★★★

Charisma overpowers codswallop in Will Gluck’s Anyone But You, an immensely watchable, if throughly convoluted, bard-stardisation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. It’s a loose take on the sixteenth-century romcom, true, but no more so than were She’s the Man or 10 Things I Hate About You. Boy meets girl. Boy has massive misunderstanding with girl. Boy hates girl…and so on. There’s no confusing this fluff with the Kenneth Branagh adaptation but fans of gorgeous people doing gorgeous things in gorgeous places will find themselves no less thoroughly entertained.

In actuality, much as its script thuds, the film is surprisingly funny. There’s nothing here to drum up a belly ache but it’s a steady chuckle rate on offer. This is largely due to the film’s game leads – of boy meets girl fame. As Ben and Bea, Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell and Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney milk an effortless chemistry for all its comic potential. The perks of a good screen test. Certainly, it’s easy to see why illicit snaps from a steamy production set tongues wagging in the gossip columns. There’s never any doubt in the will-they-won’t-they but rooting for the former proves all too easy.

When a nervy Bea flees the morning after a sizzling first date, Ben gets the hump. Worse still, having changed her mind, Bea then gets the hump and all on returning to overhear Ben dismiss their liaison as ‘nothing’. Crumbs. Six months later, fate reunites the pair when boy’s bezzie mate meets girl’s sister and they decide to get hitched…in Australia. They still hate each other but contrivance soon dictates that Bea and Ben must fake hook up and gift prying eyes the illusion of budding love. This to give Bea’s ex a gentle cold shoulder and to prompt greenery in the eyes of Ben’s.

Other than a brief skit with a koala and a grand finale shot outside the Sydney Opera House, the Australian setting proves rather transcendental on the whole. What it does bring, however, is a bounty of sunshine and ample opportunity for semi-nudity. It’s a rare scene in Anyone But You that features a full roster of completely dressed characters. Such unobtainable beauty does rather limit the film’s quota of relatability. Imagine a slapstick Dior commercial and you’ve got it. There’s some amusing clifftop tomfoolery and a giggle worthy sketch involving fireworks and an ill-fated floral display. Each time, someone bares all.

In an admirable plug for deference, Gluck litters his screen with Shakespeare quotes. They’re everywhere. None too subtly either. Watch for the two line etched into a sandy gold beach and an imprint on a night club exterior. There’s a fun drinking game to be had when the film hits streaming. This would, at least, smooth over the clunkier edges of the script’s tin-eared dialogue, which often fails to replicate anything remotely akin to real human speech. ‘I feel like I’m hosting a party where we’re all playing parts in a play,’ says one character. ‘I don’t see faces, I just see souls,’ offers another.

Unfazed, Sweeney, Powell and company deliver even the weakest lines with stirring conviction. All appear to be having a riotous time, as a credits compilation attests. Anyone But You offers that rare example of a romcom when the fun overcomes the faults to achieve infection. It’s not good but I liked it.

T.S.