Yes, big-budget adult cinema may be back in the form of “Oppenheimer,” “Napoleon,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but let us not discredit the return of the studio romantic comedy!

“Anyone but You” stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney as two people who hate each other but pretend to be a couple at a destination wedding in order to appease their friends and family. Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Michelle Hurd, Dermot Mulroney, Darren Barnet, Rachel Griffiths and Bryan Brown also star, as Will Gluck directs and co-writes.

Following “Ticket to Paradise” last fall and Jennifer Lawrence’s “No Hard Feelings” this summer, rom-coms are slowly but surely making their return. “Anyone but You” doesn’t feature many laugh-out-loud moments or sizzling chemistry between its leads, but its throwback vibes are often enough to make it worth a mild recommendation.

Glen Powell is probably best known for playing aviators in the likes of “Hidden Figures,” “Devotion,” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” but he has also flexed his rom-com muscles with the likes of “Everybody Wants Some!!” and “Set It Up,” so “Anyone but You” isn’t new territory for him. He is obviously doing a lot of the heavy lifting simply with his looks, but he also has some good charm and comedic timing, too. His chemistry with Sydney Sweeney–who showed earlier this year in the underrated “Reality” that she has some dramatic chops of her own–is only ok, they won’t have many folks calling them the next Ryan Gosling/Emma Stone combo, but there have been way worse pairings before. Coming off his over-acting in “Scream VI,” Dermot Mulroney also manages to squeeze a few chuckles as the standard father of the bride type.

A film like this is really going to be more about vibes and the sitcom situations, and for a while they’re light enough to make for a breezy watch. There are a handful of clever jokes and set-ups; writer/director Will Gluck is no stranger to the genre having made the likes of “Easy A” and “Friends with Benefits.” But before we even get to the wedding (where, if you’ve ever seen a movie, you know where that’s where all the problems will come to a head) the film begins to run out of steam. The script really starts to run out of ways to justify characters fighting and/or deceiving one another, and doesn’t even have any good jokes to distract you from it all.

“Anyone but You” is fairly harmless and certainly familiar, and those who just want to watch a cheesy romcom of old should get their kicks, though don’t go in expecting a new classic. It doesn’t feature much more than “blow nose out your nose” level humor or anything beyond “oh look at those two attractive people doing attractive things” romance, but I didn’t feel like I wasted my time watching it, and in 2023, when so much fluff is dumped on streamers as “content” instead of as fully-realized films, maybe that’s enough.

Critics Rating: 5/10