🍿 Finding Emily (2026)

Rating: 6.5/10

Finding Emily tries to update the British rom-com formula. Director Alicia MacDonald takes a flimsy premise and grounds it. A lovestruck musician tracks down a missing phone digit. The script cuts through some usual genre fluff. It openly mocks the line between romance and obsession.

Spike Fearn completely sells Owen’s neurotic sincerity. His acoustic musical moments feel entirely earned. They channel a distinct John Carney energy. But Angourie Rice truly anchors the film. She plays a jaded psychology student perfectly. She transforms a generic sidekick into the smartest asset.

What the film cannot quite solve is its own premise. Owen’s search is played as endearing when it is also invasive; Emily’s experiment is treated as a quirky character beat when it is a serious breach. The script keeps announcing that it understands manic-pixie tropes, consent language, and cancel culture, then settles into the same third-act shape Working Title has used for thirty years.

The leads make the time pleasant. The plot loses serious momentum late in the film. The missing digit catalyst is undeniably contrived. The lead chemistry helps, but it barely crosses the finish line.

Strengths:

• Fearn and Rice share effortless, spikey chemistry.
• Manchester itself is photographed with texture and affection rather than postcard gloss.
• Supporting Emilys function as a lively Greek chorus instead of interchangeable extras.
• Occasional lines that actually cut “True freedom is knowing you’re cringe and doing it anyway”.
• Acoustic musical sequences feel organic and earned.

Areas for Improvement:

• The missing phone number setup feels painfully contrived.
• Romantic heat never quite matches the friendship energy; the big emotional close-up feels imposed rather than earned.
• The movie lectures about tropes it then obediently follows.
• Tone wobbles between warm Richard Curtis pastiche and something more cynical without landing a coherent synthesis.
• Owen’s passivity and Emily’s calculation make the final pairing feel more like narrative convenience than character inevitability.

A pleasant, well-acted campus rom-com that knows what year it is but isn’t quite brave enough to let that knowledge change the ending. Easy to like. Harder to believe.