The Love Hypothesis

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1:47

The Love Hypothesis

R

2026

1h 50m

Romance

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

73%

Tomatometer

45 Reviews

78%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

Based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis follows Olive (Lili Reinhart), a brilliant Ph.D. candidate focused on her future in academia. But when she realizes her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) has fallen for her crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), Olive impulsively kisses intimidating professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) to prove she’s moved on. What begins as a desperate act of friendship spirals into a fake relationship with rules, boundaries, and a mutually beneficial agreement. When their arrangement begins to blur the lines between performance and reality, Olive is forced to test her most daunting hypothesis yet: that love might actually be worth the risk.

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Critics Consensus

The Love Hypothesis follows a familiar rom-com formula, but its healthy dose of humor and palpable chemistry between Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman make it a satisfying comfort watch.

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Caroline Siede

Girl Culture (Substack)

2 days ago

B-

To break this down scientifically, there are three types of successful rom-coms: Genuinely Good, Enjoyably Cheesy, and So-Bad-It’s-Good. [The Love Hypothesis] winds up settling comfortably into that middle space.

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Adrian Horton

Guardian

2 days ago

2/5

Comes off as artlessly, almost lazily by the numbers, a faltering chain of tropes (enemies to lovers) and stock characters to a jaunty string score.

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Chris Azzopardi

New York Times

2 days ago

As for the script, it needs no lab exam to know it fails at least one true test: to feel human.

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Stephen Silver

Splice Today

3 hrs ago

Ridiculous on several fronts, but it still has some charm.

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Natalia Trzenko

La Nación (Argentina)

13 hrs ago

3/5

For fans of Hazelwood's book, this adaptation may live up to expectations, but for fans of romantic comedy, The Love Hypothesis is closer to being a failed experiment than a successful return of the genre. [Full review in Spanish]

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Todd Jorgenson

Cinemalogue

17 hrs ago

Despite the considerable charms of Lili Reinhart, the chemistry on the page doesn’t translate to the screen.

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Elizabeth L

@RT28340132 2 hrs ago

Very faithful adaptation. The characters were funny and had lots of depth and the writing was great. We need more movies like this! Lili was particularly strong. I stayed up until almost midnight I couldn’t stop watching.

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Owen B

@OwenBeck 3 hrs ago

One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Like impressively terrible. Yikes

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Dennis M

@RT63792651 3 hrs ago

S’cute, easy—peasy, falling in love for sheezy.

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M M

@RT68325962 3 hrs ago

Holy crap, this was adorable!! I had no idea the movie was an adaptation of a book so my opinion is solely based on what I just watched. Lili Reinhart, Tom Bateman and Rachel Marsh killed it in this! I absolutely love the friendship between Olive and Anh & how their bond stays front and center throughout the whole movie. I found myself laughing through most of the movie but tearing up at some parts. This is definitely being added to my list of favorite romcoms.

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Megan M

@RT81491808 4 hrs ago

a lot cut out from the book which is always expected with this kinda thing, but take it as a film on its own, it's for cute moments it's got other moments, depends on what you like to watch

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Vanessa S

@VanessaSimon 5 hrs ago

I really enjoyed this film. A story of how it's not always love at first sight but reminds us of how masculine and feminine have a way of healing and growing together. Guide eachother to be a better version of ourselves.Not through nagging or force just a slow genuine growing connection.

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Claire Scanlon

Director

Lili Reinhart

Olive Smith

Tom Bateman

Adam Carlsen

Rachel Marsh

Ahn

Nicholas Duvernay

Jeremy

Jaboukie Young-White

Malcolm

The Love Hypothesis: Trailer 1

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The Love Hypothesis: Teaser Trailer

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Synopsis

Based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis follows Olive (Lili Reinhart), a brilliant Ph.D. candidate focused on her future in academia. But when she realizes her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) has fallen for her crush Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay), Olive impulsively kisses intimidating professor Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) to prove she’s moved on. What begins as a desperate act of friendship spirals into a fake relationship with rules, boundaries, and a mutually beneficial agreement. When their arrangement begins to blur the lines between performance and reality, Olive is forced to test her most daunting hypothesis yet: that love might actually be worth the risk.

Director: Claire Scanlon
Producer: Elizabeth Cantillon, Jonathan Golfman
Screenwriter: Sarah Rothschild
Distributor: Prime Video
Production Co: Amazon MGM Studios
Rating: R
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 23, 2026
Runtime: 1h 50m

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