As I dragged my mother and sisters to the cinema for the Australian Boxing Day release of Anyone But You, I made sure to manage their expectations: “Remember, this is not meant to be a groundbreaking piece of cinema. This is a light-hearted watch where the lead actors are simply eye candy. Brace yourselves – it will be bad but hopefully in the good bad-romcom kind of way.”

The opening of the film confirmed my predictions with the clichéd meet-cute of Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) at a coffee shop (where else?). The long night of instant intimacy that follows is as forced and cheesy as the toastie that Ben prepares for his leading lady (despite the fact that he never cooks).

“Their love-at-first-sight, instant-soulmate bond is the exact type of flimsy, nauseating trope that many romcoms fail to successfully execute”

Indeed, the exposition of the romcom featured the precise amount of cringe and clumsiness that I had prepared myself for. The dialogue between characters as they suddenly and dramatically realise that they are sharing parts of themselves never before divulged to another romantic prospect is borderline unwatchable. Likewise, their love-at-first-sight, instant-soulmate bond is the exact type of flimsy, nauseating trope that many romcoms fail to successfully execute.

But when the movie finally turns towards its fundamental premise and the magical first date ends in a disaster of miscommunication, so emerges a classic enemies-to-lovers plot beloved by all romcom connoisseurs. Forced back into each other’s lives by the wedding of Bea’s sister and Ben’s lifelong friend, Sweeney and Powell perform a passionate mutual loathing characterised by scathing back-and-forth insults and extreme pettiness. This unearths a wholly believable and victorious chemistry, which finally anchors and propels the film in the right direction. Powell’s cocky charisma paired with Sweeney’s cool allure is a match made in romcom heaven. Indeed, the controversial will-they-won’t-they marketing campaign between the real-life actors that preceded the film’s release was just a taste of their on-screen rapport.

“The movie is a love-letter to the humorous flaws and flimsiness of its very own plot”

Leaning on the film’s source material, Much Ado About Nothing, is also a saving grace for Anyone But You after a rocky start. Apparent in the web of comical characters who make mischief by interfering in Bea and Ben’s relationships, Shakespeare’s voice resounds throughout the film in moments that are profoundly self-aware and metatheatrical. Though the reason that Ben and Bea end up pretending to be a couple is rather unexplained, the film’s multiple layers of performance are constantly highlighted to demonstrate that this movie knows exactly what kind of silly genre it belongs to. Direct quotes from Much Ado periodically appear on-screen and in dialogue to remind the audience that this romance was contrived by The Bard. When Shakespeare’s lines are uttered by Ben and Bea’s meddling loved ones or Ben and Bea themselves, viewers are alerted to the innately unserious and light-hearted nature of a genre that Shakespeare himself revelled in.

Another way in which Anything But You embraces ridiculousness is through hilarious acts of physical comedy. These include Bea’s rigorous inspection of Ben’s naked butt in the middle of the Australian bush amid a spider attack and the cast-wide rendition of Natasha Bedingfield’s deliciously cheesy song ‘Unwritten’ that concludes the film. The movie is a love-letter to the humorous flaws and flimsiness of its very own plot. And it is precisely this infectious sincerity that wins the audience over.

While the Shakespearean elements of Anyone But You may be nostalgically reminiscent of movies like Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You, the film leans slightly too heavily into the “com” of romcom to match the timelessness of its predecessors. Nevertheless, Anyone But You is a far cry from the hysterical nonsense of She’s The Man. Instead, this Shakespeare adaptation sits comfortably (and knowingly) in the sweet spot between cinematic excellence and sheer silliness.

In the end, Anyone But You exceeded my expectations. It was, in fact, not a “bad romcom in the best kind of way” but a great romcom precisely because it celebrates what can easily become the pitfalls and weaknesses of the genre. Light-hearted fun with eye candy galore, brace yourself for a new comfort romcom to add to the rotation of classics.