‘The Idea of You’ review: Anne Hathaway’s sexy romance is better than you’d expect

Anne Hathaway’s career in Hollywood began 23 years ago with a family movie about every teen girl’s ultimate fantasy — her geeky character discovered she was actually royalty.

Now 41, the actress has delivered a second dose of impossible escapism with “The Idea of You,” an, ahem, steamier, R-rated flick clearly made for the older millennials who obsessed over “The Princess Diaries” back in the aughts.

Her latest fizzy project instead realizes the dream of every bored woman in their 30s and 40s: She plays an exhausted single mom who has a fling with a famous, 24-year-old British boybander. 

And why not? What fun.

Anyway, I suspect that aspirational viewers of “The Idea of You,” a decadent diversion that’s based on the popular novel by Robinne Lee, would much rather jet set around Europe with Harry Styles than live in a moldy 300-year-old palace and cut ribbons. Just a hunch.

Directed by Michael Showalter without too much sentimentality or cheese, the guilty-pleasure rom-com (emphasis on rom) is elevated by Hathaway’s layered performance as a swept-off-her-feet California mother that goes well beyond the confines of its supermarket pulp storyline.

She’s believable in a totally implausible plot, and never overacts even when the circumstances all but beg her to.

Hathaway plays Solène Marchand — a “Fifty Shades of Grey” name, if I ever saw one — a 40–year-old art gallerist who is forced to drive her daughter Izzy to Coachella when her ex-husband bails on the bonding trip.

While Izzy (Ella Rubin) and her pals wander off to another stage, their chaperone stumbles into a trailer wrongly thinking it’s a bathroom and comes face-to-face with Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine) of a One Direction-esque pop band called August Moon. 

Sparks fly — but so does Solène. Smitten, Hayes does some sleuthing, locates her gallery in Silver Lake and shows up unannounced. And thus begins an unlikely, and dramatic, celeb-and-normie courtship. 

Galitzine, who is suddenly the star of every movie (“Bottoms,” “Red White and Royal Blue,” “Cinderella”), was shrewd casting for the suave rocker. Because Hathaway is so well-known and recognizable, it’s easier to get lost in the yarn when her love interest is a less-famous, albeit chiseled, face. 

The pair has sizzling chemistry together.

They canoodle at the Essex Hotel in New York, and then he invites her to join him on tour in Paris and Barcelona, while Izzy is away at camp for a month. 

Little does she know that what she gets up to in the sheets will end up in the rags. Gossip papers and websites begin posting paparazzi photos of the pair, and she becomes an international lightning rod. 

The film, with a smart script by Jennifer Westfeldt, is a sort-of reverse “Notting Hill,” but without the ‘90s shimmer of the Richard Curtis-penned comedy. And with a lot more crying. 

For instance, social media didn’t exist back in 1999, so “The Idea of You” explores, with a gentle touch, the darker and more invasive side of 24/7 fame. 

Some scenes with the woman’s jackass ex-husband (Reid Scott) come off false. But those are rare blips in an otherwise charming movie.

Playing Solène was a strong choice by Hathaway. People often bemoan the demise of quality romantic comedies (or, in this case, an effervescent romance).

But what it usually comes down to is an actor, director and writer who treat the material with respect instead of pumping out assembly-line, groaner nostalgia-bait (see Meg Ryan’s “What Happens Later.” Or, rather don’t.). 

In large part due to Hathaway’s human performance, “The Idea of You” is a lot more than just a grabby idea.