By Makayla Flenoury
On Sept. 23, Prime Video released the movie adaptation of “The Love Hypothesis.” Ali Hazelwood published the romance novel in 2021, and it spent over 40 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.
“The Love Hypothesis” was the first book by Hazelwood I read, and I have loved her work ever since. I am a sucker for contemporary romance. Hazelwood writes in a way that keeps the story and characters from feeling corny (well…), and the chemistry from feeling forced, while still delivering a well-developed plot. She adds many elements that make her books unique, like text between characters and titled chapters (a lost art nowadays).
My high school self was very excited for the movie adaptation. I even reread the novel in preparation, and I’m glad I did. I never would have been able to see the changes they made in the movie. I was very disappointed by the movie’s interpretation.
The movie started well. It seemed like it was following the book quite well. The beginning of the movie was almost the same. They followed very similar dialogue, and then the movie continued.
“The Love Hypothesis” follows Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart), a Stanford Ph.D. candidate researching early, affordable and non-invasive detection methods for pancreatic cancer. Dr. Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman), is a feared Stanford professor whom everyone hates.
They find themselves in a fake-dating situation to change their reputation.
Olive lies to her best friend, Anh Pham (Rachel Marsh), about going on a date because Anh liked their mutual friend Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), but Anh refused to go out with him since Jeremy and Olive had gone on a couple of dates before. Olive tried telling Anh that she doesn’t have any feelings for him, but Anh didn’t believe her. That leads to Olive lying about going out with a different guy when she’s actually staying late in the lab.
While at the lab, Olive sees Anh down the hallway. Olive panics and kisses a random guy who happens to be there. That guy happens to be Dr. Adam Carlsen, the university’s most hated professor and a known jerk. The two go back and forth for a bit. Olive didn’t want to explain why she kissed him, and Adam threatened to file a Title IX complaint unless she did.
That’s how the two start fake-dating. Adam agreed to the arrangement because Stanford considered him a flight risk and froze his research funds. He thought a serious girlfriend would make them believe he had a reason to stay. That’s how the two start fake-dating, and that was about the only thing the movie got right.
The rest of the movie went completely off script.
The movie made the story seem younger, like two undergraduate college students rather than two Ph.D. graduates studying scientific research. They added two different party scenes that were not in the book and completely skipped over multiple scenes that added to the main characters’ relationship. It was detrimental to the story. There was no build-up or chemistry at all between the two.
Adam and Olive are opposite; however, their relationship is very lighthearted and filled with banter despite Adam’s reputation. In the movie, that does not exist at all.
They made Adam’s character a bland guy with zero social skills. He seems like he’s constantly straining, like talking physically hurts him. Adam is not like that at all. I don’t feel like there’s much insight into Olive’s character either. Yes, we see more of her than Adam, but not much.
If you haven’t read the book, it’s very hard to tell what is truly happening.
Toward the end of the plot, something happens to Olive. I think the way it happens, plus what happens after, is important. But the movie does not follow that order at all. In the book, one of Adam’s best friends, Dr. Holden, who plays an important role in that situation, is not in the movie at all.
There are several other details that the movie changes that I think take away from other important characters and smaller themes within the book. In a way, the movie only focuses on Adam and Olive, but not in a good way. The movie felt very rushed and low effort.
If you want to know Olive and Adam’s story, read the book. It’s a very fun read and much better than the movie. I would give the movie a 4.5/10.