Prime Video’s The Love Hypothesis is officially streaming, and it has everything a rom-com fan could want: Lili Reinhart as Olive, Tom Bateman as Adam, fake dating, and 112 minutes of STEM lab tension. What it does not have, according to critics, is the heat that made Ali Hazelwood’s novel a phenomenon.
Slate’s Sex Reviews critics Rebecca Onion and Nadira Goffe both rated the movie’s sex scenes a 1 out of 10. The film includes a single sex scene, and it arrives at the 90-minute mark. For readers who remember the book’s explicit, kinky, trauma-informed storytelling, that’s a big swing in the wrong direction. As the critics put it, Prime wanted a rom-com, but The Love Hypothesis isn’t quite that.
There’s a bonus layer of internet lore here too. The novel began as Kylo Ren and Rey Star Wars fanfiction, and Tom Bateman, who plays Adam, is married to Daisy Ridley, the actress behind Rey herself. So the fanfiction-to-mainstream pipeline is fully operational.
Have you watched it yet? Sound off: did Prime play it too safe, or are you fine with a tamer take?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.