Review: The Love Hypothesis takes one of the most familiar romantic-comedy formulas — a pretend relationship that gradually becomes genuine — and places it inside the world of university science. Based on Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling novel, the film stars Lili Reinhart as biology PhD student Olive Smith and Tom Bateman as the intimidating professor Adam Carlsen.
Directed by Claire Scanlon, the movie has all the ingredients of a modern BookTok-friendly romance: academic rivals, an awkward heroine, a supposedly impossible love interest, fake dating and plenty of sexual tension.
Unfortunately, the ingredients never quite combine into the kind of satisfying romantic chemistry the story needs.
Lili Reinhart Is the Film’s Biggest Strength
Reinhart does much of the heavy lifting as Olive.
The character is an intelligent but socially awkward graduate student whose personal insecurities sit alongside her ambitions as a scientist. Olive is determined to pursue research connected to pancreatic cancer after losing her mother, giving her professional goals a personal emotional foundation.
Reinhart understands the character’s comedic awkwardness and vulnerability. Even when the dialogue becomes overly polished or artificial, she often manages to make Olive feel warmer and more relatable than the screenplay itself.
Her comic timing is particularly effective when Olive has to improvise her way through increasingly uncomfortable situations created by the fake relationship.
That performance keeps the movie watchable even when the story begins to feel overly dependent on familiar romantic-comedy conventions.
Tom Bateman’s Adam Has a More Difficult Problem
Tom Bateman plays Adam Carlsen, a brilliant and notoriously demanding professor whom students have nicknamed “Dr Evil.”
The character is supposed to combine intimidating academic authority with the hidden tenderness of a romantic hero. Bateman, however, sometimes seems caught between those two versions of Adam.
His performance moves from extremely restrained and distant to unexpectedly charming, but the transition does not always feel natural.
Adam’s character is designed to be the classic seemingly cold man whose softer side emerges for the right woman. The problem is that the screenplay does not give Bateman enough material to make that transformation completely convincing.
The Fake-Dating Setup Feels Too Convenient
The central premise begins when Olive kisses Adam in an attempt to convince her friend Anh that she has moved on from Jeremy.
Adam has his own motivation for agreeing to the arrangement. He wants to demonstrate that he intends to remain at the university, helping protect the future of his research and funding.
On paper, the two motivations provide enough material for a fun fake-dating comedy.
On screen, however, the setup feels rushed.
The movie moves quickly from the initial misunderstanding into the pretend relationship, leaving limited time to establish why these two people would genuinely become important to each other.
That becomes particularly noticeable as the film moves toward its romantic payoff. The audience is repeatedly told that Olive and Adam are developing feelings, but the screenplay does not always allow those emotions to develop organically.
A Familiar Rom-Com Formula
The Love Hypothesis arrives during a growing wave of film and television adaptations of popular romance novels.
Its formula is familiar: the awkward heroine, the intimidating love interest, academic competition, misunderstandings and a relationship that begins as an arrangement before becoming something more meaningful.
There is nothing inherently wrong with using those conventions. The challenge is giving them enough personality to feel fresh.
This adaptation sometimes struggles in that department.
The film includes several recognizable romance tropes without finding a consistently distinctive tone of its own. Scenes can shift from light comedy to serious emotional conflict and then back again without enough transition.
The result is a movie that can feel uneven rather than deliberately playful.
The Science Adds Personality, But Also Becomes a Gimmick
One of the more entertaining aspects of the film is the way Olive and Adam use scientific language to describe their relationship.
Their fake romance is treated almost like an experiment, complete with references to variables, control groups and observations.
The concept fits Olive’s personality and gives the movie a way to distinguish itself from a conventional office or workplace romance.
However, the repeated science metaphors can eventually become predictable. Instead of revealing more about the characters, some of the dialogue simply reminds viewers that the story takes place among scientists.
The film occasionally confuses scientific terminology with character development.
The Supporting Characters Needed More Depth
Rachel Marsh plays Anh, Olive’s friend and fellow graduate student. Their friendship is an important part of the story’s opening, particularly because Anh’s romantic situation is what sets the fake relationship in motion.
Yet the friendship becomes less important as Olive’s relationship with Adam takes over.
That is a missed opportunity because Olive and Anh’s dynamic could have provided the movie with another emotional layer beyond the central romance.
The supporting cast has moments of charm, but several characters primarily function as devices to move the plot forward.
Does the Romance Work?
There are flashes of genuine romantic energy between Reinhart and Bateman, particularly when the film allows the characters to drop the rules of their arrangement and behave more naturally.
The problem is consistency.
The story wants Adam to be both emotionally inaccessible and deeply romantic, while Olive has to remain awkward but confident enough to challenge him. Those contrasting personalities can work extremely well in a rom-com, but the screenplay does not always give their relationship enough breathing room.
Some of the more intimate scenes provide the warmth and attraction the rest of the movie is searching for, but they arrive after a romance that has often felt more mechanical than emotional.
By the time the story reaches its expected romantic destination, viewers may understand why Olive and Adam belong together without completely feeling it.
Final Verdict
The Love Hypothesis has a promising setup, recognizable romantic-comedy ingredients and a committed central performance from Lili Reinhart.
Reinhart brings personality to Olive and remains the film’s most consistently engaging element. Tom Bateman has the screen presence required for the role, but Adam’s characterization is less convincing because the screenplay pushes him between cold professor and romantic dreamboat without always building a believable bridge between the two.
The biggest weakness is the script. The fake-dating premise moves too quickly, the supporting relationships are underdeveloped and the tonal shifts make the movie feel less cohesive than it should.
For viewers already invested in Ali Hazelwood’s novel or the current wave of romance adaptations, The Love Hypothesis may still offer enough familiar comfort and light entertainment. Those looking for a rom-com with strong emotional buildup and effortless chemistry, however, may find the movie’s central romance less convincing than its premise promises.
TinselGlitz Rating: 2.5/5
Bottom line: Lili Reinhart gives The Love Hypothesis plenty of charm, but the adaptation struggles to turn its familiar fake-dating formula into a genuinely sparkling romance.