Book to Screen
Lili Reinhart Teases ‘The Love Hypothesis’ Movie Rating: Will Spicy Book Scenes Make It In?
The Love Hypothesis book fans have plenty of reasons to thank Lili Reinhart, who’s executive producing and playing the main character in its movie adaptation. Since filming kicked off, the actress has been offering up behind-the-scenes videos of herself and costars on set. Among them is her onscreen love interest, Tom Bateman.
Underneath Reinhart’s latest TikTok post — which sees her and Bateman do a couples quiz in character — the actress reacted to a number of comments. She even responded to one of them, and it hints at just how much spice the movie will include. “This movie better not be PG-13,” one fan quipped, which prompted Reinhart to reveal the upcoming rom-com’s rating.
“It’s not,” she replied. Readers know that author Ali Hazelwood doesn’t skimp out on steamy moments in her book, so Reinhart’s comment is all but confirmation that the movie version will follow suit. But will its hottest scenes make it into the final cut? Let’s break down the material that The Love Hypothesis team is working with.
@lilireinhart Tom doesn’t have TikTok, what trends should I confuse him with? #thelovehypothesis ♬ Meme – sylinx_.
If you haven’t yet read the book, we’re warning you now that spoilers are ahead!
Readers will remember that PhD student Olive (Reinhart) and Stanford professor Adam (Bateman) are in will-they-won’t-they territory for most of the book. They start off in a fake dating arrangement: Olive wants to convince her best friend that she’s over her ex. Adam sees it as a way to help him secure research funding. (Long story, but you can read the full explanation of his motives here.) No sex is one of the fake dating rules Olive gives Adam.
Olive develops feelings for the stoic professor, but she keeps them buried. It doesn’t help matters when Adam mistakenly assumes Olive has a crush on someone else, and Olive finds out he’s been pining after someone for years. (Guess who it is?) When they both travel to Boston for a science conference, they share a hotel room — who doesn’t love a forced proximity moment — where things heat up between them for the first time.
They have a moment of emotional intimacy, which drives Olive to try and kiss him. He stops her, thinking that she’s not in the right state of mind and that she’s in love with someone else. She argues that she’s fine. One thing leads to another, and in Chapter 16, they sleep together for the first time. (And it lasts for the entire chapter.) Adam didn’t bring protection on the trip, which makes Olive suggest they could do “other things.”
Non-readers, you can probably imagine what those “other things” are. They break things off to have a conversation about Olive’s experience with intimacy. She tells him that she only feels attraction to people she genuinely trusts and likes, and Adam’s included in that. He continues kissing Olive everywhere, if you catch our drift. He delays his pleasure to give her all of his attention. They do end up fully sealing the deal, which results in Adam’s memorable “You can take it” line. (Yeah, that needs to make it into the movie.)
Thanks to Reinhart, we’re willing to bet that Chapter 16 will be brought to life, and it won’t be a fade-to-black situation. Does that mean The Love Hypothesis could surpass Anyone But You as the highest-grossing R-rated rom-com? Let us know what you think in the comments!
The Love Hypothesis, In Theaters, TBA
