A British romcom with a passing thesis paper on Gen Z love.
It’s a shame that “One Night Only” is bombing at the box office, because it’s a Gen Z romcom that has its heart in the right place. And I’m not sure how the new British romcom “Finding Emily” will fare with American audiences. As far as I’m concerned, not every British romcom can be as financially successful in our country as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” or “Love Actually” or “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” And all these movies were produced by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner under their Working Title Films production company.
But if you take my advice and give “Finding Emily” a chance, you’ll definitely see some humor and heart that has an old fashioned spirit possessing a new generation. Meaning like “One Night Only,” there’s a certain kind of cringe and consistency within the concept that ends up working for the right reasons. What I’m about to mention may sound creepy, but then again, Sandra Bullock was worse with “All About Steve.” Let’s forget about that movie, and focus on this.
As the film begins, a young lovestruck sound engineer named Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn) meets an Emily (Sadie Soverall) at a night club, and they hit it off nicely. The only problems are she mistyped her phone number and he doesn’t know her last name, other than her being a student at Manchester City University (in real life, it’s Called Manchester Metropolitan University). The only Emily he can find there is an American psychology student whose last name is Raine (Angourie Rice).
Emily Raine agrees to help him find his Emily, in order for her do a thesis paper regarding proof of her theory of love being some kind of madness. He’s unknowingly her case study, and this would be her own Stanford Prison Experiment. They both come across a big email list of all the Emilys enrolled at the university, and when he emails all of them, a chat room of them has been created and his laptop is blowing up. It’s enough for the girls to be concerned if they’re being part of a cyber attack, considering that their personal information could be leaked, which is why feminists are protesting against him. And some of this ends up being a bit much, even though I wasn’t stressed out.
Owen makes an appearance on a podcast station trying to set the record straight that he isn’t a stalker, he isn’t dangerous, and he’s just trying to find the Emily of his dreams. He even sings a song for her, which goes viral.
And in the tradition of “When Harry Met Sally,” it would be inevitable that Owen and Emily Raine (important distinction) would spark a connection with each other. And I think you know what is going to happen when he finds out the truth about her. We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again.
The two leads have chemistry as if Hugh Grant met Meg Ryan in the 90s, and I can sense that in both Fearn and Rice. And the supporting cast is also likable. We have Minnie Driver as the dean of the university, Jack Riddiford as Owen’s older brother, Isabella Laughland as his spouse, Prasanna Puwanarajah as Emily Raine’s professor, and Kat Rooney as a feminist student.
Despite the creepy set-up (that is if you think this is creepy), “Finding Emily” knows how to handle the characters. The boy is not trying to be creepy; he is just trying to reunite with someone. And the girl is trying to get her grades and visa in tact, and yet, her deception doesn’t become her identity. It might even change her perspective on love. If Harry could have a romance with Sally, then maybe these two could if they think things through. And I think we can agree that the reason Owen can’t find his Emily is because, like I always say: “This world needs subtitles.” And I only say that for the sake of clarification, not insults.
