A young woman, Bea, is in a cafe and needs to use the bathroom. But the barista won’t let her, because she has to be a customer.

A strange guy, Ben, claims to be Bea’s husband, and buys her something so that she can go to the restroom. The two then fall in love. Ben even shows Bea his apartment.

Not long after, though, Ben talks about Bea in mean ways to his friend, Pete. That leaves Bea disappointed.

Later, the two meet Bea’s sister, Halle, who is engaged to Pete’s sister. Claudia. Bea tells Ben that she overheard him talking about her insensitively. Their relationship ends. But then they get a save-the-date message for Halle and Claudia’s wedding, which is 2 years away.

That amount of time has passed when Bea and Ben go to Australia for the wedding. They stay at Claudia and Pete’s parents’ house. They also meet a few locals, Beau and Innie, and have fun with them on the beach and in the ocean for a bit.

That night, Claudia and Halle are having a little engagement party. Bea and Ben get into an argument and accidentally set a plant decoration on fire–thus ruining the event. From that point, they decide to tell everyone else that they are just friends.

They continue to hang out with Beau and Innie, such as touring a local wooded area. While everybody else is together, Bea and Ben end up separated from the group. Ben experiences bugs crawling on him. So, he takes off his clothes to scratch the irritated areas since they’re that bad.

Not long after, Bea runs into her ex, Jonathan. She explains to her parents that she had a legitimate reason to break up with him and how she felt sorry for doing that to him. 

But that eventually leads to her parents finding out that she dropped out of law school. And they are disappointed in her for that.

Ben eventually wants to be completely separate from Bea.

There are many aspects I admire about this movie. One is how Claudia and Halle chose Australia as the place for their wedding. I feel like the writers thought outside the box for that. Oftentimes, people choose places like the Caribbean and Hawaii for their destination weddings. So, deciding on Australia as the wedding location is more unique. At the same time, though, its climate and land can be kind of similar to those of the Caribbean or Hawaii.

Another feature I enjoy is the relationship between Ben and Bea. I consider it an interesting approach to having them be “just friends” after breaking up with each other.

And what I really love is how the couple getting married is both lesbian and interracial. Halle is white, and Claudia is black. I am so passionate about this type of representation and using it in a movie–something that would never have occurred or been acceptable before the mid-2010s.

I found both Pete and Beau to be funny. This is a romantic comedy, so there has to be some humor.

One pitfall, however, is how the conflict isn’t exactly the most intense. I thought it was fine for the first half, especially since it made Bea stronger and not a whiny damsel-in-distress. But after that, the film got a little bit boring.

That being said, there were a couple of scenes with more tension, such as characters arguing. And the characters did remain well-developed. I especially liked it when Pete was talking to a wild koala during the tour with Beau and Innie.

Another part that amused me was when Ben threw his clothes down the cliff, and they landed on trees. So, he walked naked after that.

Which brings me to my next thought: this movie has some nudity as well as sexual content and swearing. It is rated R. But for those who are generally uncomfortable with nudity, it doesn’t really show too much other than from the back. And there are only a few scenes with it.

Overall, I liked Anyone But You. My main issue is the level of conflict being too mild during the second half. Other than that, this is a good movie.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.