finding you movie review 2021

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Finding You

Where to watch.

Watch Finding You with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Fandango at Home, or buy on Fandango at Home.

What to Know

Although Finding You manages to fit every contrivance possible into its story, its charming fluff and sharp humor may be enough to win the hearts of romance fans.

A warm-hearted love story that's easy on the eyes, Finding You is a real discovery for romance fans.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Brian Baugh

Finley Sinclair

Jedidiah Goodacre

Beckett Rush

Katherine McNamara

Taylor Risdale

Patrick Bergin

Saoirse-Monica Jackson

Emma Callaghan

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Finding you, common sense media reviewers.

Pleasant romance about self-discovery has some drinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Title implies finding love, but movie is more abou

Finley is a positive female role model. She's conf

Some pretend blood in a clearly fake movie-making

Primary story and subplot are about romance. A cou

Language includes "helluva," as well as U.K. slang

Mixed messages about drinking: photos of a main ch

Parents need to know that Finding You is a wholesome, Ireland-set romance based on Jenny B. Jones' YA novel There You'll Find Me that's really about finding yourself. While it's unquestionably about a young couple finding love, the elements are soft enough that it feels more like a family film with a…

Positive Messages

Title implies finding love, but movie is more about finding yourself in unexpected places with unexpected people. Dig deeper rather than make snap judgments about people's outward behavior. Gently delivered faith-based message that you're not alone; God is watching over you. Themes include integrity. Explores some of the unpleasant reality behind management of child actors and their lack of agency over their own lives.

Positive Role Models

Finley is a positive female role model. She's confident in her talent, and when she doesn't achieve a goal, she takes action to set herself up for success and try again. She's considerate, and her priorities are in the right place. She's not impressed by celebrity and money, keeps her focus on what truly matters. But she has a relationship with a young man who demonstrates narcisstic behavior until after they're involved. And some female characters are portrayed somewhat stereotypically: obsessed and gossipy, conniving and mean, jealous and possessive. No notable diversity in core cast.

Violence & Scariness

Some pretend blood in a clearly fake movie-making environment.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Primary story and subplot are about romance. A couple of kisses. Photo of shirtless man.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "helluva," as well as U.K. slang such as "shite" and "wanker."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Mixed messages about drinking: photos of a main character drinking and partying that lend to an image of desirability. An elderly musician is frequently drunk but is highly respected in the community. Several scenes take place in a pub. A man is said to have drunk himself to death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Finding You is a wholesome, Ireland-set romance based on Jenny B. Jones' YA novel There You'll Find Me that's really about finding yourself. While it's unquestionably about a young couple finding love, the elements are soft enough that it feels more like a family film with a touch of romance (there are two kisses and some hand-holding). Lead character Finley ( Rose Reid ) is role model material: She's caring, thoughtful, and self-confident. But female characters are also portrayed somewhat stereotypically: obsessed and gossipy, conniving and mean, and jealous and possessive. Finley's love interest is a celebrity, and the story explores some of the unpleasant reality behind the management of child actors and their lack of agency over their own lives. Scenes take place inside a pub, a young character appears to be drinking in photos, and a well-respected musician is often shown drunk. Expect to hear some U.K.-specific profanity ("shite," "wanker"). The movie includes a faith-based element that feels authentic to the story, and characters demonstrate integrity. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (2)

Based on 4 parent reviews

A Rare Family-Friendly Movie!

What's the story.

Adapted from Jenny B. Jones' YA novel There You'll Find Me, FINDING YOU introduces viewers to violinist Finley ( Rose Reid ) after a failed audition for a music conservatory. In a quick pivot, she opts for a semester abroad in Ireland to clear her head and improve her musical skills. When movie star Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), who's shooting a film nearby, becomes taken with her, Finely has to examine her priorities and decide what she'll risk for love.

Is It Any Good?

Call this a "starter romance": a sweet story that's low on lovey-dovey stuff and more about growing up. It's actually less romantic than many Disney animated princess movies, although Finley (Reid) is just a few degrees away from Belle in Beauty and the Beast : She's grounded and not interested in distractions from her scholarly pursuits. And the movie's "prince," Beckett, starts out much like Gaston: He's an arrogant man about town who's used to having admirers fall over him. But the more Finley allows Beckett into her life, like The Beast, the more we see him for who he is. That might make for an enchanting animated fable, but in a modern-day live-action film, it's a little troubling. Yes, digging deeper to look past people's facades is a great message. But these days, most parents usually hope that their kids will realize that if a potential love interest looks and acts like a narcissist, it's in their best interest to not get involved.

Finding You is full of discoveries, like a smartly assembled cast and the beauty of Ireland. It offers an escape for families longing to visit ancient lands with captivating castles and grass that's blindingly green. The subplot about a medieval, dragon-slaying fantasy film being shot in the castles near Carlingford is a clever use of the space. While not all of it makes sense, Beckett's dad/manager has tight control over the life of his son, which introduces elements of critical thinking for kids who might realize that fame and fortune have a price. Finding You works both for families seeking out faith-based films and for those who aren't interested. One of the movie's faith-based elements has a mic-drop moment, but it happens without a single line of dialogue and isn't jarring or forced. Bottom line? As a piece of entertainment, you're likely to find that you get more out of this film than you might have expected.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the messages that Finding You sends about drinking . Are there consequences for drinking? Why does that matter?

Would you classify this as a faith-based film? Why, or why not?

Many films about self-discovery involve going on a physical journey. Why do you think this is? How does this film demonstrate that sometimes we know who we are, and it's more about finding the courage to be yourself?

What comment is the movie making on celebrity and celebrity-obsessed culture? Do you think Beckett's situation is similar to that of other celebrities whose careers began when they were kids?

How does Finley demonstrate integrity ? Is she a role model ? Why, or why not? Did you notice any stereotypes in the way characters were depicted?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 14, 2021
• On DVD or streaming : August 10, 2021
• Cast : Rose Reid , Jedidiah Goodacre , Tom Everett Scott
• Director : Brian Baugh
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Roadside Attractions
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Book Characters , Brothers and Sisters , Great Girl Role Models
• Character Strengths : Integrity
• Run time : 115 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : language and thematic elements
• Last updated : March 31, 2022

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clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Girl meets movie star in ‘Finding You,’ a surprisingly unaffected Y.A. love story

Based on “ There You’ll Find Me ,” a Christian Y.A. novel about a college girl healing from emotional wounds (while also falling in love), the film “Finding You” would seem, by virtue of the title change alone, to have shifted its thematic focus slightly. The original wording suggests a journey of self-discovery; the latter, a more straightforward voyage of romance on the metaphorical Love Boat.

And that is borne out in this tale of fluttering young feelings, whose theme of faith is — to the extent that it’s there at all — little more than a bay leaf flavoring the stew, but removed before serving: You can just taste it, but it’s not really there.

Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid) is an 18-year-old American college student and aspiring violinist who, after getting rejected from an audition for a prestigious music academy, turns to a semester abroad in Ireland, where she hopes to perfect her fiddling skills while staying with relatives in the small town where her deceased brother once studied. Upon arrival, Finley discovers a sketchbook that bro left behind, with a drawing of a grave marker: a broken Celtic cross, next to her scribbled name. What does it mean, and where is this cross? If the carving bears a message for her, such statuary exists in every cemetery in Ireland. The question hangs over the plot like a cloud.

It’s not the only one.

On the flight over, Finley happens to sit next to Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), a hunky if slightly arrogant movie star making yet another one of his popular but pulpy fantasy flicks in the very town where Finley is staying — while coincidentally renting a room in her relatives’ bed-and-breakfast. Be still, Finley’s heart! “It would never work,” she thinks, bringing herself back down to earth.

Or would it?

Finley takes on the role of Beckett’s informal assistant, helping him to run lines and find his character, and improving his acting skills in the process by giving him reason to actually believe the mushy talk his character spouts to his co-star, Taylor Risdale (Katherine McNamara), an airhead actress with whom he has a shallow, on-again-off-again romance in the real world as well. Meanwhile Finley strikes up a friendship with an elderly nursing-home resident (Vanessa Redgrave) who’s estranged from her sister (Helen Roche).

Will Finley help the aged siblings reconcile before it’s too late? Will she ever find that cross and whatever message it holds? Will she be touched with the gift of true musicianship — courtesy of a homeless, drunk string virtuoso (Patrick Bergin)? And, most importantly, will she ultimately find true love with Beckett, even as she teaches him to follow his own bliss (meaning: pursue better scripts and finally dump Taylor once and for all)?

Uhhh . . . has it really been that long since you’ve been to the movies?

There are no real surprises here, except maybe one. It would never work, Finley warns us, and it seems she might as well be talking about this cornball movie. But thanks to something ineffable — Redgrave, leprechauns, moondust, or maybe just understated performances from two appealing protagonists — “Finding You” kinda, sorta does.

PG.  At area theaters. Contains some strong language and mature thematic elements. 115 minutes.

Review: Young-adult romance ‘Finding You’ is on a quest for the obvious

It’s unlikely viewers will lose themselves film based on the novel ‘There You’ll Find Me’

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The California Times is committed to reviewing new theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries inherent risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials. We will continue to note the various ways readers can see each new film, including drive-in theaters in the Southland and VOD/streaming options when available.

To convey the experience of the young-adult romance “ Finding You ,” here are some characters: There’s protagonist Finley Sinclair, a tall, blond violinist; heartthrob actor Beckett Rush and unfeeling manager-father Montgomery Rush; Beckett’s shallow costar Taylor Risdale; and there are regular Irish folks named Seamus (who is habitually drunk), Molly and Patrick.

That’s what you’re in for.

Based on Jenny B. Jones’ novel “There You’ll Find Me,” “Finding You” finds Finley (Rose Reid) following the fraternal footsteps of her deceased brother to Ireland, land of saints and scholars. The college-age American is a technically accomplished player trying to get into a conservatory that makes prospective students compose their audition pieces; apparently she has to learn to play from the heart to get over the top before her next try. Perhaps on her sojourn to the Emerald Isle she’ll learn that lesson … and find romance at the end of the rainbow?

On the plane, she encounters Hollywood bad boy Beckett (Jedidiah Goodacre) in a belabored meet-cute when she gets one of those last-second free upgrades to first class that are always happening. She apparently doesn’t recognize him although she’s reading a magazine with him on the cover and apparently knows all about his roguish rep. Here she shows what passes for spunk by treating him like dirt and voicing all kinds of negative assumptions about this polite guy she has never met. I know, she seems awesome.

Then, what a crazy world, they end up at the same bed and breakfast that Finley’s host family has recently inherited under the ancient laws of plot convenience. If that’s not the gods telling them they’re meant for each other, then at least it’s formula dictating it.

One gets Beckett’s appeal, as he seems to be not a bad guy, not caught up in fame, and helps out where he can. But apart from her beauty, what is the appeal of Finley? The publisher’s description of the book’s character holds she is “witty, tough, and driven.” Whatever alterations they made for the film, those qualities do not surface. The best example of her drive seems to be haranguing the elderly Cathleen Sweeney ( Vanessa Redgrave , of all people), whom she initially calls a “crazy witch,” because Cathleen wants to be left alone. Finley’s toughness never materializes, nor does a whit of wit. Though to be fair, there’s apparently a plot thread in the novel involving a “dangerous vice” she gets into; in the film, her most dangerous vice is biking in the rain.

Rather, this judgmental American dismisses inebriated local fiddler Seamus ( Patrick Bergin ) as an old bum with nothing to offer. But what if he’s just the fellow to teach her “You’ve got to learn to play the sorrow and the joy. They’re linked. Like day and night”?

The scenery’s gorgeous; Redgrave and Bergin are pros; Tom Everett Scott is fittingly gross as the selfish stage dad; and Goodacre has some charm. But the film forgot to graft a personality onto its protagonist and seems so determined to be PG-clean that sparks between the leads are … hard to “find.”

'Finding You'

Rating: PG, for language and thematic elements When: Opens Friday Where: Wide release Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

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Finding you - movie review.

As charming as it is long, Finding You , the new movie from cinematographer-turned director Brian Baugh is packed with plenty of good intentions and awkward cliches. And that’s part of the problem.

Adapted from the Jenny B. Jones' 2011 YA novel titled, There You’ll Find Me , Baugh ’s film is about Finley Sinclair (YA film ingenue Rose Reid ), a young music student struggling to find her passion for playing the violin with hopes of getting into a prestigious New York music school.

She finds it in Ireland during a semester abroad program. Complications arise though, when she also finds a love interest in the form of Beckett Rush ( Jedediah Goodacre , TV’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ), a popular young movie star trying to cope with his own set of struggles.

The two meet on the airplane on their way to Ireland and wouldn’t you know it, they happen to be staying in the same hotel! They don’t quite hit it off right away with Finley playing hard to get and Beckett pouring on his boyish charm. But as the story plays out, the couple form a relationship, fall in love, fall out of love, address some problems, and fall back in love. End of story.

To be honest, it is more complicated than that. Way more complicated. Too complicated, in fact, as numerous subplots, diversions, distractions, and too many unnecessarily busy personal relationship problems muddy what should have been a quaint little love story set in the gorgeously photographed Irish countryside.

Finley also meets Seamus (veteran character actor Patrick Bergen ), the town drunk who, when not playing music in the pubs, is sleeping on the local park benches, yet turns out to be the most genuine inhabitant of the entire quirky little Irish burgh. And guess what instrument he plays? You guessed it, the violin (although he calls it a fiddle). I’ll leave it to you to guess where this relationship goes.

Other side plots, one involving Beckett’s controlling father ( Tom Everett Scott ) who drums up controversy on the “socials” to keep his son’s career relevant, and another concerning some drawings left behind by Finley’s late brother, do little more than pad the runtime.

Sure, Finding You is loaded with plenty of charm from the likable cast, beautiful cinematography, and features an infectious spirit that very nearly saves the entire thing. But Baugh ’s adaptation tries to cover too much ground and is never quite clever enough to elevate the proceedings above its made-for-TV sentiments. With a tighter script and at least one of the subplots trimmed, this romantic drama about finding the courage to be true to oneself could have hit many more high notes. As it is though, Finding You never quite finds its groove.

MPAA Rating: PG for language and thematic elements. Runtime: 115 mins Director : Brian Baugh Writer: Brian Baugh Cast: Katherine McNamara, Jedidiah Goodacre, Vanessa Redgrave Genre : Romance | Drama Tagline: Trust the Journey. Memorable Movie Quote: Theatrical Distributor: Roadside Attractions Official Site: Release Date: May 14, 2021 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: Synopsis : After an ill-fated audition at a prestigious New York music conservatory, violinist Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid) travels to an Irish coastal village to begin her semester studying abroad. At the B&B run by her host family she encounters gregarious and persistent heartthrob movie star Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), who is there to film another installment of his medieval fantasy-adventure franchise. As romance sparks between the unlikely pair, Beckett ignites a journey of discovery for Finley that transforms her heart, her music, and her outlook on life. In turn, Finley emboldens Beckett to reach beyond his teen-idol image and pursue his true passion. But when forces surrounding Beckett’s stardom threaten to crush their dreams, Finley must decide what she is willing to risk for love.

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Film Reviews

• Finding You

Genre: Romance, Drama

Director: Brian Baugh

Cast: Rose Reid, Jedidiah Goodacre, Tom Everett Scott, Vanessa Redgrave, Katherine McNamara

MPAA-Rating: PG

Release Date: May 14th, 2021

The new teen romance Finding You has a quiet and gentle spirit that’s hard to turn away from. Set in Ireland, the drama focuses on a violin player who takes a semester abroad in hopes of changing her life. Written and directed by Brian Baugh, the plot covers familiar territory but has a charm all on its own.

The drama follows Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid), a young musician who just faltered at an audition. Taylor wants to attend a prestigious school but can’t seem to get out of her own way. She realizes she needs a change and decides to spend a semester abroad. She moves in with the same loveable but big-hearted family her brother lived with when he did the same thing.

On her plane ride across the ocean, Finley sits next to a charming but self-indulgent actor named Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre). As fate would have it, Beckett will be staying at the same place Taylor’s slated to stay at.

Of course, these two main characters dislike each other early on. Fortunately, the familiar concept works because the leads are committed to the concept and their antipathy towards each other never feels forced. They don’t actively hate each other. They just don’t like each other. While Reid plays the straight-laced character well, it’s the charming Goodacre whose charisma springs the plot alive.

Goodacre’s character Beckett is dealing with his own failings. The star of a series of films where he battles dragons, Beckett longs for a more typical existence. His father Montgomery (Montgomery Rush) manages him like a product, pushing for the press to portray him as a bad boy to boost his career. Despite spending much of his time in the countryside, Beckett appears in the press as a playboy in an on-again off-again relationship with his co-star Taylor (Katherine McNamara).

Much of the drama follows the two main characters but the story also offers a few great lessons about following your own dreams, seeing people for who they truly are (and not simply as a superficial level) and even forgiveness. In a small role here, Vanessa Redgrave co-stars as a grouchy woman who reportedly stole her sister’s fiance years earlier.

Like in Notting Hill  or the more recent My Week with Marilyn , this film touches on celebrities and how they are often defined by the press. By focusing on young people and specifically a burgeoning actor whose own father admits “His love life is his career,” Finding You offers some insights into young Hollywood and how stars are sometimes trapped by their fame.

Finding You has some weaker elements including a subplot about a cemetery stone that doesn’t work as well as it could. However, the film has charm to spare and the cast — especially Goodacre, who reminded me of a young Heath Ledger — seem to embrace the story’s warm-hearted personality. There are some familiar beats here but the romantic drama finds a way to succeed despite its flaws.

From Goodacre’s performance to its important life lessons to the beautiful Irish scenery, Finding You finds a way to stand out and will likely charm viewers who are willing to give it a chance.

Review by: John Hanlon

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Finding You Parent Guide

The thoughtful script is predictable but the film manages to be charming nonetheless..

In Theaters: Finley goes to Ireland to study music and regain her confidence after a failed audition. On the way, she meets Beckett, a movie star...and they discover the Emerald Isle together.

Release date May 14, 2021

Run Time: 115 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by donna gustafson.

Finley Sinclair (Rose Reid) needs to find herself. After failing her audition, the aspiring violinist decides to take a semester and study abroad in Ireland. She hopes the lush green landscape will help her grow her musical talent and the coastal breezes might blow away her self-doubts.

Her bad luck seems to change the moment she decides to leave New York City, beginning with an offer to take a spare seat in first class for her international flight. Then she fortuitously finds herself sitting next to Beckett Rush (Jedidiah Goodacre), a child-star-turned-leading-man in a series of rather cheesy blockbuster films. Although Finley isn’t quite as impressed with the handsome celebrity as he thinks she should be, the two exchange some judgmental banter until the plane lands and they part ways knowing they will never see each other again.

Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story here if there wasn’t some drama too. Most of the subplots deal with people making assumptions about others, rather than looking beyond the surface. One of these, featuring a crusty old woman (played by Vanessa Redgrave), is particularly poignant. Another, about the town drunkard (Patrick Bergin), teaches everyone, including Finley, the difference between a violin and a fiddle.

Unlike many movies in this genre, Finding You contains only a smattering of sexual references about how Beckett spends his off-hours and the relationship he has with his beautiful co-star (Katherine McNamara). The male idol is pictured shirtless on occasion, and some kisses are exchanged. Other content is also light, with just a few, mild swear words and social drinking at a pub. Violence makes it to the screen when Beckett plays a dragon-slaying adventure hero on set.

Although the thoughtful script is predictable, it is delightfully embellished by gorgeous scenery, picturesque Irish landmarks and music that will leave you both wanting to jig and contemplating your deepest sorrows. Viewers seeking a charming escape will find exactly what they came for.

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Donna Gustafson

Watch the trailer for finding you.

Finding You Rating & Content Info

Why is Finding You rated PG? Finding You is rated PG by the MPAA for language and thematic elements.

Violence: Death and grief are talked about. Characters visits old cemeteries – one finds them fascinating, the other creepy. A character with scientific curiosity holds a wriggling earth worm. Movie stars film scenes where they battle fire-breathing dragons with swords, bows and arrows. A fake wound is shown. An angry woman yells and makes threats. Characters are mobbed by fans and paparazzi. A character threatens to hit reports with a stick. Abusive and manipulative relationships are discussed.

Sexual Content: A tabloid features pictures of a shirtless male celebrity drinking and hanging out with scantily dressed women. Affectionate kissing and embracing are shown. Some mild sexual refences are made. Characters make plays for another person’s love interest. Jealousy, grudges and spite are depicted. A sexual slang words is used.

Profanity: Infrequent use of mild profanities, scatological slang, terms of deity and name-calling.

Alcohol / Drug Use: The film includes a character who is depicted as a drunkard – he often sleeps in public places and asks for money. Characters drink at a pub and at social occasions.

Page last updated October 2, 2021

Finding You Parents' Guide

When Finley first meets Beckett, she tells him she knows all about his “type”. Why does she make this assumption? What other characters in the movie are also being assessed by their outward appearances? What do you think the script is trying to say about judging others? As part of her schooling, Finlay is assigned to visit an elderly woman in a seniors’ home in order to understand Irish culture. What do you think you would learn about culture if you talked to a person from an older generation? Are there other benefits from doing this kind of service? One character tells another, “You never know where you are going to be tomorrow.” How might contemplating that statement change the choices you make? Would you take more risks? Does knowing there could be a tomorrow make you consider consequences? Another character says, “Joy and sorrow are linked together like day and night.” What do you learn from this insight?

Related home video titles:

In keeping with the themes in this movie, a character reads the books, Pride & Prejudice and Twilight – both have been made into movies. The animation Tangled also features characters that feel manipulated and misjudged by others. Leap Year is another romantic drama set in Ireland.

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CULTURE MIX

Where Lifestyle Cultures Blend

Review: ‘Finding You’ (2021), starring Rose Reid, Jedidiah Goodacre, Katherine McNamara, Patrick Bergin, Tom Everett Scott and Vanessa Redgrave

Arts and Entertainment

Anabel Sweeney , Brian Baugh , Ciaran McMahon , drama , Finding You , Fiona Bell , Helen Roche , Ireland , Jedidiah Goodacre , Judith Hoag , Katherine McNamara , movies , Patrick Bergin , reviews , Rose Reid , Saoirse-Monica Jackson , Tom Everett Scott , Vanessa Redgrave

May 28, 2021

by Carla Hay

“Finding You” (2021)

Directed by Brian Baugh

Culture Representation:  Taking place in Ireland and briefly in New York City, the romantic drama “Finding You” features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with one African American) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash:  An aspiring professional violinist and an action movie star, who are both American, meet on an airplane flying to Ireland, and she ends up becoming his love interest and temporary assistant while he films a movie in Ireland and has an on-again, off-again relationship with a co-star.

Culture Audience:  “Finding You” will appeal mainly to people who like watching predictable and banal romantic dramas with absolutely nothing imaginatively creative about the story.

“Finding You” was written and directed by Brian Baugh, but the entire movie looks like it came from the mind of a naïve teenager who’s read too many hack romance novels. The movie is based on Jenny B. Jones’ faith-based young adult 2011 novel “There’ll You Find Me,” which was much more about coping with grief than being a sudsy and trite romance. There isn’t one single minute of “Finding You” that isn’t predictable and/or corny.

And that’s okay for a romantic movie, if the characters and storyline are charming enough and the movie has great dialogue, engaging acting and intriguing situations. However, in “Finding You,” the would-be couple basically look and talk like Ken and Barbie dolls, while they and the other characters in the story try and act like this “fairtayle romance” wasn’t the result of the guy cheating on his girlfriend with the story’s “heroine.”

This infidelity is glossed over in a very hypocritical way in this preachy and maudlin story, which tries to make the female protagonist look like a noble do-gooder, even though she’s an active and knowing participant in this infidelity. Meanwhile, she meddles in other people’s lives in the most condescending manner, as if she’s a paragon of virtue and morality. But because this story is based on the unrealistic fantasy that things always work out for pretty protagonists in the end, it all adds up to predictable junk.

“Finding You” begins with protagonist Finley Sinclair (played by Rose Reid), who lives in New York City, feeling defeated because she failed in her audition to get into an elite music conservatory. Finley plays classical violin and she’s supposed to be about 18 or 19 years old, but all the actors in “Finding You” who are supposed to be in that age group look like they’re way past their teen years. Finley is feeling sad over being rejected by the school, but she plans to audition again in three months for the school’s next semester.

To help Finley get over her unhappiness, Finley’s mother Jennifer Sinclair (played by Judith Hoag) suggests that Finley do what Finley’s brother Alex did years ago: Spend a semester studying in Ireland. And just like that, Finley is on a plane to Ireland, where she will be staying in a small town that’s not named in the film. The student application process sure works fast in this movie for Finley to get accepted into the foreign exchange student program so quickly.

On the plane, something occurs that happens only in a movie: A flight attendant chooses Finley, out of all the people on the plane, to get a free upgrade to the first-class section, just because there’s an empty seat, and the flight attendant thought that Finley might like to sit there. Of course, Finley says yes. And, of course, some viewers will roll their eyes at this “too good to be true” moment.

Finley dozes off in this first-class seat. And when she wakes up, she’s startled when she notices that her head had been accidentally resting on the shoulder of a good-looking stranger sitting next to her who wasn’t there when she first sat down. You know where this is going to go, of course. The man sitting next to her is about her age. And he happens to be a movie star. And this is the scene where there might as well be a big sign flashing, “Meet Cute Moment Alert!”

This movie star is an American named Beckett Rush (played by Jedidiah Goodacre), and he’s slightly amused by Finley being embarrassed at waking up with her head on his shoulder. She makes a sincere apology, but Beckett thinks that she’s one of his star-struck fans who deliberately planned to sit next to him on this plane. Beckett tells Finley that he doesn’t want to call attention to himself, so he tells her to wait until the plane lands before he can give her an autograph or photo.

Finley is mildly insulted by his arrogance, because she doesn’t really know or care about who Beckett is and why he’s famous. Beckett smirks and thinks that she’s lying. He can’t believe that she doesn’t know who he is. He mentions that he’s going to Ireland to film a movie, while Finley says she’s going to Ireland as a visiting student. The cliché banter continues. And then Beckett says one of the movie’s many cringeworthy lines: “You know, you look really beautiful when you admit that you’re wrong.”

On the plane, Finley just happens to be reading a celebrity gossip magazine and is flipping through it when she sees a photo spread of Beckett partying in a hotel suite, in various states of undress. It looks like the type of photos that someone at the party sold to the magazine. Finley looks at the photo spread with some disapproval. Beckett frowns and says, “You know, I didn’t like that article either.”

The plane lands in Ireland. Finley and Beckett go their separate ways—but not really, because you know they’re going to see each other again in the most sickeningly cute coincidence possible. Before she leaves for the host family home where she’ll be staying, Finley notices a gaggle of gushing young female fans surrounding Beckett at the airport, just in case it wasn’t immediately clear to everyone that Beckett is a teen idol.

The Irish family who’s hosting Finley is the same family who hosted her brother Alex when he studied in Ireland for a semester, about six or seven years earlier. The family has recently turned their home into a bed-and-breakfast lodging, and they’re desperate to get good reviews. The host family consists of married couple Sean Callaghan (played by Ciaran McMahon) and Nora Callaghan (played by Fiona Bell) and their teenage daughter Emma Callaghan (played by Saoirse-Monica Jackson), who is (to no one’s surprise) a huge fan of Beckett Rush.

How much does Emma adore Beckett? She has photos and posters of him plastered all over her bedroom walls. And only photos and posters of Beckett. She doesn’t just adore him. She’s obsessed. You can imagine how Emma (who’s about 15 or 16) reacts when she finds out who’s staying in her parents’ bed-and-breakfast home.

Finley finds out when Sean and Nora have a messy mishap in the kitchen while they’re making breakfast for their very special guest. Sean and Nora don’t want their guest to see them with their stained and disheveled clothes, and they don’t want to delay serving him by changing off into clean clothes. And so, they ask Finley to serve this “mystery guest” his breakfast.

The guest is Beckett, of course. And when Finley and Beckett see each other again, they have that “What are you doing here?” moment before Beckett assumes that Finley stalked him there. She denies it and asks Beckett what he’s doing at a modest bed-and-breakfast place instead of staying at a fancy hotel. Beckett says it’s because he’s trying to avoid fans and paparazzi, and no one would suspect him of staying at this bed-and-breakfast place.

Emma practically faints when she sees Beckett. Sean and Nora tell Emma and Finley to keep it a secret that Beckett is staying there. Sean and Nora want Beckett to give good word-of-mouth reviews to the bed-and-breakfast, and they think that will only happen if they protect Beckett’s privacy. But, of course, Emma can’t keep it a secret, and she tells a few of her friends at her high school.

Finley tries to act like she’s not impressed by Beckett, and she says she doesn’t trust Beckett because she thinks he’s a playboy. But everyone watching this movie knows that she will eventually fall for Beckett. For quite a while, Beckett can’t seem to remember Finley’s name and keeps calling her other names that start with the letter “f,” especially Frankie. When someone you’re attracted to can’t remember your name, that’s supposed to be charming? Only in a dumb movie like this one.

Finley is curious enough about Beckett to look him up on the Internet. And it’s there that she sees that Beckett has an American actress girlfriend named Taylor Risdale (played by Katherine McNamara), whom he’s known since they were both child actors. Beckett and Taylor are described as a hot “it couple” by the media, and there’s a lot of news coverage about many aspects of their relationship.

Beckett’s main claim to fame is starring in a movie series called “Dawn of the Dragon,” which is depicted in “Finding You” as a very cheesy movie version of “Game of Thrones.” He’s in Ireland to film one of the movies in the “Dawn of the Dragon” series. Taylor is Beckett’s co-star/love interest in this “Dawn of the Dragon” movie, so she’s in Ireland too. Of course she is.

One stereotype that “Finding You” thankfully doesn’t have is portraying Taylor as completely jealous and vindictive. It would be easy to do when the love triangle part of the story starts to happen. Instead, Taylor is nice to Finley, even when it becomes clear that Beckett is attracted to Finley and has been hanging out with Finley more than is appropriate when he already has a girlfriend who’s nearby.

The seduction starts with Beckett showing up one night at Finley’s room to ask her if she could help him rehearse his script lines. At first she says no, but then she changes her mind. The first time Beckett reads lines with her is when Finley feels a real attraction to him. They almost kiss and then turn their heads away in embarrassment, as you do in a formulaic romantic movie like this one.

Beckett convinces Finley that he needs her to keep helping him with his lines, so he “hires” her as his assistant, even though he never pays her. At one point, Beckett starts to describe Finley as his “acting coach,” which is even more ludicrous. It’s all just an excuse for Beckett and Finley to spend more time together. Everyone knows it but Taylor, who is predictably the last to figure out that Beckett and Finley are falling for each other.

Beckett’s domineering manager also happens to be his father. Montgomery Rush (played by Tom Everett Scott) is a stereotypical, money-hungry “stage dad,” who’s a failed actor and is using his son Beckett to live vicariously through him. Montgomery (who is not married and there’s no mention of Beckett’s mother) has been pressuring Beckett to sign a five-movie, seven-year deal for “Dawn of the Dragon” spinoffs.

However, Beckett is reluctant to sign this lucrative deal because he wants to be known for more than just the “Dawn of the Dragon” movies. Montgomery doesn’t take Finley too seriously because he thinks she’s just another one of Beckett’s flings. Montgomery is essentially the main antagonist in “Finding You.”

Taylor becomes the story’s other antagonist when she thinks Beckett should sign the movie deal too. It turns out that Montgomery has been behind the leaks to the media about Beckett and Taylor’s relationship, so that Beckett’s name is kept in the news. Taylor knows that Montgomery has been manipulating the press in this way, and she doesn’t mind at all. In fact, she encourages it. On paper, Taylor and Beckett seem like a “perfect” couple, but Taylor is depicted as too shallow for Beckett, and he’s starting to see how incompatible they are.

Beckett only starts to see how much of a dead-end relationship he’s in after he meets Finley, who’s not dazzled by his celebrity status and encourages Beckett to be his own man, not the person Beckett’s father wants him to be. Viewers are supposed to believe that because of Finley, Beckett starts to feel like he wants to experience more “normal” things, because he’s been an actor since he was 7 years old. Beckett has a high school degree, but he never went to a graduation ceremony and he never went to a prom because he was too busy working. And he thinks he might want to put his actor career on hold to go to college.

As Finley and Beckett start to spend more time together, she opens up to him about her goal of becoming a professional violinist and about a tragedy in her past, because the heroine in a story like this always has to have a tragedy to make her look more sympathetic. Finley’s tragedy is that her brother Alex died shortly after he got back to America from Ireland. One of the reasons why she’s in Ireland is to pay tribute to him and try to heal from her grief over his death.

Unbeknownst to Finley and her family, Alex left behind a sketch book of drawings and poems at the Callaghan home. Finley finds out when Nora gives the book to Finley shortly after Finley arrives in Ireland. Nora explains that she didn’t feel right about mailing this book to Finley’s family because Nora feared it might get lost in the mail or possibly sent to the wrong address. And so, Nora kept the book for all of these years.

In the sketch book, Finley sees that Alex drew a very unusual stone crucifix that looks partially broken at the top. It looks like the crucifix is part of a gravestone in a graveyard. And so, Finley becomes determined to find this crucifix, which she assumes is somewhere in Ireland. She’s sure that when she finds this crucifix, there will be a special meaning that Alex would want her to get out of this discovery. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

Emma’s high school has a snooty mean girl named Keeva (played by Anabel Sweeney), who was cast as an extra in Beckett’s movie. Keeva’s only purpose in “Finding You” is to brag about being in Beckett’s movie, act like a catty snob about it to Emma and other people, and then get her comeuppance when Beckett starts paying attention to Finley. Emma acts like an overeager puppy dog around Finley, to the point where she calls Finley her “sister.” And therefore, Emma feels like a Beckett Rush “insider” when Finley inevitably gets closer to Beckett and confides in Emma about her dates with Beckett.

There’s also a subplot of Finley being assigned to visit a senior citizen at a nursing home, as part of her school’s “Adopt a Senior” program. And, of course, she’s assigned to a grouchy and bitter loner, whose name is Cathleen Sweeney (played by Vanessa Redgrave), who doesn’t want to have any visitors. Cathleen is very rude to Finley in their first meeting and she orders Finley to leave.

Finley tries to get assigned to someone else, but the nursing home supervisor who’s in charge of the “Adopt a Senior” program tells Finley that Finley can’t change her assigned senior. Finley can’t quit the program either, because an essay on her “Adopt a Senior” experience is required for her to pass whatever student class has this “Adopt a Senior” program. And so, in a very contrived situation, Finley and Cathleen have to spend time together, even though they don’t like each other very much in the beginning.

What does Finley do to pass the time with Cathleen? She reads books to her. And the reading list is laughable because it’s so odd. First, Finley reads Jane Austen’s classic “Pride and Prejudice.” And then she reads Stephenie Meyer’s young adult vampire novel “Twilight.” And that rate, Finley might as well start reading this crabby old lady some “Fifty Shades of Grey” too. Finley doesn’t, but you get the idea of how weird and random it is that “Finding You” has Finley reading “Twilight” to a senior citizen.

And because “Finding You” has to fill up the story with more treacly melodrama, Finley finds out that Cathleen (who is widowed with no children) has been a longtime outcast in the town. It’s because years ago, when she was a young woman, Cathleen married the wealthy man who was engaged to Cathleen’s sister Fiona Doyle. Cathleen and her sister Fiona have remained estranged ever since. Cathleen eventually left her husband, and he was so heartbroken that he drank himself to death, as the story goes in the town. The townspeople have blamed Cathleen for this man’s death and consider her to be heartless and evil.

Finley finds out this story from Nora, after Finley looks in Cathleen’s desk drawer and sees a stack of unopened “return to sender” mail that Cathleen sent to Fiona, who is Cathleen’s only living relative. Finley asks Nora who Fiona Doyle is and why Fiona is returning Cathleen’s mail unopened. Nora is also one of the townspeople who has a negative opinion of Cathleen.

Because Finley is very nosy, she decides she’s going to track down Fiona and try to “fix” this family rift. And there’s a “race against time” aspect to this intrusiveness because of a reason that’s very easy to predict for an old person in a nursing home. It’s also easy to predict that there’s more to the Cathleen/Fiona story than the townspeople’s gossip.

Finley should be the last person to judge other people’s love triangles, because she’s gotten herself involved in a messy love triangle too, but this movie tries to embellish it in the most hypocritical ways. While Finley acts so self-righteous to other people about their lives, she’s sneaking around and dating Beckett (and yes, they eventually kiss) while Taylor is still Beckett’s girlfriend. Beckett is cheating on Taylor with Finley, and neither Beckett nor Finley seems to feel too guilty about it.

But being a knowing participant in infidelity doesn’t fit the “innocent ingenue” narrative for Finley that this movie tries to push on the audience, so this cheating scenario is depicted as Beckett finding true love with Finley, while he’s in an “arranged” relationship with Taylor. Never mind that he’s being dishonest with Taylor. Meanwhile, Emma and Finley breathlessly talk like giddly schoolgirls about Finley’s dates with Beckett. It all just leads to the over-used “redemption of the bad boy” narrative that so many of these stale romance movies have, with Finley being the one to “save” Beckett from his arrogant ways.

The movie shows Finley and Beckett spending time at a pub callled Taffee’s Castle. It’s here where a town drunk named Seamus (played by Patrick Bergin) hangs out, and he sleeps on a bench outdoors during the day. In a movie filled with stereotypes, it should come as no surprise that “Finding You” has the most predictable stereotype for a movie that takes place in Ireland: an alcoholic character. Fortunately, Seamus is the “jolly drunk” type.

And you can do a countdown to the expected scene of Seamus playing the fiddle with a band at the pub, Beckett whispering something to Seamus on stage, and then Seamus announcing to the pub that they have a special guest player in the audience, as Seamus demands that Finley come up on stage to play the fiddle with him and the band. Finley then shakes her head and protests until she reluctantly gets up on stage. She says she plays the violin, not the fiddle, as Seamus hands her a fiddle and tells her that a fiddle is practically the same as a violin.

And it’s here that viewers can predict that Seamus is in the movie so he can teach Finley how to play a musical instrument with her heart more than with her head. Yes, there are more scenes later of Finley and Seamus playing the fiddle together. It’s all so schmaltzy and unimaginative.

There are also a few scenes where Beckett spends time with Finley when she’s visiting with Cathleen. In one scene, Beckett is bizarrely dressed up as someone’s version of a 1960s hippie who looks like a reject from the “Woodstock” movie. It’s supposed to be Beckett’s way of charming Cathleen, who’s from the Woodstock Generation.

Beckett says some old hippie jargon to get Cathleen to like him. It’s very pandering and insulting to people’s intelligence. But in a stupid movie like this one, this manipulation works with Cathleen, who approves of Beckett and tells Finley that he’s a good man and a “keeper.” Finley doesn’t tell Cathleen that Beckett is cheating on his girlfriend Taylor by dating Finley.

Meanwhile, in a ridiculous movie like “Finding You,” while Finley is traipsing around Ireland with Beckett, spending time being his “acting coach”/assistant on and off the movie set, playing the fiddle with Seamus, searching for that mystery crucifix, reading books to Cathleen, and trying to force Cathleen’s estranged sister Fiona (played by Helen Roche) to reunite with Cathleen, at no time is Finley actually seen in any classes or doing any studying. It makes you wonder why the filmmakers made Finley an American student who’s supposed to be enrolled in an Irish school, when she just really acts like an American on holiday in Ireland.

The acting in this movie is unremarkable, even with the great Vanessa Redgrave in the cast. She plays a very cranky character in the movie, so she might not have had to do much acting, since most Oscar-winning actors would be cranky too if they ended up in this type of schlocky movie. As for the “fairytale” couple in this story, Goodacre is much more believable and expressive in his role as Beckett than Reid is as Finley, who is as bland as bland can be.

However, there’s only so much actors can do when the dialogue ranges from basic to silly. The scenery in Ireland looks nice in the movie though. But that’s not enough to watch “Finding You,” when there are plenty of better romantic dramas that are set in Ireland. (Some examples: 2007’s “Once,” 2010’s “Ondine” and, for a New York City-Ireland connection, 2015’s “Brooklyn.”) Ultimately, “Finding You” sticks to an over-used formula to such a lazy degree that it makes the movie irrelevant and forgettable.

Roadside Attractions released “Finding You” in U.S. cinemas on May 14, 2021.

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How Hindsight Distorts Our View of the Beatles in “Let It Be”

By Richard Brody

The catalogue of great posthumous movies, such as “ Eyes Wide Shut ,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” and “ Amazing Grace ,” also includes another of the great music documentaries: Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s “Let It Be,” about the Beatles . The movie, shot in January, 1969, was intended to enshrine the recording of the group’s new album, from which the film takes its title, and their first public performance since 1966. But, in April, 1970, a month before the release of the album and the film, the Beatles broke up, and both works were forced to carry a burden of significance that overwhelmed their reception. Though the album became instantly popular and has remained ubiquitous, the movie wasn’t a hit and received mainly negative reviews (including in The New Yorker ). It was understood—or, rather, misunderstood—as a memento mori, a dour and dispirited bit of forensics revealing motives for the breakup, such as the musicians’ personal conflicts and their artistic differences of opinion. Moreover, it never got a proper reëvaluation, in part because it wasn’t issued on DVD or Blu-ray. But now it’s available to stream on Disney+, in a new and authorized restoration by Peter Jackson, and this rerelease provides a welcome chance to acknowledge the movie’s mighty artistic merits, which far outweigh its dire premonitions.

Lindsay-Hogg filmed the Beatles on the outskirts of London, at Twickenham Film Studios, and in the heart of the West End, at the Savile Row headquarters of the band’s company, Apple. Then, with the editors Graham Gilding and Tony Lenny, he shaped about sixty hours of footage into a tightly dramatic film of eighty-one minutes. For all the troubles the movie reveals, it’s nonetheless a joyful compendium of creative energy. It catches mid-flow a torrent of imagination and craft, composition and spontaneity, and culminates in a scene of public performance that’s as unusual in its format as it is intimate in its charms. The director and other crew members are on view throughout, taking care of business while the cameras are rolling. Yoko Ono is there much of the time, and Linda McCartney stops by, bringing her daughter Heather, who drums with Ringo Starr and twirls around.

“Let It Be” catches the foursome—augmented, in the recording session, by the visionary keyboard player Billy Preston—in a kind of offhand ferment. Rehearsals are inseparable from hangouts, and jokey riffs fuse with master takes. The album was meant to be captured live in the studio, without added postproduction arrangements and overdubs. It didn’t quite work like that, and the course the project took was both a cause of conflict and a reflection of it. A major sticking point in the film is Paul McCartney ’s desire to rework arrangements in the studio—to get at a particular “falling note” ending for “I’ve Got a Feeling,” and to micromanage George Harrison’s guitar performance on “Two of Us.” Such differences proved fatal, but, if one tries to watch with fresh eyes, pushing hindsight out of mind, they don’t seem much graver than the kind of disagreements that are typical of close artistic collaborations.

Instead, what comes across is how much of the movie is filled with inventive high spirits and exuberant playfulness, which inflect the music in surprising ways. At the beginning of the film, after Lindsay-Hogg and the crew finish setting things up, Paul is at the piano, a Blüthner grand, noodling through a range of fragments that sound borrowed from show tunes and classical music and that hint at the range of his interests and influences. Ringo joins him at the keyboard, and the two men exaggeratedly greet each other. (“Good morning, Paul!” “Good morning, Rich!”) Ringo adds a third hand to Paul’s two, and the pair of them improvise a boogie-woogie jaunt together. (“Didn’t know Rich could play,” Paul jibes.) Later, Paul puts on a mock-operatic voice to sing “Besame Mucho” and then “The Long and Winding Road,” the latter also getting a bossa-nova treatment. The blend of forms—joining rock and roll with sentimental balladry and folk songs, provincial humor and light-classical cheer, spiritual yearnings and bawdy fantasy, along with the band’s self-mocking self-awareness of mass-media celebrity—suggests why the Beatles became quasi-universal and made rock not just the music of teens but of much of the world.

What the group achieves in its freewheeling tension is miraculous. Listen to the hammering vocal riffs on George’s “I Me Mine,” which he calls a “heavy waltz” but which breaks out into an open-road rocker stomp. (John Lennon doesn’t play on the song, instead waltzing with Yoko, grandly and gracefully, while the others record.) Then, there’s Paul’s impulsive rediscovery of “One After 909,” which he and John wrote as teen-agers, leading Paul to reminisce about their both cutting school to go home and write songs. The underlying essence of the “Let It Be” performances is the rock of the fifties and early sixties. George launches into Leiber and Stoller’s “Kansas City,” which the Beatles recorded in 1964 (I bought the single when it came out here the next year; the B-side is “Boys”), and Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” Paul does Smokey Robinson’s “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” which the group recorded in 1963, and “Shake, Rattle and Roll.” John offers a surrealistic twist on the return to rock’s roots with “Dig It,” an antic parody of Mick Jagger that’s fifty seconds on the album but a lot longer and wilder in the movie.

There’s a paradox at the core of “Let It Be.” Although the filming itself is always clearly in view, reflecting a very conscious choice about the band’s self-presentation, the documentary is far less a movie of reflexive media politics and self-crafted personae than other Beatles features, such as “ A Hard Day’s Night ” (1964) and “Help!” (1965). The group appears to have gone through the media machinery and come out the other side more themselves than they’d been since their earliest days. Thinking about that time, Paul says that he wishes there were a movie crew on hand in Hamburg in the early sixties, when the Beatles, naïve and spontaneous, had their breakthrough. In contrast, he says, “the hurdle of that nervousness is there now.” He felt that, to recover immediacy, the band had to appear in concert or else renounce the idea for good and acknowledge that they were, essentially, composers. Yet, in “Let It Be,” the camera largely assumes the role of the implicit public, and the Beatles, rather than self-crafting an image, let performance define them. The personalities that emerge are, above all, musical ones, and the band plays in the studio as if insulated, for once, from the stardom that, like the shrieks of feedback, formed and deformed their identities.

As Lindsay-Hogg was planning the film, he tried to persuade the Beatles to make a concert comeback in a spectacular fashion: at the Roman amphitheatre in Sabratha, Libya. It didn’t happen, and, instead, they made their return to live performance on the roof of the Apple building on a chilly January day, amid a daytime throng of London businesspeople dashing about until they gradually realized what was going on. Some intrepid souls climbed ladders to nearby rooftops; others looked on from the street until crowds formed and police showed up to monitor the commotion, warily. Watching this moment, one may find it shocking to hear the Beatles playing in public without any screaming fans. The streets may be long and the sky above may be boundless, but the roof itself is pretty small, with room for only a handful of listeners, and the Beatles seem to be playing not to the distant crowd below but to the few people they could see in their surrounding vicinity. Although the group is plugged in, the effect is of an unplugged concert, rock-and-roll chamber music minus walls. And, whereas Paul’s meticulous leadership is in the forefront of the studio recording, John turns the roof into his teeming garden of giddy wonders.

In 2019, it was announced that Peter Jackson was granted access to the roughly sixty hours of material that Lindsay-Hogg had shot, plus many hours of additional audiotapes. He oversaw its digital cleanup and created a new work from it, “ The Beatles: Get Back ,” a three-part film that totals nearly eight hours and was released, also on Disney+, in 2021. To my eye, too much of the grain was removed from the original footage, which was shot in 16-mm. (And Jackson’s new restoration of “Let It Be” uses the same de-texturizing process.) But the more substantive difference is that “Get Back” goes into much more detail regarding the Beatles’ conflicts. It shows George leaving the band and the negotiations to get him to return; it contains a private conversation between John and Paul that was caught on a hidden mike; it features far more of the social interactions in the studio, including with Yoko and Linda; and it catches the magic moment when Paul, fiddling around in the studio, gives spontaneous birth to the song “Get Back.” All in all, it’s a far more candid and comprehensive film, though it comes off as antsy and impatient. Jackson includes snippets from across an extensive array of material, as if he couldn’t bear to part with anything yet wasn’t really interested in watching much of it at length. He deploys these snippets to illustrate various themes, but those themes merely reflect the received narrative of the Beatles’ breakup and their final album. Rather than looking for new perspectives, Jackson merely substantiates what people already think they know.

Although the footage that’s in “Get Back” and not in “Let It Be” is of vast Beatles-ological significance, that purpose would have been served as well by making it available, as raw footage, online for casual viewers and historians alike, as was done with the outtakes from Claude Lanzmann’s documentary “ Shoah .” Just as the transformative power of Lanzmann’s editing made what might have been a simple historical record into an enduring work of art, so the sharply conceived yet raptly fascinated editorial approach to “Let It Be,” in an altogether different register, makes it far superior to “Get Back.” Both as a cinematic experience and as an embodiment of style, “Let It Be” is the worthier tribute to the album and to the artistic power that gives the Beatles an enduring immediacy more than half a century after their breakup. “Get Back” takes the fuller historical view, but “Let It Be” is invigorated by its forward motion, propelled by the musical force that makes the Beatles historic. ♦

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‘The Idea of You’ Review: Surviving Celebrity

Anne Hathaway headlines a movie that’s got a lot to say about the perils of fame.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

Women of a certain age (that is, my age) feel like they grew up alongside Anne Hathaway, because, well, we did. We were awkward teens together when she made “The Princess Diaries” in 2001. We felt ourselves to be put-upon entry-level hirelings right when “The Devil Wears Prada” came out in 2006. We understood her broken-down narcissistic addict in “Rachel Getting Married,” because who couldn’t? And we watched the Hathaway backlash, pegged to public perception that she was trying too hard, and worried that people saw us the same way.

Now we’re 40-ish. We know for sure that Gen Z considers millennials to be cringe, and, thankfully, we no longer feel the need to care. The greatest gift of reaching middle age is having settled into yourself, and that is apparently what Hathaway, age 41, has done . She has been through the celebrity wringer (and more ) and come out the other side looking radiant, with a long list of credits in movies that swing from standard commercial fare to auteurist masterpieces.

This is perhaps why it’s so satisfying to see her name come first — alone, before the title credit — in “The Idea of You,” which is on its surface a relatively fluffy little film. Based on the sleeper hit novel by Robinne Lee, “The Idea of You” is plainly fantasy, in the fan fiction mold, that poses the question: What if Harry Styles, the British megastar and former frontman of One Direction, fell madly in love with a hot 40-year-old mom? In this universe, the Styles character is Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the British frontman of a five-member boy band called August Moon.

Hathaway plays Solène Marchand, an art gallery owner whose arrogantly useless ex-husband, Daniel (Reid Scott), buys v.i.p. meet-and-greet tickets for their 16-year-old daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin), and her two best friends, all of whom were huge August Moon fans … in the seventh grade.

The event is at Coachella, and Daniel is set to take the teenagers but backs out at the last second, citing a work emergency. Solène reluctantly agrees to take them, and while at the festival, mistakes Hayes’s trailer for the bathroom. They meet, it’s cute, and you can guess what happens next.

Or can you? It was clear about 10 minutes into the movie that what was required for enjoyment was to surrender to the daydreaming, and so, with very little internal protest, I did. How could I resist? Solène is smart, competent, kind and secure; she has great hair and a great wardrobe; and most important, she seems like a real person, even if the situation in which she finds herself greatly stretches the bonds of credibility.

More than once, I was struck by how authentically 40 Solène seemed to me — a woman capable of making her own decisions, even ones she thinks might be ill-advised — and how weirdly rare it is to see that kind of character in a movie. She has a kid, and friends, and a career. She reads books and looks at art, and she is flattered by this 24-year-old superstar’s attention but takes a long time to come around to the idea that it may not be a joke.

Solène also feels real shame and real resolve in the course of the winding fairy tale story, which predictably has to go south. But most of all, she’s in a movie that doesn’t try to shame her, or patronize her, or make her appear ridiculous for having desires and fantasies of her own. She’s just who she is, and it’s simple to understand her appeal to someone whose life has never been his own.

Directed by Michael Showalter, who wrote the adapted screenplay with Jennifer Westfeldt, “The Idea of You” succeeds mostly because of Hathaway’s performance, though she and Galitzine spark and banter pleasurably (and he can dance and sing, too). It tweaks the novel in a number of ways — Hayes is older than the book’s character, for one thing — and also seems to implicitly know it’s a movie, and that movies have a strange relationship with age-gap romances.

In fact, that’s one of its strengths. Several times, characters remark on the double standard attached to people’s judgment of Solène and Hayes’s relationship, hypothesizing that in a gender-swapped situation, people would be high-fiving the older man who landed the hot younger star. Sixteen years looks like a lot on paper, but in the movies, at least, it is barely a blip.

That musing is interesting enough, if a familiar one. More fascinating in “The Idea of You” is its treatment of the cage of celebrity. Hayes seems mature compared with his bandmates and the girls who follow them around, but he’s also clearly stuck in some kind of arrested development. And I do mean stuck: He is self-aware enough to tell Solène, plaintively, that he auditioned for the band when he was 14 and not much has changed beyond his level of fame. He wants a life beyond the spotlight, badly.

And that’s just what he can’t get. Neither can Solène, nor, eventually, anyone around her. The idea of living a quiet life might obviously be out of reach, but the added elements of tabloid news and rabid fans unafraid to treat Hayes as if they know him make things far worse. The film starts to feel a little like the tale of a monster, but the monster is parasociality, encouraged by the illusion of intimacy that the modern superstar machine relies on to keep selling tickets and merch and albums and whatever else keeps the star in the spotlight.

It’s probably coincidental that “The Idea of You” comes on the heels of Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on which she strongly implies that her carefully cultivated fandom has made her love life a nightmare. But spiritually, at least, they’re of a piece — even if the origins of the film’s plot seem as much borne of parasociality as a critique of it. And that makes Hathaway’s performance extra poignant. She’s been dragged into that buzz saw before. And somehow, she’s figured out how to make a life on the other side of it.

The Idea of You Rated R for getting hot and heavy, plus some language. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. Watch on Prime Video .

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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The Idea of You review – Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine spark in crowd-pleasing romcom

A single mum and a boyband heart-throb make sweet music in Michael Showalter’s precision-tooled adaptation of Robinne Lee’s bestseller

F rom the crackling Coachella meet-cute between 40-year-old single mum Solène (Anne Hathaway) and 24-year-old boyband heart-throb Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), to the on-point wardrobe choices (she’s chic but not try-hard; he’s adorable in a grey ombre mohair cardie), to the lavish stage shows, to the sparking chemistry between the pair: this adaptation of Robinne Lee ’s romantic novel is a sleek, precision-tooled crowd pleaser. Some of the music is insipid (although Galitzine, performing his own vocals, acquits himself soulfully). Elsewhere, though, there’s an unexpectedly abrasive quality to Michael Showalter’s romcom.

Solène is enviably poised, the kind of woman who rarely feels the need to apologise for herself. But while the film’s message, that women over 40 have every right to romantic fulfilment, is empowering, it also acknowledges that finding love with an impossibly pretty, sweet-natured pop star comes with its own unique set of challenges. That said, this adaptation wisely departs from the novel’s downbeat conclusion and permits Solène and Hayes a ray of hope for the future.

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Movie Review: In ‘The Idea of You,’ a boy band is center stage but Anne Hathaway steals the show

This image released by Prime shows Nicholas Galitzine, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Prime via AP)

This image released by Prime shows Ella Rubin, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Prime via AP)

This image released by Prime shows Nicholas Galitzine in a scene from “The Idea of You.” (Prime via AP)

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In the warmly charming rom-com “The Idea of You,” Anne Hathaway plays a 40-year-old divorcee and Silver Lake art gallery owner who, after taking her teenage daughter to Coachella, becomes romantically involved with a 24-year-old heartthrob in the boy band August Moon. They first meet after she mistakes his trailer for the bathroom.

There are a few hundred things about this premise that might be farfetched, including the odds of finding love anywhere near the porta johns of a music festival. But one of them is not that a young star like Hayes Campbell ( Nicholas Galitzine ) would fall for a single mom like Solène (Hathaway).

Solène is stylish, unimpressed by Hayes’ celebrity and has bangs so perfect they look genetically modified. And, most importantly, she’s Anne Hathaway. In the power dynamics of “The Idea of You,” Hayes may be a fictional pop star but Hathaway is a very real movie star. And you don’t forget it for a moment in Michael Showalter’s lightly appealing showcase of the actor at her resplendent best.

“The Idea of You,” which debuts Thursday on Prime Video, is full of all the kinds of contradictions that can make a rom-com work. The highly glamorous, megawatt-smiling Hathaway is playing a down-to-earth nobody. The showbiz veteran in the movie is played by Galitzine, a less well-known but up-and-coming British actor whose performance in the movie is quite authentic. And even though the whole scenario is undeniably a glossy high-concept Hollywood fairy tale, Showalter gives it enough texture that “The Idea of You” comes off more natural and sincere than you’d expect.

The only thing that really needs to make perfect sense in a movie like “The Idea of You” is the chemistry. The film, penned by Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt from Robinne Lee’s bestseller, takes its time in the early scenes between Solène and Hayes — first at Coachella, then when he stops by her gallery — allowing their rapport to build convincingly, and giving each actor plenty of time to smolder.

Once the steamy hotel-room encounters come in “The Idea of You,” the movie has, if not swept you away, then at least ushered you along on a European trip of sex and room service. At the same time, it stays faithful to its central mission of celebrating middle-aged womanhood. The relationship will eventually cause a social media firestorm, but its main pressure point is whether Solène can stick with Hayes after her ex-husband ( Reid Scott ) cheated on her. This is a fairy tale she deserves.

While Showalter ( “The Big Sick” ) has long showed a great gift for juggling comedy and drama at once, “The Idea of You” leans more fully into wish-fulfillment romance. That can leave less to sustain the film, which has notably neutered some of the things that distinguished the book.

The May-December romance has been shrunk a little. In the book, the singer is 20. Given that Galitzine is 29 and the 41-year-old Hathaway is no one’s idea of old, this is more like a July-September relationship. In the book, the daughter (Ella Rubin) is a huge admirer of the pop singer, adding to the awkwardness, but in the movie, August Moon is “so 7th grade” to her.

There are surely more interesting and funnier places “The Idea of You” could have gone. But Hathaway and Galitzine are a good enough match that, for a couple hours, it’s easy to forget.

But the most convincing thing about “The Idea of You”? August Moon. The movie nails the look and sound of boy bands so well because it went straight to the source. The original songs in the film are by Savan Kotecha and Carl Falk, the producer-songwriters of, among other pop hits, “What Makes You Beautiful,” One Direction’s debut single.

That connection will probably only further the sense that “The Idea of You” is very nearly “The Idea of Harry Styles.” The filmmakers have distanced the movie from any real-life resemblances. But one thing is for sure: With August Moon following 4(asterisk)Town of “Turning Red” (whose songs were penned by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell ), we are living in the golden age of the fictional boy band.

“The Idea of You,” an Amazon MGM Studios release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for some language and sexual content. Running time: 115 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

Luminate Streaming Ratings: ‘The Idea of You’ Rises to No. 1 Spot on the Movies Chart for May 3-9

By Selome Hailu

Selome Hailu

• Luminate Streaming Ratings: ‘The Idea of You’ Rises to No. 1 Spot on the Movies Chart for May 3-9 4 hours ago
• ‘Constellation’ Canceled at Apple TV+ After One Season 6 hours ago
• ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ Renewed for Season 3 at Fox 9 hours ago

“ The Idea of You ” was the most-streamed movie of the May 3-9 viewing window, per Luminate . The movie, starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, was watched for 714.2 million minutes between May and May 9, its first full week of availability on Amazon Prime Video.

Up from its No. 5 position on last week’s chart, which was recorded after only one day of streaming for the movie, this translates to 6.2 million views when divided by its runtime. By that metric, it actually comes behind the week’s No. 2 movie, Jerry Seinfeld’s “Unfrosted,” which hit 684.4 million minutes watched and 7.4 million views in its first full week on Netflix.

Popular on Variety

In views, though, "The Roast of Tom Brady" was the winner. The 179-minute Netflix live special debuted at No. 2 with 1 billion minutes watched, or 5.6 million views.

After two weeks as the No. 1 and No. 2 title, "Fallout" and "Baby Reindeer" moved down to No. 3 and No. 4. "Selling the OC" debuted in fifth place with 341.4 million minutes watched on Netflix, while "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" debuted in sixth with 319.1 million minutes.

The No. 7, No. 9 and No. 10 spots went to repeat titles: "The Asunta Case," "The Circle" and "Knuckles," while "Evil" debuted as the eighth place title with 239.2 million minutes watched.

(Disclosure:  Variety  and Luminate share a common owner in PMC.)

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