Sydney Sweeney‘s stranglehold on pop culture continues, and we could not be happier about it. Her most recent claim to fame is Anyone But You, and naturally viewers have questions about where this delightful rom-com came from.
Following her thankless role in Sony’s Madame Web, Sweeney has gifted fans with a chance to see her comedic side in the Netflix-bound romance. (Per GQ, the superhero debacle was a business decision to get the rom-com made.) In Anyone But You, Sweeney plays Bea, a law student who, after a meet-cute with Glen Powell’s Ben, thinks she has gone on the perfect date. However, through a series of unfortunate events, their burgeoning romance soon turns sour.
That should be the end of the story, right? Of course not. The two meet again, on a destination wedding in Sydney, of all places. Both characters harbor resentment toward one another over their spark fizzling out, and while on the trip, they also have to contend with other romantic concerns. Bea’s parents are trying to get her back together with her ex-fiancé while Ben is trying to make his own ex jealous. In the most classic trope of all, the two decide to embark on a fake dating scheme so they can each get what they want. Fun!
Naturally, executing their plan comes with its share of challenges and doesn’t always go as intended. But given that this is a rom-com, Bea and Ben are ultimately reminded of what attracted them to each other in the first place, nudging Anyone But You gleefully into that warm, gooey rom-com territory we’ve seen so many times before. But does that mean the film is based on source material we actually have seen before?
Is Anyone But You based on the oldest enemies-to-lovers story of all time?
“Fake dating” and “enemies to lovers” are classic tropes for a reason ⏤ namely because they’re interesting to watch and read about. Anyone But You is, as you may have guessed, loosely adapted from a classic comedy that employs both with equal expertise: William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Like the characters of the 2023 film, the play revolves around bickering ex-lovers who, through a combination of convoluted events, fall back in love. In the context of Anyone But You, Bea’s classic counterpart is Beatrice while Ben’s is Benedict.
Similarly, the play revolves around the romance of another couple, Claudio and Hero. Claudio becomes manipulated into thinking that Hero is not a maiden, which offers the main drive of the play. Anyone But You alters this slightly with counterpart couple Halle (Hadley Robinson) and Claudia (Alexandra Shipp), who are about to get married. Though integral components of the film, the women take a back seat to Bea and Ben’s drama, and the slight conflict they have comes at the end of the film when they create a fake fight to bring Bea and Ben together. Anyone But You isn’t a direct adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, but it takes joy in incorporating some beloved hallmarks.
Ultimately, all’s well that ends well, with a grand gesture that brings everyone together in romantic harmony. Don’t go watching this film as a cliff notes version of Much Ado About Nothing, but fans of the play will likely delight in this inspired contemporary quasi-rendition.
