Prime Video's 'The Love Hypothesis' Is a Near-Perfect Rom-Com Experiment | Review

Within the larger rom-com renaissance that's happening right now, Prime Video's The Love Hypothesis is a pretty unique case. For starters, it's adapted from the New York Times bestselling romance novel by Ali Hazelwood, which actually started out as a piece of Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren) Star Wars alternate universe fanfic. There's even a bit of irony wrapped up in the fact that Tom Bateman — who is married to Star Wars' Rey herself, Daisy Ridley — plays the character who was originally inspired by Adam Driver's Sith Lord.

If you know what came before Prime Video's adaptation, you'll be able to spot all the ways screenwriter Sarah Rothschild and director Claire Scanlon lovingly wink at its origins — chief among them that Bateman is almost exclusively clad in head-to-toe black. But even if you have no idea how The Love Hypothesis began, you'll still be able to enjoy it for what it's evolved into: a thoroughly delightful rom-com led by a charming Lili Reinhart and a deceptively complex Bateman. While the film's third act does stumble in tying up every possible loose end, it doesn't detract from the joy of watching two people fumble their way through a fake-dating plot and all the very real feelings it stirs up in the process.

What Is 'The Love Hypothesis' About?

PhD student Olive Smith (Reinhart) has finally achieved her long-held dream of getting into Stanford. After losing her mother to pancreatic cancer, those personal stakes have only made her more driven to research new means of detecting the disease — now, she just needs to secure the necessary funding. Amidst the chaos of trying to fit in at a new school, Olive quickly strikes up a meaningful friendship with fellow student Ahn (Fallout's Rachel Marsh), while also initially nursing a crush on another peer, Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay). Yet when she notices that Ahn is waffling over whether to take her friendship with Jeremy to the next level, Olive realizes she'll need to convince her BFF that she doesn't have any romantic feelings for him anymore. Enter: a boyfriend whom she invents right on the spot. But one thing leads to another after a late night working in the lab, and Olive spontaneously decides to lock lips with the professor everyone on campus refers to as "Dr. Evil."

Dr. Adam Carlsen (Bateman) has achieved a reputation at Stanford for being harsh and overly critical towards students. He's definitely surprised by Olive's overture at first, but the next day of classes brings a fresh perspective — and with it, Adam's consent to play Olive's boyfriend for as long as it takes for Ahn and Jeremy to couple up themselves. He isn't coming to this decision from a purely altruistic place, though; he needs to convince the heads of Stanford's science department that he's here to stay, and if he's perceived to be putting down roots by way of a serious romantic commitment, they'll entrust him with a lab grant of his own. Bargain struck, Olive and Adam are essentially thrown into the deep end of fake dating — especially since Ahn had already spotted them kissing the night before — and not just on campus, either. While forced to go to greater and greater lengths to convince everyone around them that they're the real deal, the pair gradually begin to forget that their relationship has an expiration date. But what happens once their experiment ultimately wraps up?

'The Love Hypothesis's Many Strengths Make Up for Its Biggest Weakness

Honestly, when it comes to what The Love Hypothesis has working in its favor, the film makes that clear right from the very first scene. As someone who read Hazelwood's novel, I was initially lightly skeptical about whether Reinhart was the right actor to play Olive. But even the slightest misgiving disappeared as soon as she started bouncing off her fellow lead. Her character is sweet, whip-smart, and maybe a little idealistic, but what makes Reinhart's performance most endearing is her comedic timing, which includes an awareness of when to go big and when to let her scene partner shine with their own punchline.

Contrasted with that is Bateman, who initially feels almost too stiff in his portrayal of an admittedly rigid Adam, but who slowly peels back the character's layers as he and Olive become closer. In hindsight, it's a brilliant approach that lets the viewer glimpse more and more of his complexities and makes it easier to understand why Olive would end up falling for this guy for real. Together, Reinhart and Bateman's chemistry — not just on a believably romantic level, but also as a comedy duo — only gets better as the film progresses, infusing Olive and Adam's onscreen connection with vulnerability as well as a very welcome infusion of humor.

The Love Hypothesis also stands out simply because it doesn't forget about its supporting characters. So many rom-coms introduce a supportive best friend or a hilarious inner circle, only to abandon them in favor of the sparkly new love interest, but Prime Video's adaptation avoids that pitfall. Ahn is admittedly the catalyst that kicks off the story's fake-dating conceit in the first place, but the script arguably keeps her at the center of Olive's world, where she anchors several of the movie's most impactful turns. Marsh is a terrific counterpart to Reinhart in their scenes together, but she's also hilarious on her own, especially as Ahn starts to harbor her own suspicions about the legitimacy of Olive and Adam's romance.

And Jaboukie Young-White, as Malcolm, Olive's roommate, rises above the genre's all-too-common stereotypes, with room to deliver a performance that runs the gamut between humor and deeper emotion. While the situation with Adam gradually becomes more complicated, the film gives just as much space to the tough conversations between Olive and her two closest friends, emphasizing the importance of all her relationships, whether they're romantic or not. It would've been great to see more from Duvernay's Jeremy, especially since his potential crush on Ahn doubles as a cute secondary plotline, but the overall runtime seems to have resulted in some trimming.

The Love Hypothesis has so many strengths that its biggest weakness stands out a little more clearly. Those who have read the book know that nothing good can come of Olive crossing paths with the schmoozy Harvard professor Dr. Tom Benton (Daredevil: Born Again's Arty Froushan), a longtime friend and colleague of Adam's, but the film ultimately struggles with the third act's "black moment." In romance novels, the best authors are the ones who can successfully convince the reader that a happily ever after may not actually be possible at the book's lowest point. Yet the movie itself spends so much time introducing the leads, their fake-dating scheme, and the evolving emotional stakes that the third act has to shoulder the weight of resolving every single conflict. That's not to say the story doesn't reach a satisfying conclusion, or that the film doesn't follow the iconic narrative beats that you remember — but the way it ends might feel more abrupt for viewers in light of the journey they've just been on.

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.

The Love Hypothesis premieres September 23 on Prime Video.

Release Date September 23, 2026

Director Claire Scanlon

Writers Sarah Rothschild

Producers Elizabeth Cantillon

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  Lili Reinhart

  Olive Smith

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  Tom Bateman

  Dr. Adam Carlsen

Pros & Cons

• Lili Reinhart is a charming and hilarious lead as Olive Smith.
• Tom Bateman gives a deceptively complex performance, peeling back the layers of Adam Carlsen as the story goes on.
• The story never forgets about Olive's closest friendships, with Rachel Marsh and Jaboukie Young-White as strong supporting standouts.

• The film's third act struggles to tie up every narrative thread in a satisfying way, leaving the ending feeling a bit rushed.