Remember when romcoms were romantic or funny. “Finding Emily” (2026) is cute but a frenzied, forced, try hard movie that is only a notch above movies like “One Night Only” (2026) because at least everyone is adorable though not necessarily together as a couple. Set in the summer term of 2025, sound engineer and former band member Owen Brumpton (Spike Fearn) becomes smitten with a woman, Emily (Sadie Soverall), whom he meets at work. She puts her number in his cell but accidentally left a digit off. Desperate to find her, he puts handwritten-in-black-Sharpie photocopied signs around Manchester City University’s campus. On his quest, he meets the wrong Emily, American Emily Raine (Angourie Rice) from Iowa. This Emily thinks that his search will make a great case study for her social sciences dissertation, “Romantic Attachment: Self Sabotaging Madness,” so she agrees to help him except the result creates a social media firestorm of controversy putting Owen in the harsh center of the spotlight. Will their lives fall apart, or will they eventually fall in love?
Are rom coms the new way to promote wannabe musicians? The biggest surprise of “Finding Emily” is discovering that Fearn trained and did not come ready to rock when he took the role. He is a good actor because in the promotional material, he looks like a model and is giving fierceness, but as Owen, he is a goofy, endearing, inexperienced, awkward, lanky guy who is easy to root for. When Owen starts singing, even if his style does not suit your tastes, he definitely has undeniable vocal talent. Perhaps the movie pushed its luck with a closing credits music video. The runtime is too long, and at that point, you may not care to read the updates on the characters’ loves even if you enjoy the song. Writer Rachel Hirons lays it on thick to ensure that Owen never alienates the audience during the controversial media storm. Fearn locks into his working-class appeal and never loses anyone. It is honestly impressive.
If you look up all American girl next door, Rice’s photo would appear, which is a good thing because her character on paper sounds like a complete irredeemable, manipulative villain. Rice manages to sound chipper, not horrific, when Emily says “Stanford prison experiment” with glee, which are words that generally should never be used in the same sentence. It takes Herculean levels of suspension of disbelief that Emily is a serious scholar, but if you could buy that Carrie was a real columnist in “Sex in the City,” it will be light work for you. It also does not hurt that Emily is desperate to stay for reasons that are dog whistles for Presidon’t supporters. Timing is everything, and there may be an expiration date. Someone needs to ask Rice how she manages to have such a cheerful, open and honest demeanor without straining at the seams and becoming stiff. No tight smiles on her mug.
The entire ensemble cast are naturals. Prasanna Puwanarajah steals every scene, and it actually would have been nice if he just hijacked the whole movie. Similarly, the stylish receptionist (Fiona Allen) was a brief delight with magnificent eyeglass frames. Owen and his brother, Matt (Jack Riddiford), and Matt’s wife, Freya (Isabella Laughland, great name), live in the brothers’ childhood home, and the trio are utterly convincing as a family that it is easy to miss that Owen does not have any friends. He does have a friendly lesbian coworker, bartender Rhea (Amber Grappy). Emily does have a friend: her roommate, Anna (Cora Kirk, who is stunning), but Anna disapproves of Emily’s stance on love and treatment of Owen so that relationship is not fun until it is time in the romcom for Emily to realize her sins. Anna dates Kyle (Anthony J. Abraham), who roots for Owen when the proverbial crap hits the fan. Anna and Kyle have chemistry. Eek, perhaps “Finding Emily” focused on the wrong couple.
The social media firestorm kind of grinds the gears of “Finding Emily” to become a statement about society. Young women are too hysterical about harmless men and are the ones who are actually attacking them. So is Owen so perfect to get the girl or to make a statement to solve the alleged loneliness epidemic and get women to resume dating Nice Guys? It feels like propaganda. Poor Minnie Driver as Dean Watkinson gets stuck referencing “bra burning,” which, sure, is a joke and likely the character was not being literal, but it never was a thing. It was a media mistake where anti-Vietnam war draft card burnings were conflated with the 1968 Miss America Protest. Once again, feminism gets depicted as violent, hysterical and mistaken whereas guys are level-headed, well intentioned and long suffering. Whatever. It would be nice to see a movie where watching a social media feed did not become a stalling Greek chorus plot point. A story about a couple falling for each other does not work as well when the obstacles are so exaggerated that it loses that every person appeal. My favorite character was the male student dressed in blue exclaiming in disgust that this is news. Same.
While the story may falter, it is the music that will appeal. Many of the needle drops are too old, especially if I recognize a lot of the great songs, but am absolutely not the target demographic: New Order’s “Blue Monday,” The Blessed Madonna & Kylie Minogue’s “Edge of Saturday Night,” Roisin Murphy’s “Ramalala (Bang Bang),” George Michael’s “Endless Whisper,” Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” and Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll.” It is like many of the storylines: dated but plausible. For instance, for the firestorm to hit, a twentysomething must not know about BCC emails. Seriously!?! No wonder director Alicia MacDonald felt compelled to flash the date in the first act otherwise moviegoers may think it is a period film. Many of the people working on “Finding Emily” may need younger consultants to keep their cultural references au courant.
“Finding Emily” was shot on location in Manchester, and the city does a lot of heavy lifting to create the charm and atmosphere of a rom com. After the cast, the overall environment is what makes the movie so attractive even when actual support for the inevitable pairing flags. It is easier and less expensive to watch a movie than hop on a plane to experience that world yourself, especially since it is entirely fictional. After all, drag queens and queer supporting characters abound but the trans genocide found its seeds of support in the UK so a real-life pilgrimage may be ill-advised. It is more fun to live vicariously through others and in this universe.
“Finding Emily” is fine if you are desperate for a rom com or want to listen to some great music. It suffers because everyone is more interesting than the main characters despite Fearn and Rice’s best efforts. Rom coms need to prioritize the couple and the story, not be a vehicle to turn actors into stars or punch down. Only when the audience is begging for them to get together because they seem perfect, then you can toss more onto their shoulders without weighing them down. The social media gimmick may run the clock so the couple does not get together too soon, but it drags it to the point of coming to a full stop.
