**Warning: contains spoilers for The Love Hypothesis on Prime Video**
The chemistry between the two leads isn’t the only thing fizzing away in this science-flavoured romcom. That’s right – if you thought the genre had exhausted every setting and formula going, think again.
Adapted from a novel that began life as Star Wars fanfiction, the story takes us to Stanford University, where grad student Olive (Lili Reinhart) is chasing funding for a pancreatic cancer project and a coveted research spot at Harvard, when she gets tangled up with moody professor Adam (Tom Bateman – who in real life is married to Daisy Ridley, whose character Rey was the basis for that fanfiction).
Best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) is the love of Olive’s life – they spend all their time together and form an alliance against the cocky men who fill their seminars. So, when the guy Olive has a crush on is revealed to be into Anh, Olive makes it her mission to stay out of the way. Which is how, in a panicked attempt to convince Anh she’s got other things on her mind, Olive kisses the first guy she sees: the Mr Darcy-esque Adam, a brilliant scientist dubbed “Dr Evil” by his students.
The two establish there’s a mutual benefit to their faking a relationship, so the “let’s pretend we’re dating” trope rears its head once more. Adam takes a while to warm up, but once he’s disarmed by Olive’s charm – and a sympathetic backstory – a flicker of humanity breaks through, and she’s hooked.
View Green Video on the source websiteBut the film isn’t all stolen kisses and romcom fluff. From the off, there are some interesting points to be made on consent, power dynamics and women in STEM, though these are never fully fleshed out beyond lines like, “We’re women; you can talk over us and take credit for our ideas later.” And sometimes they’re downright clumsy.
The leads’ first kiss (if we can even call it that) is followed by an awkward conversation in which Adam threatens to file a complaint against Olive for not getting his consent. This is then referenced at the close of the film, as the two profess their true feelings for one another, but the jovial undertone surrounding what’s actually quite complex and serious territory doesn’t come off – and it flattens what is otherwise an effective enough ending. I mean, “May I kiss you… with your consent?” isn’t exactly a closer to rival “You had me at hello.”
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Even more awkwardly handled is the subplot that sees Olive herself become a target of sexual harassment and blackmail by her prospective Harvard professor, who threatens to ruin her career if she doesn’t engage in sexual relations with him. It’s surprisingly dark for an otherwise tame teen/young adult romcom; worse still, it in turn underlines something unsettling and hard to ignore in the dynamic between Adam and Olive.
He’s 34 years old, an established professor with several grad students of Olive’s age, including her roommate. She’s 26, at the start of her career and under financial pressure, with no family and only one friend, in Anh. Both are consenting adults, and the screenplay is keen to establish that no rules are being broken – but it sits uneasily, not least given the fake relationship was Adam’s idea in the first place.
Of course, there’s a happy ending: Adam turns out not to be the monster he first appeared, but a kind man who will protect Olive, regardless of the impact. The two end up at the same university, which conveniently reframes their romance on more equal footing, and Anh even joins them in the same faculty.
But as she comes out the other side of a love triangle between two warring “science bros” – a rock and a hard place, rather than equally solid options – Olive’s arc doesn’t read as a triumph so much as the incidental fallout of other people’s bad behaviour. As with so many of these stories, she’d probably have been better off just being honest with her best friend from the start.
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