The Idea of You was one of the year’s most highly anticipated films. So when it finally arrived on May 2, there was always bound to be discourse about every little detail, from Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway’s magnetic chemistry and the One Direction comparisons to how much the film stays faithful to the 2017 novel it’s based on.
If you’ve watched the movie and read Robinne Lee’s book, you know that most of the same beats play out on page and screen. However, there are a few key changes, and the Idea of You book ending is different from the movie.
Here’s a breakdown of the surprising way The Idea of You departs from its source material. Of course, spoilers ahead for both!
Subtle Tweaks To Hayes & Solène’s Relationship
Like the film, Lee’s book begins with a chance encounter between Solène Marchand, a single mom and gallerist, and Hayes Campbell, a singer in the British boy band August Moon. However, in the book, it happens when Solène accompanies her daughter, Isabelle, to a concert — whereas in the film, as Hathaway told Jimmy Fallon, they’re at a music festival together and Solène’s daughter has actually outgrown her love for the band.
Another tweak is the age gap between the couple. Solène is 39 and Hayes 20 in the novel, but they are 40 and 24 on screen.
The Book’s Devastating Conclusion
Over the course of the book, Hayes and Solène’s relationship blossoms. But it also runs into several obstacles, such as disturbing hate mail from angry fans and derision that begins to affect Isabelle. Ultimately, citing their incompatible lifestyles, Solène ends things with Hayes. They get back together one more time. Hayes says he quit the band, but Solène decides that’s too great a price for their relationship.
She lies and says she never really loved him (“Maybe it was the idea of you,” she says) to ensure he gets the message this time. Hayes ultimately returns to the band and continues reaching out, but stops after a while.
Why The Movie Did Things Differently
If you’ve already watched The Idea of You, you know that it does have a similarly heartrending breakup scene. But unlike the book, the film ends with a peek ahead five years later, with Hayes revealing on The Graham Norton Show that he’s going to take a break from touring — and looks forward to seeing a special someone in Los Angeles. Ultimately, he walks into Solène’s gallery, and she’s happy to see him. It seems the timing, now, is just right.
Director Michael Showalter told Radio Times that he wanted to lean into a more “hopeful ending” true to the rom-com genre. “And so, we certainly could have ended the movie in a different way,” he said. “But for this story, we felt like a more uplifting ending was what would be most satisfying for our audience.”
Similarly, producer Cathy Schulman told the outlet that the team wanted to capture the “mood and the underlying kind of spirit” of the story — and Hathaway herself told The New York Times that the film is “about a woman healing her heart.” So it definitely makes sense that Prime Video’s The Idea of You leaves things on a positive note.
