by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
August has been a (relatively) busy month for a supposedly dead theatrical genre. After opening with the rom-com One Night Only, the month is closing theatrically with another rom-com, Finding Emily.
The film follows Owen (Spike Fearn), who, after a whirlwind night, discovers that the girl he is smitten with left him one digit short on her number, leading him on a frantic campus-wide search for the girl who could be the love of his life. His search for the mysterious Emily leads him to cross paths with, well, an Emily (Angourie Rice), who thinks she’s found just the test case to prove her thesis that love is nothing more than insanity, securing her the academic work visa she needs to stay in Manchester.
I feel like I’m repeating myself, but if you’ve seen a movie, read a book, even that simple summary is enough to clue you in on the vast majority of the plot. There aren’t a ton of surprises here. So, it’s up to Finding Emily to put on a charm offensive that makes you forget that.
Thankfully, it does.
Rice is obviously the biggest name here and has the most heavy-lifting to do—given the ethical qualms of her one-man study—but she manages it. That shouldn’t be surprising, even as a young actress, she stole scenes in The Nice Guysand her rom com subplot in Spider-Man: Far from Homewas one of the highlights of the film. Perhaps most impressively, she manages to successfully pull off being an Aussie playing an Iowan studying abroad in England. I mean, the only faults I can make with that is she somehow views taco pizza as some sort of Midwest delicacy, when it is, at best, a good rotational choice, I mean, the lettuce, tomatoes, and chips just don’t make for great reheating. Also, if we’re going to get super picky, I’ve been told that Iowans have a bit of a regionalized accent, even when compared to the rest of our Midwest neighbors, and *sharp inhale* gee, I’m just not sure she gets the intricacies, though in modern times more regional accents across the U.S. are getting homogenized. There’s actually a great New York Times quiz you can take that … I feel like we’re getting off topic…
Fearne, though I’ve seen in other things (Alien: Romulusperhaps being the biggest), but he’s never stood out like he does here. He’s so charming as a sometimes bumbling, often mumbling, Mancunian. Fearne does a great job of selling his earnestness in that opening meet cute, which allows us to be on his side for what follows.
Though they’re both good on their own, the chemistry between these seeming opposites—the intellectual striver and the awkward blue-collar kid who’s anything but—that’s really where they sing. Watching their relationship develop over the course of the film is great, with a ton of little moments that they each sell in their own time.
Our main cast is boosted by a handful of fun supporting performances. Cora Kirk as Emily’s best friend and roommate provides necessary perspective, even if there are some predictable traps the relationship briefly detours into. While I enjoy the big brother dynamic that Matt (Jack Riddiford) brought to Owen’s story, I was pleasantly surprised later on when there was a real moment of depth between the two brothers that really hit. Isabella Laughlin is great as Matt’s girlfriend and oftentimes the only adult in the room as the brothers spar. Prasanna Puwanarajah is also great as Emily’s professor and Minnie Driver, is fun to see as the dean, albeit in a rather stock role.
Though the performances are charming enough, the stealth MVP might just be the music. It’s a great mix of club bangers, retro classics, modern pop, and apparent Manchester campus classics that everyone inexplicably knows all the words to? Whatever is needed, music supervisor Iain Cooke (Back to Black, The Crown) and composer Morgan Kibby seem to know exactly the right notes to hit. It’s not hyperbole to say it’s probably my favorite soundtrack of the year thanks to the mix of needle drops (and I’m definitely not listening to the soundtrack as I type this, he lied).
All of that allows some forgiveness for some of the obvious flaws in the script from the pen of Rachel Hirons. Obviously, there’s a bit of an ethical quandary with how and why Emily starts “assisting” Owen with his search. I found myself comparing it to another rom-com from earlier this year, Voicemails for Isabelle, in the way it’s very You’ve Got Mail with how one half of the couple is hiding a pretty big secret from the other. However, here, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much, and I think that speaks to how well the performances and the overall feel managed to suck me in.
Despite the cliches, these stories work for a reason. There’s enough quirk and fun built in, that I never let my brain really go on a detour, for which both Hirons and Alicia MacDonald (in her feature directing debut) deserve credit. They also absolutely nail how modern media, whether social media or the university podcast run by a wannabe influencer (Nadia Parkes), would handle this type of story. I’m also not discounting the fact that I was watching Finding Emily in a theater, whereas Voicemails for Isabelle I was watching from my couch, where distractions, from what was on the screen, were much closer at hand.
As we head into the final third of 2026, this comfortably sits on the top of my rom com power rankings and is a theatrical release for the genre I hope can find support or eventually its audience.
Rating: Like It
Finding Emily is currently available to watch in theaters.
You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Bluesky and Letterboxd