The straight-to-streaming romcom is a fascinating genre. It’s hard to think of many that have been able to justify their existence beyond the inevitable first weekend streaming figures, with plenty of them making Hallmark originals feel like masterpieces. Thankfully though, Claire Scanlon’s The Love Hypothesis, despite following an abundance of familiar genre tropes, manages to buck the trend for the most part, providing one of the more entertaining romcoms of recent memory.
The film centers around Olive (Lili Reinhart), a PhD student at Stanford University researching pancreatic cancer. She finds herself hopelessly infatuated with fellow student Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), except Jeremy doesn’t quite feel the same. Instead, he wants to date Olive’s best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh), creating a rather uncomfortable love triangle that none of them want to be a part of.
However, there’s a solution, well sort of. Olive selflessly says she’s moved on, allowing Jeremy and Anh to date without any lingering tension between them. The issue is that Olive doesn’t actually have anyone lined up. That is until Dr. Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman), commonly known on campus as Dr. Evil, finds himself in the right place at the right time. After a rather humorous “entanglement” between the pair, they agree to a mutually beneficial fake relationship. The arrangement helps Adam keep his research funding, while Olive gets to see if love does indeed blossom between Anh and Jeremy.
Of course, like most movies within the genre, the fake relationship was never going to go as planned, and The Love Hypothesis definitely plays into that. It’s a movie that follows a fairly predictable formula, but there’s a reason that formula exists. When done well, it can provide a really fun and fulfilling experience. The film knows exactly what it is and is self aware enough to recognize what audiences want from this type of story, leaning heavily into those expectations and delivering the satisfying experience they crave.
The vast majority of its success comes down to creating characters audiences want to root for. In Olive, we are given a female lead who is sweet, caring, understanding, and selfless, but also has a lot more to her than meets the eye. The love interest equally has to be worth investing in. They need an arc that allows the romance to build organically, while having enough personality to make them someone you gravitate towards on their own merit. Once again, the movie gets that right with Adam.
What makes The Love Hypothesis stand out even more from the usual streaming romcom, though, is that the supporting characters genuinely make a difference to the story. All too often, supporting players are underdeveloped, underutilized, and ultimately forgettable. Here, Anh especially is of paramount importance to the film’s success. She’s a fully realized character with an arc of her own, while her friendship with Olive comes across as authentic. It ensures that the decisions made early on seem organic rather than simply existing to move the plot forward.
Of course though, audiences are tuning in for the central romance, and it’s a near slam dunk thanks to the work of Reinhart and Bateman. Admittedly, to begin with, their chemistry isn’t immediately apparent, nor does it seem like it might necessarily grow. But thanks to some solid writing and the strength of both performances, that connection gradually becomes believable and the romance between the two is one you really want to get behind.
Reinhart leads the way. She has a very good understanding of what is required to make the role successful and, while not delivering anything out of the ordinary, does exactly what is needed to make Olive an enjoyable protagonist. Bateman, despite his shaky American accent, matches Reinhart for the majority of the movie, making them an extremely strong onscreen partnership.
There are also some enjoyable supporting performances. Rachel Marsh is given the most material to work with and makes sure she utilizes every second she gets to leave a lasting impression. It’s a performance that, while not a leading one, gives the impression that she would be more than capable of taking on a bigger role. Duvernay is solid in a more limited capacity but brings the necessary chemistry to make his relationship with Marsh’s character believable.
It also helps that, unlike many romcoms before it, The Love Hypothesis commits to its R rating. Too many films of this nature play things relatively safe and, as a result, lose some of their authenticity. Here though, Scanlon isn’t afraid to include the sex and language you’d expect from a real life situation of a similar nature. It never risks becoming offensive, instead simply attempting to portray the messiness of real life, and ultimately that approach pays off.
While by no means containing anything completely new, The Love Hypothesis proves that it doesn’t necessarily have to in order to be successful. Claire Scanlon knows how to deliver a crowd pleasing romcom and has just enough working in her favor to make this a good time. That is exactly what the film ends up being.
