The Idea of You

What’s it about?

Based on the contemporary love story of the same name, The Idea of You centres on Solène (Anne Hathaway), a 40 year old single mom who begins an unexpected romance with 24 year old Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet.

The facts

• Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick)
• English language
• Runtime: 117 minutes
• Amazon Original

Why did it get this rating?

This film was self-rated by Prime Video. You can find out more about self-rating by streaming providers here.

Sexual themes

In this romance story we see a loving relationship develop between a young man and an older woman. Their first intimate moment is built up with a lot of sexual tension. When they do get together there’s passionate kissing, we see his hand going down the front of her skirt as she moans loudly, and we see clothes being torn off, but with no up-close sexual detail. It’s obvious to an adult viewer that they have sex more than once when staying together but the intimacy is shown as consensual and fun, with a lot of laughter and play, and nothing sexual is shown in detail.

Offensive language

The language is the strongest content in the film, with offensive language used for emphasis and also for humour. Lines such as “it’s f*cked up”, “f*ck boi”, “give a sh*t” and “sh*thole” are used in context. In one scene where a character is looking at trolling comments online we can see the word “whore” spelt out.

Further information

Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?

Streaming platforms, R-ratings and tricky conversations (blog)

The neutral zone: talking with young people (blog)

What’s really going on there? Bullying IRL vs on-screen (blog)