By Lília

I have this tendency of trying to understand some trends by checking them out by myself. Sometimes it makes me understand and appreciate the trend, sometimes it just makes me wonder even harder what people saw in those stories.

With the film just being released, I had to re-read the book before watching the film – and then be able to analyze its pros and cons.

***SPOILER ALERT***

In the pros and cons I talk about certain scenes and situations that are important to the plot. So if you haven’t read the book or watched the movie yet, be aware there would be spoilers.

THE BOOK

When I first read The Love Hypothesis in the spring of 2022, the book had just been released in September 2021 and was making big waves in the romance community. The story seemed interesting, and I was curious to know if it would be indeed a well-written story about a real scientist, in an academic setting, and if the romance would be good, as so many people were saying. Was it?

In the case of The Love Hypothesis I completely understood why people were so lyrical about the book, and about Ali Hazelwood in general. Her writing is great, the story was really funny, and even if you might consider the premise is completely bonkers – who fakes a romantic relationship with a professor of your department?!? – she does it in style and in such a fun way that you simply go with it. I knew she used to write a lot of fanfiction, but what I didn’t know then was that The Love Hypothesis was actually first written as a Star Wars one.

Olive is a total klutz in anything else that’s not related to her work and study. But she’s adorable and so lovable you simply accept she can do all of those things because she’s awkwardly imperfect. It’s quite obvious from the start that Adam is totally into her, and that she’s simply blind to it all. As she is to other things going around her. This is a well-executed grumpy-sunshine fake relationship trope, where all the elements are done in such a way that it’s not too cliché. Both Olive and Adam are interesting characters, but the most interesting ones for me are actually the secondary ones, especially Malcolm and Holden, best friends to Olive and Adam respectively. Olive’s other best friend, Anh, is not as well fleshed out as the others.

The book is good and fun, and if you’re a romance reader you should try it, specially because it’s about a woman in STEM that does good work and people see that! It came out in a period where there were not many books where you’d see respect for the female scientist without showing the male as the superior one. In this book female scientists are not always treated with respect by others, but they are seen as capable and respected by many.

THE FILM

All that being said, how does this story translates into film? Does the film translate the same importance of Olive’s work and decisions to the screen? What are the pros and cons of the film in comparison to the book? Now that I’ve watched the film I can share my impressions and make an educated comparison.

I actually enjoyed it, laughing out loud in the many awkward moments they go through. It’s not a perfect translation to the screen, but they mostly never are. But it’s close enough to the book that it’s worth watching.

The pros:

1. Olive and Anh’s relationship is better fleshed out in the movie, making their friendship shine brighter and stronger

2. Anh is not clueless to what’s going on and her character is better developed

3. Olive finds her own footing and fights for herself and her research

4. Adam is openly more “human” when with Olive, and we see that he actually listens to what she tells him

The cons:

1. In the book Olive applied – and got accepted! – to the lecture about her research on her own merit. So not because a man invited her a couple of weeks before the convention. It’s absolutely not believable that they would accept an unknown graduate student at the last moment because a known male scientist doctor gave her the opportunity

2. I miss more depth in Olive’s and Malcolm’s relationship, and that Olive, Malcolm and Anh are actually a trio of friends. Even though it’s really nice to see Olive and Anh’s relationship getting more fleshed out, in the book those three work really well together, and they BOTH give her the support necessary to fight for herself and her relationship with Adam

3. It’s too bad that in the film version there’s no audio proof of what Tom did to Olive, because unfortunately chances are most other male scientists would not accept only Olive’s word about his harassment. Showing it otherwise is too much of a fairy tale

4. It’s implied Olive still has a crush on Jeremy and that’s why she asks Adam to be her fake boyfriend, while in the book it’s quite clear that Olive has no real feelings for Jeremy

5. If Olive could have applied to work on the lab at Stanford, why didn’t she do it before? In the book it’s very clear it is because her mentor is retiring shortly and there’s no room for innovation, while in the film she applies to Stanford – her own university! – as an afterthought.

6. Adam tells Tom that he’s “finished” after his harassment of Olive, but why is that? It’s not clear in the movie that it’s because Tom is jealous of Adam and that Adam is actually the best of the two, with many universities wanting him on their side, and that Tom uses Adam’s name to make himself more important.

Comparing pros and cons I consider the film worth watching, but the book better. Even with the changes they brought related to Olive and Anh’s and Olive and Adam’s relationships.

Even though I still think you should read the book first and then watch the film, it is a nice rom-com. In both forms.