If not for a surprisingly romantic scene in the middle of this movie, I’d have slapped a lower rating on this review. But that moment in sight of the Sydney Opera House and the character driven moments while hanging in mid air are surprisingly romantic and kind of wonderful. Doesn’t save the movie from its own generic self, but it helped.

Anyone But You is about a couple who hate each other who – get this – pretend they are together to get their friends and family off their backs. They do this on a destination wedding in Australia… so pack your swim trunks and your bikinis because the movie is secretly about how hot Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are.

So much of this rom-com is super generic and makes very little effort to rise above a dozen similar films. I was sitting there in a darkened theater wondering what monkey’s paw wish landed this on the silver screen over a dozen other rom-coms this year. Maybe just the better than average helicopter budget, maybe trying to enshrine Sweeny and Powell as uber romantic leads, maybe there was a spot open in the schedule.

I found the first half of this flick mediocre and generic but it picks up in its second half with that Opera House scene (and the second best use of a Natasha Bedingfield ear worm since Easy A). And there’s some good (and sexy) romantic stuff that followed it. But the movie has to devolve back into the predictable, generic, and uninspired.

Too bad too since it had good instincts for how to turn this old hat plot into something. And sometimes it worked but more often it did not. Still, Glen Powel and Sydney Sweeny are beautiful… both Sydneys, in fact (but only one looks good in a bikini).

Score: 74