‘The Idea Of You’ Ending Explained—How It’s Different From The Book

The anticipated new rom-com The Idea of You is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. If you’ve watched it through to the last scene, you may have noticed that the ending of The Idea of You differs from the book on which it’s based.

Starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, The Idea of You is adapted from Robinne Lee’s 2017 bestselling novel of the same name. The film follows the complicated love affair between a 40-year-old single mother (Hathaway) and Hayes Campbell (Galitzine), the lead singer of the popular boy band August Moon.

Ahead of the film’s release, some fans theorized on social media that The Idea of You was inspired by Harry Styles fan fiction. After all, Styles and Hayes share numerous similarities, like being in a five-member boy band, having a love for tattoos, and a history of dating older women.

But Lee debunked rumors that the book is based on fanfiction. In an essay penned for Time.com to correspond with the film’s release, she wrote: “Labeling it as ‘fluff’ or “’anfiction’—particularly when done by those who have not read it—is both reductive and dismissive.”

The author also denied that the book has a direct connection to Styles. “Assuming a novel with a fictional celebrity in a relationship must be based on an existing celebrity—in this case, the internet has decided, Harry Styles—is unimaginative at best and sexist at worst,” she wrote. In 2020, Lee told Vogue that Hayes drew inspiration from “Prince Harry-meets-Harry [Styles]”, ex-boyfriends, her husband, and “a dash” of actor Eddie Redmayne.

The Idea of You premiered on Prime Video on May 2. Director Michael Showalter took a few creative liberties when adapting The Idea of You into a movie, including changing the ending from the beloved book.

The Idea Of You Ending Explained

(Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Idea of You movie and book.)

In the novel, Solène decides to break up with Hayes because they are at very different stages in their lives. A few weeks later, while Hayes is on a break from touring, he shows up on her doorstep, upset about their split. They hook up, and he tells her he has quit the band.

But Solène cannot accept this and tells him he can’t end his career for her. She lies to him and tells him that she never really loved him but loved the idea of him. Hayes returns to his band and continues to call and text her, but she ignores him, and he eventually stops.

“And then one day, they stopped,” Lee concludes the novel. “Long, long before I had stopped loving him.”

But in the movie, Hayes and Solène call it quits mainly because their relationship and age gap are negatively affecting her teenage daughter, Isabelle. Hayes visits Solène, where she apologizes, and he tells her he loves her. They decide to reconvene after five years to revisit their relationship.

The movie jumps into the future, and during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Hayes announces that he is taking a break from touring. He plays the guitar and sings a song inspired by his romance with her. With Solène watching, he mentions that he has time off to visit someone special in Los Angeles.

Upon arriving in California, he enters Solène’s art gallery. It’s their first meeting in five years, and she’s happy to see him. The ending and what the future holds for them remain uncertain.

Why Was The Idea of You Book Ending Changed In The Movie?

Director Michael Showalter said that he changed the movie ending for The Idea of You to give audiences a hopeful ending for the two characters.

“There’s a very long history in romantic movies of changing the ending so that the two main characters are together at the end. There’s a bit of a pragmatic answer to this, which is that movie audiences just want to see at least that there’s some hope for these two characters at the end of the movie,” he explained to TV Insider.

Showalter continued, “We don’t have to tell the audience exactly how it ended. We’re not telling the audience exactly where things wound up. But we are at least giving the audience an opportunity to try to fill it in for themselves. As a fan of the genre, I love a romantic story that ends with the two main characters getting coffee because that tells me there’s hope.”

The Idea Of You is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.