25 May 2026 – Cinema Club went to ‘The Showcase’ to see ‘Finding Emily’ today. The synopsis on the cinema website was as follows:
“When a lovesick musician is given the wrong number for his dream girl, he teams up with a driven psychology student to find her. Together, they spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way.”
This was indeed a light-hearted comedy about finding ‘true love’, although all was not so straightforward in a fairly predictable manner. As a group, we found it to be amusing enough, but not really anything to write home about. There was nothing to fault, and it was acted well-enough, and did provide some laughs along the way. It was well-placed in Manchester, and we did enjoy some of the local and cultural British references.
The leading members of the cast were: Spike Fearn, Angourie Rice and Minnie Driver; and the film was directed by Alicia MacDonald, who is also known for directing ‘Survivor’, ‘Mr. Turner’ and ‘Too Much’. The screenplay was written by Rachel Hirons, who is known for ‘Kiss Me First’, ‘A Guide to Second Date Sex’ and ‘Never Google Heartbreak’.
The plot, setting and acting was more ‘roll along’ than anything else, with nothing being particularly memorable, although it is fair to say there was a reasonable sprinkling of humour throughout. We were largely uninspired by this film, and would not recommend it to anyone, other than perhaps during a bored, wet Sunday afternoon.
Mark Kermode initially described ‘Finding Emily’ as “vaguely preposterous”, but acknowledged that as it is a ‘Rom-Com’, it is largely carried by the “scrappy charm” of the leads, particularly the male lead. He didn’t find any of the narrative contrivances in any way believable, but suggested that they were carried well by Spike Fearn, regardless.
He goes on to describe the narrative as containing gaping cracks, and with “every cliché in the book”. Nonetheless, he found it “kind of sweet, charming and funny”, and he did like the Manchester locales, having been a student there himself in the 1980’s. And he generally thought the movie was “fine”.
I gave it a score of 5, whilst IMDB gave it 6.9, and the Rotten Tomatoes score was 10 (100%).
Fraser