Romantic comedies are at their best when they make you completely surrender to them, and The Love Hypothesis makes that remarkably easy. Funny, heartfelt and bursting with chemistry, it delivers all the yearning and ridiculousness you could want while finding a surprising amount of emotional depth along the way.

Claire Scanlon’s adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling novel understands exactly why so many readers fell in love with this story in the first place. It’s funny, heartfelt, frustrating, romantic, and, most importantly, feels incredibly genuine.

The premise remains wonderfully ridiculous. Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart) is a PhD candidate who, after realising her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) has feelings for Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), impulsively kisses the first man she sees in an attempt to prove she has moved on. Unfortunately for Olive, that man happens to be Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman), the intimidating professor notorious throughout the department. One awkward encounter eventually becomes a mutually beneficial fake relationship, and you can probably work out where the hypothesis goes from there.

Lili Reinhart is quite simply the perfect Olive. There is so much warmth to her performance, but Reinhart also brings a real depth to the character that makes Olive feel like more than your typical rom-com protagonist. Her intelligence, awkwardness, fierce loyalty and tendency to get completely inside her own head all translate beautifully from book to screen. Even in the film’s broader comedic moments, Reinhart keeps Olive grounded enough that you immediately care about her.

Tom Bateman is just as well cast as Adam. Initially stoic, awkward and almost impossible to read, watching those walls gradually come down around Olive is one of the film’s greatest pleasures. Bateman never suddenly turns him into an entirely different person either. Instead, there are little smiles, softer looks and increasingly natural moments between them that reveal everything Adam would probably rather not say.

And their chemistry is absolute perfection. From their painfully awkward early encounters to the far more tender and intimate moments that follow, Reinhart and Bateman make Olive and Adam incredibly easy to root for. These are ultimately two science-loving nerds who fit together wonderfully, and the film understands that the fun comes from watching them slowly realise it too.

Book readers will also be very aware of a certain infamous chapter. Without giving anything away, the film certainly doesn’t shy away from it. Judging by the gasps around the screening, I doubt many fans will be disappointed. Yet surprisingly, it wasn’t Olive and Adam that gave me the film’s most emotional moment.

The relationship between Olive and Anh feels even more significant here than it did to me while reading the novel. Their friendship is the reason this entire story exists in the first place. Olive’s ridiculous decision to fake a relationship isn’t born from some desperate need to find love herself; she does it because she wants her best friend to feel completely comfortable pursuing the person she likes.

Read more of our film reviews →

There is one particular moment between them that is truly impactful. Underneath all the romance, The Love Hypothesis is also a story about sisterhood and the families we find for ourselves. Anh isn’t simply Olive’s funny best friend existing on the sidelines of her love story. She is her family, and Marsh and Reinhart make that relationship feel beautifully lived-in. Reinhart has similarly described Olive’s loyalty to Anh as fundamental to the story, noting that Anh gave Olive friendship and family when she felt emotionally alone. That emphasis gives the film so much heart.

Arty Froushan also deserves praise as Tom. Without venturing anywhere near spoiler territory, he perfectly captures a particular kind of arrogance that will be painfully recognisable to many women working in male-dominated industries. Some of his scenes had our entire screening audibly groaning, which probably tells you everything you need to know about how effectively Froushan plays him.

And that’s perhaps what surprised me most about the adaptation. It never forgets the science behind the romance. Olive isn’t simply looking for Adam; she’s trying to build a career in academia, and the frustrations and inequalities she encounters within that world matter to who she is. Of course, The Love Hypothesis still knows exactly what everyone has turned up for.

It embraces the fake dating, awkward encounters, yearning, humour and romantic tension rather than trying to distance itself from the genre that made Hazelwood’s novel such a phenomenon. Scanlon isn’t trying to reinvent the romantic comedy. She’s simply made a very good one. It also continues what has become a particularly strong period for romance adaptations on streaming.

As a book adaptation, The Love Hypothesis retains the heart of what made Hazelwood’s story so beloved while allowing Reinhart and Bateman to make Olive and Adam their own. As a romantic comedy, it is warm, funny, sexy and wonderfully sincere. The hypothesis has been tested. Rom-coms really are back.

★★★★

On Prime Video from September 23rd / Lili Reinhart, Tom Bateman, Rachel Marsh, Nicholas Duvernay, Jaboukie Young-White, Arty Froushan / Dir: Claire Scanlon / Amazon MGM Studios