Finding Emily

First of all, something about me is that I’'m an avid user of any movie pass that is offered. So when I was in Scotland for the year I got the CineWorld pass and saw up to 4 movies a week. Not sponsored, but something I think is worth the money. One of the many films I saw was, Finding Emily which I watch 2 months ago. I didn’t know to much about it, I have been doing this thing where I really don't watch trailers because I want to be surprised in some way when I go watch a movie. Which has failed me only once when I watch The Crow (2025) which was so awful I had to walk out. That being said from the poster I gathered it was something light hearted and I'm a sucker for Rom-Coms, so I didn't really have that many expectations.

All right, so, without too many spoilers, the movie is about this guy. The opening of the movie was the standard sequence the kid gets up from his bed. He's getting dressed, he's getting ready for the day. He does not eat anything and then he talks to his family and then he's got to go. His name is Owen, he meets his girl at a pub, dance club, whatever they call it, and he basically gets her number, but she doesn't give him the full extent of her number. So basically he's , okay, I need to find this girl. And he enlists the help of somebody else to help him find who he's looking for. Throughout the whole movie, they're trying to find this girl; Emily, self explanatory from the title; and they get into a bunch of trouble and mischief along the way. Semi-side plot is that the person who's helping him is also is trying to find what she thinks is love as well.

It was it was a very lighthearted movie. It wasn't too deep in the sense of that it was love, love, no it wasn't , hatred, hatred, hatred, yada, yada, yada. It was a very bright movie. You could tell that it was filmed in probably spring or summertime, I'm not too sure on a timeline so I want to say that it took place over the course of a few weeks or max few months. It's an American actress and a British actor as the two leads. And the guy who plays the lead, his name is Spike Fearn. I know amazing name. He looks so much to me when I first saw him on the screen. I thought too myself, oh my, he looks so much he should be in the band Oasis. He could play Liam, I think, probably. If you know, you know. When I was watching it, I was like, should I move to Manchester? Crazy Thought, I know, but I was , oh my gosh, I should move to Manchester. Not going to happen but the movie made me think it looks so good that it made me pause and go okay, I'm going to move there. You don't really find a lot of movies, shot in Manchester or based or if they are shot in Manchester, or at the college of Manchester. As someone whose seen over 1000 movies majority of the time its set in London, Scotland, New York, or Los Angeles. I just looked it up and Roughly 40 to 50 feature films are explicitly set or largely based in Manchester and New York City is one of the most filmed and set locations in the world too no exact count.

 For the characters, I would say the main the main actress, her name is Angourie Rice and she plays Emily. I think she changed the most. Owens character was very consistent throughout. He seems very sweet. He's always apologizing, he’s naive in a sense. He gives off a hopeless romantic vibe. Then there's Emily, who's very type a. She is more so focused on her studies, but you can see overall throughout the film that she starting to break down and she's slowly opening up to the possibility that, fyi, love is a real thing and it isn't psychosis. I think that's how that evolves her character. Owen's character is rubbing off on her. Emily is in her own head and everybody else is secondary, so that does interplay with her relationships and especially with her best friend. She's not the most observant person, so I think that also was something that was a part of her struggles. The characterizers were so believable the mannerisms, how they talked, what they wore, the friends that they had. It just reminded me of when I was in college and all the different types of people that I would talk to. Especially because these characters, are my age, so they're in their 20s. People who write Gen. Z characters tend to be a little bit overwhelming with the information, the slang or how they dress. They usually write, oh, this rizz and looks maxing that, even though, we don't say that. Something that is hard to do especially in a movie that takes 2 years to put out is the change of trends of Gen-Z. The movie didn't go too heavy on the slang, but more so in the representation of who was in the movie and what the characters were was done well. So it felt a movie that you could watch 20 years from now and you would still understand the premise of what everything was going on. But sometimes rom-com movies can be outdated and it just doesn't really apply to life currently. I wouldn't say there were too many villains in the story, there was this one girl who was just really annoying, but it wasn't anything to the story as a whole. For example you know how in 10 things I hate about you, Joey is semi the villain because he's a douche. This story didn’t have that. I understood everybody's motivations for what they were doing. The main female character, you get where she's coming from, but I just knew that she was going to change her mind. I feel it would have been out of character or it would have been an interesting take if they had her not changed her mind about her original position. Then again, it wouldn't have been a “happy ending.” There was good chemistry from both the leads. I loved the guy who plays Owen. I'm going to include a picture of him, he is just so Uhm. Maybe it's just his face or his accent that was really getting me, but it could be a plethora of things. I thought they went really well together. One movie where I know they have no chemistry is You People and that's with Jonah Hill and Lauren London. If I had to rank them I would give the chemistry here probably 90%. I could believe they would be together. If I had to pick, who gave the best performance, I would say Spike the character he played just really made me feel as if this was a guy who was sweet, innocent and he did well.

 I would say this movie is made for anybody who loves love. If you're a rom-com girly, or guy and you love a rom-com down watch this movie. Movies Drive Me Crazy, Can’t Hardly Wait, I love you, Beth Cooper, oh my gosh, specifically, I love you, Beth Cooper or the Girl Next Door. Which I would consider rom-coms, but I guess they could be coming of age too, I would say it sort of falls into that category. If you any of the movies I just mentioned, I would recommend it 11 times down. I was wanting more at the end. Once it was over, I was a little sad thinking give me something else, give me more of this movie, make a part two. Honestly, I don't know what they will make a part two about, but I thought it was just so cute. I thought it really encapsulated is the connection you think you have worth fight for or maybe the who you think is the wrong person is actually the right one. I was surprised. I think sometimes what's lacking in rom-coms is that sometimes they'll say that they're a rom-com, but they'll be not funny. Fall more into the romance or drama genre. Finding Emily really had the balance of funny and romantic, and it acted a typical romcom. When you go into a rom-com or when you go into any movie, it's sometimes it's going to be hit or miss and it was definitely a hit. Because it's the Rom-Com, you already know what's going to happen. You know that they're going to get together, but it's also , the main character is trying to find this completely other person and you as the audience member are rooting for them not to find this person so they can get with the other person. Which is so strange, but it's , it's necessary because that's how you know it's good because in some movies, you're , oh, I don't really want you to get with the other person, but for this movie, I was , yes, forget that other girl. Get with a girl that's trying to help you, please. It's really easy to follow. They laid it out very clearly. It's not too complicated. It's not really a gotcha twist rom-com No. Everything has its place and everything makes sense. It had a good pace. I'm trying not to give too many spoilers, even though I really want to say some stuff, but, okay, there's just one scene where they're on Canal Street and they're going through a bunch of pubs and there are drag queens. If you don't drag queens, if you don't drag queens, maybe this movie isn't for you. It's a small part of it, but if you don't necessarily drag queens, you can skip over it. Owen sings at one point, I think that was probably the most random part in the movie is that he was singing. Once you've seen the movie, you'll know, but, sometimes when when you think something is about to happen that's going to be really cringe and you hide away into your sweater. That's how I felt when I he was about to start. I was , oh my gosh, let me plug my ears. But he was actually a good musician.

 I'm going to quote the brother who’s name I'm not to sure of. Owen, has a brother that seemed very realistic too watch, and to me it was an accurate representation of it what its like to to have a brother/sibling. They're fighting, throwing stuff at each other, yelling. Sometimes movies would be , oh, I love my brother and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, not here. Which is so realistic, well, realistic to me because that's how me and my siblings act. One scene, the oldest brother says “yeah, he's probably in a field somewhere crying, writing a song” then the scene jumps and Owen is in a field crying. Of course it ends in a happy ending. Surprise, surprise. Something I'd say about this movie is that it doesn't necessarily end in a confession of love it is more so a confession of like. Do you know what I mean? It doesn't escalate that quickly where we see the part where they're saying I love you. Again, I will say that I wish they make a second movie. Maybe they'll call it I found Emily. You can do with that what you will. After I watched it, it made me feel as if I wanted to buy a ticket and watch it again because it was that good. I literally thought to myself, okay, rom coms are back because it's so hard to do a good one. I have already watched it a 2nd time and I will be watching for third time when it comes to theaters in the U.S. I can already see myself watching this during valentines day, the same way that I rewatch When Harry Met Sally, or Dirty Dancing. As of this moment it's probably my favorite movie of the year. I know. I know a big thing to say especially since I just watched Spiderman 2026 (review coming soon). I'm going to link the Spotify track the you guys can listen to it. I did pull out Shazam the second time I watched, it had a decent soundtrack, but nothing too memorable.