See, it’s not THAT hard. College romcoms just have to be a good hang, and remind people of why being young and in love was so much fun. Finding Emily isn’t earth shattering material, but it understands the college romcom so well it gives us exactly what we want. With the specifics of British uni giving us the the new stuff that keeps movie romcoms alive for at least one more film.
Poor Owen (Spike Fearns) is a bit lost, having just said goodbye to his dad, working a dead end job as a sound engineer for a pub near Manchester City University. Then magic hits: a fairy named Emily (Sadie Soverall) takes a liking to Owen and they have a perfect night. Until, she has to continue on the costume pub crawl with Frida Kahlo and the rest of her friends. With only a name and a number missing a digit, Owen frantically searches the university for his Emily. His first failed attempt he meets Emily Raine (Angourie Rice), going for a PhD and prestigious psychology job this summer. Her thesis? Why love is the realm of the psychotic. Ah, glorious fate at work again.
The minute Angourie Rice walks out of that classrom and not Sadie Soverall, we know where Finding Emily is going. What’s great about the movie though is Rachel Hirons’s script and setup. Emily Raine is only in this to write her PhD, and Owen is lovesick for his Fairy. There’s not even really a hate relationship going on here: it’s just a wonderfully designed meet cute to have two people end up together. All the beats are not about expressing feelings until the very end; it’s more about if Emily Raine is going to get emotionally entangled to make her theseis defense better: a welcome diversion from the standard romcom beats for a while. Makes the getting to know you phase just a series of fun escapades through Manchester. The ending has to get the cliches in, but at least it’s earned our shipping with the hour or so of fun Emily and Owen have searching for Fairy Emily.
Spike Fearns is awesome in this. He makes Owen a wide eyed puppy dog of a boy, going into this search with an open heart but blinders on how crazy his search becomes. He completely sells (along with the perfect dream girl Sadie Soverall) why Owen would go to such lengths for this girl, but never cross over from nice guy to “nice guy” like Bear from Obsession. Angourie Rice is more likable here than she’s been for me since The Nice Guys. In the power position she does a good job arcing her character to be blindsided by her emotional attachment to her test subject, which works way more than it doesn’t. All the Emilys we get to meet have a lot of fun: with their being MeToo crusaders like Emily Weston (Julia Rogers) to curious romantics like Emily Hassan (Yali Topol Margalith), carrying the movie in the montage sections as they react to Owen’s romantic catastrophes.
Also, Finding Emily really sells you on Manchester being a heck of a place to spend those college years. There’s endless places for fun and adventure, with apparently 200 beautiful Emilys, 50ish waiting to be swept off their feet. Not one rainy day though; that’s probably the movie’s biggest sin. I just want a little realism in a movie where a character has the name Anna Phylactic (Daniel Wallace). God I love a great Drag Show.