Speaker 7 (4:56) But most serial Speaker 3 (4:57) killers Speaker 7 (4:57) are. He's nice. Nice? Speaker 3 (5:02) Do you have a brain tumor? Wait, do I have a brain tumor? Despite the truly clunky dialogue on Has to Deliver, I think that that relationship being the starting point and the engine for the story worked well for me. Speaker 1 (5:20) Yeah. Let me say first, I think with a story like this, a lot of it comes down to, is this to your taste when it comes Speaker 5 (5:27) to rom-coms? I mean, a lot of people who follow romance know that there are these kind of tropes in romance that people refer to in shorthand, enemies to lovers. whatever, there's only one bed, blah, blah, blah. This is fake dating. It's also a little bit enemies to lovers. And it's sort of part of a long, long, long, long tradition of a woman who is sort of nice and amenable. And kind to everyone, falling in love with a man who is apparently mean and harsh and rude. Speaker 1 (5:58) I Speaker 5 (5:58) will say at the beginning of the movie, Speaker 1 (6:00) he's kind of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory coded. Yes. But only for a short time. But then that kind of goes away and you don't get that feeling from him. So then you're dealing more with just a sense that maybe he's just. kind of harsh and make students cry and stuff like that. Speaker 5 (6:16) I Speaker 1 (6:17) was just having a conversation online with somebody recently about the fact that the older I get, the less patience I Speaker 5 (6:22) have for. Not just enemies to lovers, but like nice woman, mean man. Speaker 1 (6:27) Yeah. Speaker 5 (6:27) Grumpy sunshine. Speaker 1 (6:28) As a setup. Yeah. Yes. Grumpy sunshine. Thank you. Yes. Speaker 3 (6:32) And again, if you invert those tropes a little bit, if you're playing with them, if it's like, oh, it's grumpy sunshine, but like it's two men and or it's grumpy sunshine and the grumpy one's the small one and the sunshine one's the big one. Like you can do something playful with it, but when it's literally like grumpy sunshine and it's like big. tall man scowling and like, little girl, isn't she adorable? Doesn't she eat so much sugar? Isn't it cute how much sugar he eats? Speaker 1 (6:58) Oh boy. Yeah. And the thing that's interesting about this is that the origins Speaker 5 (7:02) of this story, it started off as fan fiction, as Star Wars universe fan fiction of the Rey and Kylo Ren variety. Yes, Speaker 2 (7:11) it Speaker 5 (7:11) did. Which I would expect. To fall into this. I mean, that goes beyond grumpy sunshine, right? That's that. Yeah, Speaker 2 (7:17) that goes a little further into like genocidal dictator vibes. Murderous, not Speaker 5 (7:22) murderous. It's a messy space. So I'm not surprised Speaker 1 (7:25) that it's not to my taste. With that said, I loved the friends in this movie. So much that Speaker 5 (7:32) it almost, I think the biggest challenge for the romance is that to me, Olive is surrounded by friends who are more interesting than she is and who I wanted to watch more than I wanted to watch her. As Ann, who's played by Rachel Marsh, who I think is really terrific in