About two weeks ago, on November 12th, Taylor Swift released her long-awaited rerecording of her 2012 album “Red.” It includes 6 new ‘from the vault’ tracks, or songs that were written for the original album but didn’t end up on the final tracklist. One such track, “I Bet You Think About Me” (featuring Chris Stapleton), became very popular among fans. More excitement quickly arose when Swift announced that a music video with first-time director Blake Lively would also be released for the song. Lively and Swift are known to be good friends, and Swift even has a song called ‘betty’ which features the names of all three of Lively’s children.

Luckily, fans only needed to wait one day before the video was released, and they were absolutely blown away. As of November 23rd, the video had earned 19 million views in just over a week. The video, which stands at over 6 minutes long, features a few guest stars, a number of extravagant red outfits, and provides a narrative story that gives the song a new depth.

The video takes place at a wedding, and the groom is played by movie star Miles Teller, who is well known for movies such as “Divergent” and “The Spectacular Now.” The song begins as Teller starts reciting his vows to a bathroom mirror. Then, in the mirror, Swift’s face appears, startling Teller’s character.

Swift is supposed to portray an ex-girlfriend of Teller’s and appears randomly throughout the wedding, much to Teller’s surprise. She acts as a waiter and then later as a guest. Each time Teller sees her, he attempts to go to her, but is not able to due to suddenly appearing obstacles. 

Swift spends the video avoiding Teller, floating around the white wedding in several bright red outfits that make her the most noticeable person in the room. However, no one seems to think her presence is odd besides Teller. At one point, Swift even gives a toast to the whole party, and everyone laughs, but the groom is taken aback. 

She continues floating around the scene as a character that everyone can interact with besides Teller. Suddenly, she begins to play a guitar in a brilliant red ball gown while a band comes into view behind her. In the band is Aaron Dessner —a producer and songwriter who has worked with Swift on her most recent albums, beginning with “Folklore” in 2020. 

After the band’s appearance, Swift reveals herself in a gorgeous, tiered wedding dress in front of Teller. The music stops, and the pair share a moment where they are about to dance. However, Swift quickly turns away and disappears, and the music begins again. Viewers see her once again with the band in her red dress after the vulnerable wedding dress scene, and the song finally wraps up.

The premise of the song involves a girl speaking to her ex about how he made the mistake of leaving her, and that he probably still thinks about her, as shown with Teller seeing Swift everywhere he goes. The wedding aspect of the video provides a new angle on the song itself and even makes it a bit sadder. Swift appears to be the one Teller truly wants to be with, but she is not his bride.

Overall, this was a beautiful music video, and Swift’s outfits and dresses are stunning. The contrast between Swift in all red and the rest of the scene in cream and white is very well done and allows her to stand out from the crowd while not diminishing the beauty of the room. Moreover, Swift’s wedding dress is absolutely beautiful as well, for it makes her look almost angelic with the lighting behind her producing a halo around her head. 

Teller also did a wonderful job considering he did not have a speaking role for the majority of the video. He perfectly captured his confusion and desire to get closer to Swift without any words. The audience could easily see his true feelings through his eyes and body language, and it was not hard to buy into his emotions at all. 

The only strange thing about the video was that the featured singer, Chris Stapleton, was not in it at all. That could be a personal preference or a timing issue, but it was a bit odd to hear a voice in the background that was not present in the video. Swift sang along to the track, so having a separate, disembodied voice that never got a face felt weird. I found myself almost waiting for Stapleton to appear, and when he never did, it was quite disappointing. 

Nonetheless, the music video subverted all my expectations, and it was visually stunning on top of an already very good song. If you haven’t watched it yet, definitely take the time to do so. Blake Lively, Miles Teller, and Taylor Swift clearly put a lot of time and effort into creating this video, so go watch it—you won’t regret it!