The Love Hypothesis Review: Romantic Comedy is a Cute but Unambitious Experiment

The Love Hypothesis, like its main characters, is attempting to answer a key question via experimentation. Can a story originally published as a pre-Rise of Skywalker Reylo fanfiction (Not a joke) before being turned into a wholly original 2021 romance novel work as a standalone romance movie in a 2026 streaming space absolutely crowded with films of its type? The answer is surprisingly yes, to a point. The premise is solid, the emotional beats work, and the cast sells the material, but it never feels like it manages to get out from under its own source material no matter how much it wants to.

What is The Love Hypothesis about?

Credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Our story centers on Olive Smith, played by Lili Reinhart, a PhD candidate too focused on her biology research to invest in an old crush on fellow student Jeremy, played by Nicholas DuVernay. However, her best friend Ann, who has recently developed feelings for Jeremy, is not convinced, so Olive impulsively kisses the first guy she runs into to prove she’s moved on and help Ann and Jeremy get together. And that guy just happens to be Dr. Adam Carlsen, played by Tom Bateman, a notoriously ruthless and overly demanding professor (They’re in different departments, so it’s cool).

That one improvised kiss leads to a highly elaborate and mutually beneficial fake relationship between the two. But as the line between facade and reality begins to blur, will their love be able to truly blossom? Or will it simply prove to be a failed experiment?

The Love Hypothesis Review

Photo: Philippe Bosse

The best way to describe The Love Hypothesis is as a series of cute little moments between the characters. There is technically an ongoing plot with stakes, conflict, and a climax, but even the movie knows that’s not what the audience is here for considering when the time comes to get serious about the drama in Act 3, they blow through it as quickly as possible. And as a series of cute moments, it works. If you’re a sucker for quirky romance tropes, they play the hits and play them well.

Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman have genuine chemistry throughout (pardon the pun). The way they banter, bounce off each other, and ultimately come together feels authentic. However, it is clear that this comes down to how good the two are as actors more so than the script being particularly remarkable. Like I said, the storyline exists as a checklist of romantic scenarios and if all you need is two attractive people crossing items off that checklist in an effective way, The Love Hypothesis certainly does the job there.

Photo: Philippe Bosse

And for a lot of this, that was all I needed. The banter is genuinely funny, and I found myself getting emotionally invested as both characters learned to work through their issues and open up to each other. But once you start to look deeper than that, and you kind of have to given the film’s nearly 2-hour runtime, the cracks start to show. For one, for as much as of a noble effort as the supporting cast is putting in, particularly Rachel Marsh as Anh, the supporting characters feel woefully underwritten and underutilized.

Even the otherwise solid lead romantic dynamic starts to feel a little flimsy when you realize there just isn’t that much to Olive and Adam. Again, the actors manage to mostly carry it to the finish line, but much of the character motivation and backstory that feels like it should be there and the movie wants us to think is there gets filled out by vague monologues and vibes rather than anything concrete. I get the sense that at least some of these issues trace back to the story’s origins as a Reylo fanfiction.

Photo: Philippe Bossé/ Prime Video © Amazon Content Services LLC

Now, I’m not one to disparage fanfiction. I think the medium gets a bad rap in general, there’s plenty of great stories to be found if you know where to look, and it’s criminally underrated as a creative learning/practice tool: a way to explore different character dynamics and plot scenarios without the heavy lifting of worldbuilding and character establishment, since all that’s already been done by the source material. Full disclosure, I myself have been writing Amazing Digital Circus fanfiction for the past couple months in my spare time and not only have I enjoyed myself, but it has also helped me feel more confident as a narrative writer.

But The Love Hypothesis isn’t a Star Wars AU, at least not anymore. It’s an original story whose characters and plot need to be able to stand on their own. Yet the film keeps expecting the audience to fall back on seeing Olive and Adam as Rey and Kylo Ren. Their physicality, the way Adam’s theme in the score feels like the Imperial March or the First Order theme, even the Kylo Ren equivalent being named Adam is likely just a reference to Adam Driver. I’ll give credit that I ship these two more than I ever shipped Reylo, but I’m a FinnPoe and ReyRose shipper who thinks Kylo shouldn’t have been redeemed. That’s not exactly a high bar.

Is The Love Hypothesis worth watching?

Photo: Philippe Bosse

The Love Hypothesis is technically well-put together, the two leads put in very good work, and when it allows its characters and unique premise to shine, it’s genuinely compelling. But too much of it remains not nearly as fleshed out as it could be because it doesn’t fill in the blanks that its original version didn’t need to. As a fun bit of romantic fluff, it’s a good time. But it could’ve been so much more if it had simply let itself experiment.

The Love Hypothesis premieres on Prime Video September 23.

The Love Hypothesis Review: Romantic Comedy is a Cute but Unambitious Experiment