This is a critique, not a review; I assume you’ve either seen this movie, or don’t mind major spoilers.

Once again, I am fully topical – here in November publishing a critique of a movie that came out in February!

But despite being a Netflix subscriber and a romance blogger, I somehow didn’t hear of this movie until a few weeks ago.

Maybe the problem was the terrible title – Players?? Wasn’t that a recent tv show? It doesn’t exactly scream romance, now does it.

This year, a couple of high-profile streaming romances have shared a certain theme: A slightly older woman falls for a younger celebrity, to the displeasure of her young adult daughter.

So, hooray??

Really, I do applaud the older woman representation which is probably long overdue. But, I’m not convinced putting all your eggs in the mother-daughter conflict basket is really the way to go in a romance.

It’s funny how not-fun the The Idea of You is considering it’s probably the purest wish-fulfillment fantasy I’ve ever seen.

Okay, I hear you wondering, isn’t all romance wish-fulfillment?

Yes, to a degree. It’s not unusual for people to dream of love and a happy ending, and romance provides readers with a way to live and relive that kind of wish.

And I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with that! Escapism really isn’t a problem, unless it’s somehow getting in the way of your real life. (And I don’t think it gets in the way very often.)

So why am I making a big deal about wish-fulfillment in The Idea of You?

I shall explain.

I didn’t think I’d like this movie.

I disliked the trailers – they featured mostly action scenes, lame action humour (most of which does not appear in the film, btw), with a small side helping of mild, low-conflict romance.

Plus, I think I’ve become suspicious of all A-list action-romances since The Lost City and Shotgun Wedding, which were both pretty ‘mid’ (as my son would say).

But, hey Mikey, I liked it!

Ok, it may be a stretch to say we all love those cheesy Christmas romance movies (think Hallmark). But clearly a lot of us like them, or they wouldn’t make approximately 5 million each calendar year.

So, for you Grinch’s (before he turned nice) out there, here’s my list of 7 reasons why we love those cheesy, horrible movies.