Finding Emily: A British Romcom Game Changer

Finding Emily (12A, 111 mins)

By Larushka Ivan-Zadeh 

Verdict: Romcom of the year

Rating:

(4 STARS) 

Once upon a time, Working Title were the people who gave us Great British romcoms like Four Weddings, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill and .

Then they were the people who gave us The Boat That Rocked and Grimsby.

Now, 23 years after Love Actually, here comes something interesting.

Finding Emily isn’t set in posh London, but in student Manchester. Think more bucket hats than floppy fringes.

A hopeless romantic, Owen (a star-making turn from Spike Fearn), falls for a girl called Emily he meets at a club.

So smitten is he that, despite being wrong-numbered by his mystery lady (on purpose? By accident?), he vows to track her down.

His unlikely wingwoman is another Emily (Angourie Rice, below with Fearn), a romance-refusing American student who is secretly using him as her psychology dissertation case study.

Attractive leads, a funny and eccentric ensemble cast (including Minnie Driver), uncynical sweetness and a fab soundtrack – Finding Emily has all you’d want from a romantic comedy.

What breathes fresh life into it are the authentic Gen Z smarts that tackle today’s anxieties around dating; without trying too hard – or coming across as achingly woke. Making this the best British romcom since Rye Lane.

The feature debut of TV director Alicia MacDonald (Lena Dunham’s Too Much), with a screenplay from Rachel Hirons (A Guide To Second Date Sex), it’s blessed with dialogue that feels natural, rather than packed with Richard Curtis-worthy one-liners.

And if the far-fetched scenario loses its way at times, there’s always something enchanting around the corner.

It may not be flawless. But Finding Emily is a keeper.

By Mail on Sunday

Rating:

(4 STARS)  

I like a good rom-com and Finding Emily, which comes from those clever people at Working Title, is a pretty good one. 

Set in and around a Manchester university, it’s the story of Owen (very nicely played by Spike Fearn) a dreamy, aspiring musician who’s working as a sound engineer at the students’ union on the night he has a fateful encounter with Emily. 

They catch each other’s eye, they flirt a bit, they dance… and then Emily has to rush off with her friends. But she does give him her phone number, which turns out to be a digit short or deliberately wrong and he doesn’t know her surname. 

Will he ever see her again? Do you know how many Emilys there are at a busy university?

Owen may be an authentic Manchester lad but he engagingly wears his heart on his sleeve and is thrilled when the first Emily he finds – obviously not the right one – offers to help him. 

Only we know what Owen does not, that this Emily (played by Mare Of Easttown star, Angourie Rice) is only helping him to further her psychology dissertation on the madness of romantic love.

You can see why some might find it a bit creepy but director Alicia MacDonald skilfully avoids the potential elephant traps, Fearn is terrific and there’s some very nice music too.