The Love Hypothesis has finally arrived on Prime Video, and the book lovers who made Ali Hazelwood’s romance novel a BookTok sensation are getting a chance to see how the adaptation holds up. Claire Scanlon directs the film, which started life as Star Wars fanfiction pairing Daisy Ridley’s Rey with Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. That version was edited and published as an original novel, then reworked by screenwriter Sarah Rothschild for the big screen. Ridley’s husband, Tom Bateman, plays the intense male lead, while Lili Reinhart stars opposite him as the likable heroine.
The Love Hypothesis arrives at movie screens with a complicated history. It began as fanfiction, which is not always the most promising starting point for a film adaptation. But the question remains: does this particular adaptation do enough to prove its worth?
The Setup
Olive Smith, played by Reinhart, is a PhD student at Stanford University who devotes herself to researching pancreatic cancer, a disease that took her mother’s life when she was a teenager. She has no close blood relatives, so she finds family and connection at school in Anh Pham, played by Rachel Marsh. Anh’s easy extraversion balances Olive’s social awkwardness, and the two are best friends and roommates. Malcolm, played by Jaboukie Young-White, rounds out their circle.
Olive has trouble with anxiety around other people, so she finds it difficult to get closer to her crush, Jeremy, who is played by Nicholas Duvernay. The situation worsens when Jeremy asks out Anh, who returns his feelings but refuses to act on them out of loyalty to Olive.
Determined to help her best friend find the happiness she deserves, Olive claims she’s seeing someone so she’s totally over Jeremy. She kisses the nearest man to sell her lie and ends up agreeing to fake date Stanford’s resident “Dr. Evil,” Adam Carlsen, played by Tom Bateman. Adam is widely disliked for his high standards, harsh delivery, and general lack of warmth both in and out of the lab.
What The Movie Leaves Out
Stanford marks Adam as a flight risk and freezes his funds after he gets a tempting job offer from his friend, Dr. Tom Benton, played by Arty Froushan, at Harvard. Adam thinks a fake romance with Olive will persuade his department that he has settled into campus life enough to win the grant needed to carry on his groundbreaking work. The terms of their arrangement are set for a mutually advantageous experiment, and they race toward a destination neither of them could have predicted: true love.
Maddy Casale’s review notes that the film runs 112 minutes and that some passages from the book have been cut or changed. Still, she argues that fans of the novel will find this a sincere effort to bring the story to the screen.
Who Stole The Scene
Marsh has a natural, emotionally open presence that makes her scenes impossible to ignore, and Anh Pham steals them again and again throughout the film. The reviewer hopes we get to see more of her after this.
The passage includes a single scene of intimacy, which involves nudity, with bare bums and breasts on display.
The Chemistry Question
The friendship between Lili Reinhart and Rachel Marsh as Olive and Anh carries genuine chemistry and a sweet bond that anchors the film’s emotional core. Their romance with Adam, by contrast, is not without its peaks and valleys.
The challenge of making Adam feel sympathetic and likable on screen is a real one, and the reviewer credits Bateman’s approach with giving him a distinctly human quality. By playing him as awkward, perhaps even neurodivergent, Bateman succeeds in humanizing his “Dr. Evil” persona.
The pairing of Bateman and Reinhart has genuine, buzzy chemistry together that makes their developing connection easy to believe. However, the final stretch of the film moves too quickly, leaving the conclusion of their story feeling somewhat unearned or unfinished.
Why The Reviewer Says It Works
The first two-thirds of the runtime draw you in and make you care about the characters. Fans of the book will find this genuine attempt to bring the novel to screen satisfying, according to the reviewer.
The reviewer attests that The Love Hypothesis isn’t exactly like the book, but that’s okay. Some moments are missing or altered, but overall, fans of the book will be pleased with this genuine attempt at making the novel work onscreen.
| Element | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Olive-Anh friendship | Believable, sweet bond | None noted |
| Olive-Adam romance | Fun banter, awkward chemistry | Last third feels rushed |
| Anh Pham performance | Perpetually charming | None noted |
| Sex scene | One scene, bare bums and breasts | Minor |
The Verdict
This movie delivers a delightfully cheesy romance built around standard romantic comedy devices, including found family and fake dating. The result is a satisfyingly pleasant watch that earns its keep, even if it shows some room for improvement. It remains a solid choice for a movie night.
The film has room for improvement, particularly in fleshing out Adam’s backstory and motivations. The reviewer notes that we learn little about Adam’s inner life — his thoughts, his feelings, his home life, or whether he has anyone close to him beyond sleazy Tom Benton.
Every strength and weakness adds up to a film that falls short of greatness but still delivers on its promise as a satisfying evening at home with a partner.
The Cast
- Lili Reinhart as Olive Smith
- Rachel Marsh as Anh Pham
- Jaboukie Young-White as Malcolm
- Tom Bateman as Adam Carlsen
- Nicholas Duvernay as Jeremy
- Arty Froushan as Dr. Tom Benton
Prime Video is currently hosting The Love Hypothesis, so viewers can stream it right now. Those who haven’t read the book yet might want to check it out and compare the novel’s narrative against the adaptation.
See the video the story is built around at Decider.
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