The Love Hypothesis, released on Sept. 23, is a Prime Video film adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s wildly popular debut novel. Touted as a STEMinist romance, it follows Olive Smith, a biology PhD student, as she enters a fake dating relationship with Dr. Adam Carlsen, the biology department’s famed grumpy professor. Olive initiates the fake–dating situation to convince her best friend Anh to put herself out there and find love. However, Olive finds herself developing real feelings for Adam in the process.
While the premise might seem like a standard trope-filled romantic comedy, the book and movie are based on Star Wars, namely the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren. Known as Reylo, the pairing dominated the internet after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the franchise‘s seventh movie. This obsession spread to Hazelwood, a neuroscientist with a passion for writing. She then took to the internet to share her rendition of these two characters. Eventually polished and picked up by a publisher, The Love Hypothesis was born. In a fun turn of events, the novel’s cover art was drawn by lilithsaur, one of the first to make fanart for Hazelwood’s Reylo fanfictions, cementing the book’s fandom origins.
I am disappointed to say that The Love Hypothesis does not fully succeed at adapting Hazelwood’s novel. While it is a perfectly fine romcom for a casual viewer, having read the book, I felt it left gaps in the story and characterization.
The biggest offense to me was the excluding Holden, Adam’s best friend, and Hazelwood’s version of Poe Dameron from the Star Wars movies. Holden and Adam grew up together and shared their high school experience. No one knows Adam as well as Holden does, making him an important character who allows the reader a glimpse at a softer, kinder side before Olive unlocks it herself. Without this character, Adam is far more one-note. The viewer sees only his grumpy exterior, without inner monologues, childhood stories, or friendly banter. As such, he is a far less compelling romantic interest for Olive, who gets the bulk of the characterization in this iteration of the story.
Another gripe of mine with the movie was its lack of realism. Obviously, a fake–dating plot will never be realistic; who actually does that in real life? But Olive being a broke graduate student is an important part of the story and of who she is.
Her mother passed away from cancer when she was a teenager, motivating Olive to pursue cancer research as her profession, while also explaining the lack of emotional and financial support she has during this process. In the novel, she lives in a cramped apartment with one of her close friends, bikes everywhere to save money on transportation, and attends every seminar, workshop, and campus event that provides free food to avoid paying for a meal. This rounds her out and makes her relatable to a young adult audience that also understands the struggles of being a student.
Not all the changes, however, were negative. Olive’s best friend, Anh, serves a greater role in the movie, and I loved it. Their relationship drives the plot. It motivates Olive to fake date Adam; without Anh, she would’ve never done so. The movie also shows them joking around in class, watching reality TV, and attending parties, all the things that 20-somethings do with their friends.
However, despite this expanded characterization, the film made Anh’s identity more convoluted. In the novel, she is Vietnamese because Rose Tico, the Star Wars actress who Anh’s character was inspired by, has that background. However, the film producers cast a Filipina actress and changed the character’s identity to Filipina—which the film states multiple times in the film—despite keeping an incredibly Vietnamese name. This decision left a sour taste in my mouth, conflating all Asians as the same and interchangeable, without understanding the complex culture behind each identity.
Anh’s expanded role also ties into one of the main conflicts. In the book, Olive applies to a lab at Harvard, run by one of Adam’s close friends from college, Tom Benton. However, after accepting her, he accosts Olive at a conference, sexually assaulting her and suggesting that her success in academia is solely due to her relationship with Adam. Though traumatized, Olive is encouraged by her friends not to keep it secret, eventually informing Adam, leading to a dramatic confrontation between him and Tom.
The movie changes this slightly. Though she still faces vitriolic comments from Tom, Olive never faces him. After telling her friends, as in the book, Anh tells Adam instead of Olive. Anh even admits she’s not sure she should share this information, stripping Olive of her ability to make decisions and take control of her own life. While Adam still confronts and threatens Tom, the effect is no longer the same, not knowing if Olive ever wanted it to occur.
Ultimately, the film was fun; romcoms are my favorite genre, so I can never hate too much on a new entry to the canon. But after seeing the cast’s passion for the project and the press tour, full of glamorous, referential red carpet looks, I was really hopeful for another iconic film.
I loved The Love Hypothesis as a book and thought it could stand among some of my favorite romantic movies. While it isn’t, the movie still offers great depiction of friendship between two women in STEM academia. They bond and make sure to advocate for and support other women in their fields, a beautiful message for girls and young women who might fear challenges of pursuing a male-dominated area of study.
Hazelwood recently declared she is returning to Olive and Adam’s relationship through a sequel to The Love Hypothesis titled The Two-Body Problem, which is already set to be adapted into a movie. This announcement, along with Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman’s new Quinn audio, shows a bright future for romantic comedies, book adaptations, and more fanfiction on the big screen.