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Fans of romantic comedies haven’t been left wanting throughout the 2026 movie schedule, and Netflix subscription holders have really been benefiting. Over the last year, the streamer has released sweet titles like Voicemails for Isabelle, Office Romance and People We Meet on Vacation. However, rom-coms are also coming from other places, and that includes Amazon’s Prime Video. To that point, Prime just released a new movie that could provide some competition and, so far, it’s receiving solid reviews.
September 23 marks the release of The Love Hypothesis, a new book-to-screen adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s 2021 novel of the same name. The film stars Tom Bateman and Lili Reinhart as a professor and PhD student, respectively, who initiate a faux relationship to prove their assumptions about romance. As of right now, the reviews for the film are mostly positive, with critics sharing some warm sentiments about the Claire Scanlon-helmed film. IGN’s Tara Bennett sums up her appreciation of the movie as follows:
At its heart, The Love Hypothesis is a gentle satire of romance tropes, especially enemies-to-lovers, and a celebration of female friendship. Both sound potentially hokey, but this mostly female creative team understands what made the book a hit and knew how to translate it here. They let the tone be earnest yet firmly tongue-in-cheek, and allow their cast to weave their magic — especially Reinhart and Bateman — giving rom-com lovers the exact chemistry that makes the genre work.
A rom-com with an enemies-to-lovers story may not be new, but such a tale can still delight. To that point, William Bibbiani of TheWrap also shared a favorable take of the film in his own review. Although Bibbiani notes that the film doesn’t offer too many fresh elements, he doesn’t seem to mind that it hits on familiar notes to lay out its narrative:
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‘The Love Hypothesis’ has no new material, and that’s OK too. Find me a greatest-hits album that doesn’t include the hits and I’ll show you a greatest-hits album nobody wanted. Claire Scanlon, the director of the breakout streaming rom-com ‘Set It Up,’ knows how to follow a formula and make it feel fresh. Not new, just fresh. And fresh is enough.
Lucky fans who were able to see Love Hypothesis early were also high on the film, though not everyone is a fan. That’s the case with Fresh Fiction’s Courtney Howard, who doesn’t feel as though Reinhart and Bateman have the necessary chemistry to pull off such a flick. She also adds this:
Sentiments and circumstances that lean on female empowerment in a male dominated field come across as pandering when they could’ve had something sincere, even meaningful to say. THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS isn’t cheesy in a harmless, cringe way. It drastically disappoints when the individuals involved, who have done good work before, should have combined in a perfect formulation.
Nevertheless, Collider’s Carly Lane is quite pleased with this particular Hazelwood adaptation. She also poses a keen question:
Ultimately, The Love Hypothesis is a successful experiment led by Reinhart and Bateman, and another mostly solid addition to the rom-com genre — as well as the romance-novel-to-screen-adaptation pipeline. Now that even more of Hazelwood’s novels have been tapped for adaptation, not just on Prime Video but elsewhere, the remaining question is whether anything in the works will come close to reaching the high bar that’s already been set with this starting point.
We’ll have to wait and see if subsequent adaptations manage to hit the bar but, at the very least, it seems Prime Video has a winner on its hands with this one. Although Netflix has really carved out a place for itself within the rom-com sphere, it’s fair to say that Prime has done so as well over the past few years with films like Upgraded and Red, White & Royal Blue. I’m curious as to how Love Hypothesis – which currently has an 81% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes – will perform in its streamer’s standings in the weeks to come.
Regardless of whether it’s Prime or Netflix delivering funny and romantic films, rom-com lovers should just be pleased that the genre is being strongly served this year. So do yourself a favor and check out this latest offering, The Love Hypothesis, using a Prime Video subscription.
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