The Love Hypothesis

THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS (2026)👩🏻‍💻

THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS was tailor-made for the BookTok and fanfic girlies who wish they had a brooding, emotionally unavailable man they could turn nice just for them.

I got pitched this movie by a friend this summer, who sold it to me as Star Wars fan fiction about Kylo Ren and Rey that got repurposed into a rom-com… so obviously, I had to check it out.

Ali Hazelwood is the mind behind the fan fiction story, originally titled Head Over Feet, which was eventually transformed into a best-selling novel and scrubbed of its Star Wars DNA.

The repurposed story follows Olive (Lili Reinhart), a Ph.D. candidate who impulsively kisses her department’s most intimidating professor, Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman), to convince her friends that she’s romantically involved with someone and not just depressingly, hopelessly single. Funny enough, Adam needs a fake relationship too. He has to convince his colleagues that he’s settled down and worth the long-term investment, creating the perfect excuse for these two to publicly fake a romance, and take the “fake it till you make it” trope for a test drive.

As someone who loves a good rom-com and has also been the fake “boyfriend” for a few friends trying to make an ex jealous, I get the appeal of this. But it lays the trope formula on so thick that you start to realize why some things are better left on the page than brought to the screen.

The writing really carries this movie because the words have this flirtatious, playful energy that makes you feel like sparks are supposed to be flying, but then you see the two leads on screen (one of whom happens to be Daisy Ridley, aka the actress who played Rey in Star Wars,‘ real-life husband), and that energy just doesn’t translate.

There’s barely a spark between them, let alone the chemistry the story is trying so hard to convince you is there. Lili Reinhart ends up having more chemistry (and arguably a better story) with her best friend, played by Rachel Marsh, than she does with Tom Bateman.

But the bed chem, on the other hand… Shoutout to whoever choreographed that hotel scene, because that was one of the sexiest, yet still tasteful, intimate scenes I’ve seen on screen in a minute.

I say all of that knowing the right crowd will absolutely eat this up and make it their whole personality for the rest of cuffing season.

Just because something isn’t for me doesn’t mean there isn’t an audience for it. This is by no means a bad movie. It actually does a perfectly serviceable job of capturing a group of stressed-out college students trying to survive academia, friendship, love and everything in between.

If you’re looking for one-line claims of devotion, suffocating on your feelings to do right by the person your heart chooses, and finally unmasking your feelings in a grand crescendo of love, then give this a shot. 

Enjoy!

6/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr45mins

Where: Now Streaming on Prime Video

The Richmond Reviewer The Love Hypothesis Review - September 23rd, 2026.