Right name, wrong number. Finding Emily is a British romcom that will leave you feeling upbeat.
Set in Manchester, the film follows a sound engineer who becomes a viral sensation while trying to track down the girl of his dreams, Emily.
Rating: ★★★★
Film News Blitz’s Bella Ford shares her thoughts…
Finding Emily was released in cinemas on 22 May; from the trailer alone, it looks like a fun film for Gen Z.
It’s a Working Title picture, the company behind Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill.
What is ‘Finding Emily’ about?
Finding Emily is predominantly set at Manchester University, where Owen (Spike Fearn) works as a sound engineer trying to make ends meet while grieving the loss of his mother and the break-up of his band.
Owen meets ‘Emily’ (Sadie Soverall) while working at a club night, and they instantly click.
He finds out the next day that the number she left him was one digit short. This starts the wild goose chase. Was it a drunken error, or did she “wrong-number” him on purpose?
Owen seems oblivious to the fact that it could have been intentional and starts his mission by putting up posters around the campus.
After a tip-off, he waits outside a lecture hall in the hope of meeting the ‘right’ Emily.
Instead, he meets an American Emily (Angourie Rice), who studies psychology.
She decides to help Owen, which serves her own purpose: she needs a case study on anxious attachment for her final dissertation.
This is without his knowledge… You can probably guess how this ends.
Heavier themes
The pair set out to find Owen’s crush by emailing every Emily at the university and sneaking into parties. This backfires when he becomes known as “Email Guy”, and people label him a creep and an incel.
When Owen hits his lowest points, the film touches upon heavier topics, including harassment and stalking, even though these were never his intention.
It is a good way to highlight those issues, as well as the impact of ‘false allegations’.
It shows that there are two sides to every story; Owen was a romantic, but only the audience could see that.
Dry British wit
The whole film features classic dry humour, and some of the funniest lines arrive when you least expect them.
The line, “It’s like Ed Sheeran on Crimewatch”, is delivered perfectly and made the whole cinema laugh.
Director Alicia MacDonald and writer Rachel Hirons both nailed the ‘rom’ and the ‘com’, with jokes packed into every scene.
Up the North!
Finding Emily is also a beautiful showcase of Northern England, and even features a special cameo from Stockport band Blossoms.
This film felt like a breath of fresh air; it gave Manchester a great reputation, Canal Street was glowing, and the university campus looked beautiful.
MacDonald told the BBC that it was her choice to film in Manchester, calling it “the best city ever”, and stating that she wanted to create a “love letter” to the city. It is a film not just set in Manchester, but one shaped by it.
Final thoughts
Opposites attract.
The hard-working academic Emily from Idaho and the working-class, clumsy, but adorable Owen work perfectly together.
Fearn and Rice have great chemistry, and you can clearly see their characters’ relationship develop throughout the film.
Overall, it is a lighthearted, feel-good film that will make you love Fearn and feel as though you have stepped back into the early 2000s.
Finding Emily is in cinemas now.
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