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Jeanne du Barry  Jeanne Vaubernier (Maïwenn), a courtesan, seduces Comte du Barry (Melvil Poupaud), and Duke of Richelieu (Pierre Richard), but causes a scandal when she falls in love with King Louis XV (Johnny Depp).
The screenplay by writer/director Maïwenn and her co-writers, Teddy Lussi-Modeste and Nicolas Livecchi, squanders its opportunity to become a poignant character study and a sweeping love story. The potential is there in the premise because Jeanne comes across as an interesting character. She comes from a life of poverty and gradually joins high society while working as a prostitute. The men she meets use her, but she also uses them to climb the social ladder, so it's essentially a two-way street. Everything changes when she meets and falls in love with King Louis XV who's unaware that she's a courtesan. Not surprisingly, others at the palace aren't pleased about her relationship with the king. Unfortunately, the romance between them remains underdeveloped which means that the beats don't land and the dramatic tension wanes because it's hard to care about whether or not they'll end up together. What do they see in each other? The screenplay fails to provide enough of a window into their inner life. It's just going through the motions without stopping to let the scenes breathe and the characters to come to life. What about some comic relief to provide some much-needed levity? The plot becomes repetitive as Jeanne continues to sleep with men without having much of a character arc. Why keep the audience at such a cold distance from her? The same goes for King Louis XV. Moreover, voice-over narration feels distracting, lazy and unnecessary. The performances are mediocre at best. None of the actors or actresses manage to rise above the vapid screenplay, but at least they all exude some charisma. There's some nudity, although the sex scenes aren't very graphic or well-shot. Poor Things is better in that regard. The film's major strengths are its costume design and set design which are exquisite and even breathtaking to behold at times. Clearly, a lot of attention and money was spent on the production values alone, and it paid off. At a running time of just under 2 hours, Jeanne du Barry is shallow, tedious and dull despite visually stunning costume and set design. It's a feast for the eyes, but not much for the heart, mind and soul.
 The Idea of You  40-year-old Solène (Anne Hathaway), a single mom, lives with her teenage daughter, Izzy (Ella Rubin), and owns an art gallery. One day, she takes Izzy to Coachella where the band August Moon is playing. She meets Hayes (Nicholas Galitzine), a 24-year-old pop star who happens to sing in the band. They flirt in his trailer before he visits her art gallery, purchases all of the artworks and pursues a romantic relationship with her. She tries to keep their May-December relationship a secret from her ex-husband, Daniel (Reid Scott), and her daughter.
Based on the novel by Robinne Lee, the screenplay by writer/director Michael Showalter and co-writer Jennifer Westfeldt is fundamentally about a troubled, divorced woman who's just turned 40 and lacks the emotional maturity to know better than to start a relationship with a 24-year-old man. What does she see in him besides his good looks and youthfulness? What kind of role model is she setting for her daughter? What does he see in her for that matter? He's got issues, too, for pursuing an older woman. Does he have mommy issues? These two people are not really in love, and any emotionally intelligent audience member will be able to figure out that their relationship is toxic and will fail in the long run, especially once Daniel and Izzy find out the truth. The screenplay makes Solène seem very naive, i.e. when Hayes shows up to her art gallery with paparazzi gathering across the streets with their cameras and she asks him if that happens a lot. She doesn't ask it as a rhetorical question, but that's what it should be. The Idea of You has little to nothing to say about love, divorce, heartbreak, motherhood or loneliness. How introspective are Solène and Hayes? What have they learned from their mistakes? The answers to those questions aren't clear because the film barely even explores them. Perhaps the screenplay's systemic problems come from the source material, but that's no excuse for how it tries to sugar-coat Solène's toxic relationship with Hayes and remains unafraid to be emotionally unflinching. The third act doesn't earn its uplift with an eye-rolling, fairytale ending that's not even remotely believable. Anne Hathaway gives a warm and charming performance and tries her best to add poignancy to her role, but there are only a handful of scenes are genuinely heartfelt. She and Nicholas Galitzine have very little chemistry together which most likely has something to do with the shallow, witless and contrived screenplay. The cinematography is decent, and there's nothing exceptional about the production design. What does stand out, though, is the lively soundtrack. At an overlong running time of 1 hour and 55 minutes, The Idea of You is a cheesy, contrived and vapid romantic dramedy. Any comparisons to Notting Hill does a disservice to that classic romantic comedy that sparkles with wit.
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