The big age gap debate: Will Anne Hathaway’s new film change opinions about older women dating younger men?

Age gap rhetoric is unavoidable – it shaped the two biggest films of 2023 and is the theme of Anne Hathaway’s new film ‘The Idea of You”, But what is it about an age gap that triggers such hatred?

'The Idea of You' starring Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway. Photo: Prime Video

Kate Demolder

In the first week of March, the trailer for The Idea of You, a project that has been labelled a Harry Styles-fanfic, dropped. In it, Anne Hathaway stars as Solene Marchand, a 40-year-old divorced mother who has a chance encounter with 24-year-old boyband lead Hayes Campbell, played by Nicholas Galitzine, at Coachella.

Based on Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel of the same name, the pair find themselves vividly drawn to one another, with the trailer showing a media fixation on their relationship.