TL;DR – A very straightforward romantic comedy, with a touch more going on under the hood than you would first suspect.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription used to watch this film.

The Love Hypothesis Review Introduction

Today we are looking at a truly interesting film. On the surface, it is a very well-executed, if straightforward, romantic comedy. Two oddball characters who have nothing in common find love through the prism of shenanigans. We have gotten Solo Mio, One Night Only, & Finding Emily with the same underlying structure this year already. However, the moment you dig even a centimetre under the surface, it becomes one of the more fascinating films I have seen all year.

So, to set the scene, Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart) is not having the best day when some expired contact lenses make her whole world blurry on the day of her graduate school interview. But disaster averted, Olive makes it into Stanford University, where she meets her bestie Anh (Rachel Marsh), her unrequited crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), and roommate Malcolm (Jaboukie Young-White), which is good because Olive is all alone in her life outside of university. The one thing Olive wants is to work in Dr Thomas Benton (Arty Froushan)’s lab, and he just let her know that he will be teaching in Stanford for the next month. It is a major opportunity, or a walking disaster waiting to happen. Which is what is happening when she cons Anh into thinking she is in a relationship, so Anh feels okay dating Jeremy, which leads to her maybe kissing ‘Dr Evil’ Dr Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) to keep up the ruse, and shenanigans follow as Dr Carlsen agrees to set up the pretence of a relationship for the review committee … making a love hypothesis.

The Rom in Com

This is a very well-worn romantic comedy trope: two people pretending to be in love who actually catch feelings by the end. You have seen it. I have seen it. However, just because we are on well-trod ground does not mean it can’t be entertaining. Well, The Love Hypothesis, if nothing else, is entertaining. There are a lot of fish-out-of-water moments that are delightfully amusing to watch. Because they are committing a ruse, there is always the fun of tension over whether they would be caught out, and I do like that Anh clocked the tea right from the start. Thankfully, all the characters are interesting, even more interesting once you, work out, who they are meant to be under the hood. On that front, it is wild that they cast Tom Bateman in this film. Everyone is entertaining; well, one character is very not entertaining, but that is the point, so it works. The pacing is fine, and the story hits all the markers you would expect it to do.

University Life

The things it does get right about academia are the very subtle and not-so-subtle way academics can fundamentally devalue other arguments out of sheer hubris more than anything else. Interrupting someone while they are explaining their research to undermine them, I have witnessed it happen in real time. The power that academics have to shape people’s careers for better or worse is also on point. Though, if I was being honest, it might overstate just how many academics outside of health and rehabilitation sciences who can successfully pull off shirtless ultimate frisbee. Then we get to the ethical minefield that is the professor dating a PhD student. The film tries to lampshade it away, but no, there would be more than a few HR meetings, so much paperwork, just so much paperwork.

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend The Love Hypothesis? Yes, we would. If you enjoy romantic comedies, then this will feel both familiar and a good time. They do hit all the points you expect, but they hit them well.  

Have you watched The Love Hypothesis? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked The Love Hypothesis, we would recommend 10 Things I Hate About You to you because it’s a classic for a reason, and it also understands finding love in a hopeless place.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Love Hypothesis
Directed by – Claire Scanlon
Screenplay by – Sarah Rothschild
Based on – The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Music by – Laura Karpman
Cinematography by – Matthew Clark
Edited by – Tia Nolan & Kim Boritz-Brehm
Production/Distribution Companies – MRC, Bisous Pictures, The Cantillon Company, Amazon MGM Studios, & Amazon Prime
Starring – Lili Reinhart, Tom Bateman, Rachel Marsh, Jaboukie Young-White, Nicholas Duvernay, & Arty Froushan
With – Jeananne Goossen, Aladeen Tawfeek, Kenny Wong, Daniel Brochu, & Alexandra Petrachuk