The Hating Game
Director: Peter Hutchings
Writer: Christina Mengert
Based on: Sally Thorne’s novel
Cast: Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Damon Daunno, Sakina Jaffrey, Corbin Bernsen, Yasha Jackson, Sean Cullen
Seen on: 21.9.2023

Plot:
Lucy (Lucy Hale) and Joshua (Austin Stowell) work at a publishing house that was recently merged from two different publishers with two very different philosophies. Lucy hailed from the one, Joshua from the other – and their differences couldn’t be clearer. They hated each other even before they had to compete for the same promotion, but now things are really coming to a head. As tensions rise between them, so does their attraction to each other.

I watched The Hating Game mostly for Lucy Hale and she was charming and beautiful as usual. But the rest of the film was a bit too much standard fare to really win my heart.

I’m not the greatest fan of the enemies to lovers trope – it’s just not my cup of tea. The Hating Game is very clearly that, so if that is more your kind of thing, you will probably enjoy the film more than I did. Hale and Stowell certainly bring the story and chemistry between the characters to life and do the romance justice.

But there were some tropes here that actively annoy me, too – like Lucy’s continued mistrust of Joshua despite him having proven himself, thus jumping to absurd conclusions based on overheard snippets of conversation. And just the fact that we have once again a film where the male lead has his own feelings figured out so much more quickly than the female lead which is just something I see way too much in RomComs.

The film is also concerningly white and straight, the little diversity that there is seems added as an afterthought (I haven’t read the novel this is based on, but from what I gather the movie actually improved on its diversity, so make of that what you will). Generally speaking, the film is a little been there, seen that. You will have no difficulties guessing all the story beats and character development well in advance.

If you are looking for a cute romance fix, this will probably do the trick, but I have to say that it probably won’t be a movie I will return to when I am in the mood.

Summarizing: not bad but not great.