Nina Ndonwi | Contributing Illustrator

Hypothetically, do you think I could pull off wearing a jean miniskirt to my chemistry lab? At a WashU chemistry lab, most definitely not. Yet that is exactly what Olive Smith (Lili Reinhart), protagonist of “The Love Hypothesis,” accomplishes at the beginning of the movie — sauntering in with her bare legs on display into a fictitious Stanford biology lab. These kinds of inconsistencies were sprinkled throughout the movie, but nonetheless, “The Love Hypothesis” is a movie worth spending your Saturday night watching just once.

At the time it was published, I found “The Love Hypothesis” to be one of the greatest romance books I’d ever read. The 2021 BookTok propaganda definitely reached me, as I picked up any book that had predictable plots inundated with cliche characters — “The Love Hypothesis” being one of them. There are some minor differences between the book and the movie, with certain changes being more awkward than others. For example, Olive’s best friend Anh goes from being Vietnamese in the novel to Filipina in the film.

After watching the movie, I can safely say that it is an adaptation that does the book justice. Although goggles seemed to be optional for nearly everyone in the lab, Olive’s insecurity and quirkiness are perfectly portrayed, Adam Carlsen (Tom Bateman) is just as stony-faced and incapable of emotion as depicted in the novel, and every other character is your run-of-the-mill side character that uplifts the mood and cracks a joke here and there.

Obviously, “The Love Hypothesis” isn’t a revolutionary romance film that has viewers rewatching for cinematic nuances. The fake dating trope combined with the scientific jargon make for a very entertaining first-time watch. The movie is available to stream on Prime Video, but don’t go out of your way to get the Amazon Prime membership.