Finding Emily (dir. Alicia MacDonald)

by Jack Martin | May 21, 2026

Certificate: 12A

Running Time: 110 mins

UK Distributor: Universal Pictures

UK Release Date: 22 May 2026

WHO’S IN FINDING EMILY?

Spike Fearn, Angourie Rice, Minnie Driver, Ella Maisy Purvis, Yali Topol Margalith, Kat Ronney, Timothy Innes, Nadia Parkes, Anthony J. Abraham, Scarlett-Mai Grant, Faye Campbell, Tash Major, Carl Blakeley, Julia Rogers, Trudy Akobeng, Fiona Allen, Toby Rothwell, Dalu Thebe, Emily Ash, Hannah Greensmith

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Alicia MacDonald (director), Rachel Hirons (writer), Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Olivier Kaempfer (producers), Morgan Kibby (composer), Rachel Clark (cinematographer), Phil Hignett (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A lovesick young man (Fearn) desperately searches for his dream girl…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON FINDING EMILY?

Manchester has served as the filming location for all sorts of major studio films over the years, from historical blockbusters to frightening zombie apocalypses, but surprisingly few have dared to actually set their movie in the city itself, least of all a romantic-comedy like Finding Emily. In fact, one of the last times that a high-profile comedy was primarily set in Manchester was all the way back in 2002, when director Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People explored the city’s vibrant music scene throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

Of course, director Alicia MacDonald’s debut feature is very different to Winterbottom’s, but both share the same amount of passion for their Mancunian DNA in ways that few other studio-backed movies would dare to show. Here, the love story isn’t just the charmingly chaotic one at the centre of Rachel Hirons’ script, which works quite well as a postmodern rom-com in its own right, but is also one toward Manchester itself and its various residents who fully embrace their ardent heritage and confident enthusiasm.

One of them is Owen (Spike Fearn), a young university student in Manchester whose dreams of becoming a musician have been put on hold following the death of his mother and the imminent selling of his family home. Nonetheless, he remains fairly optimistic, especially when – during a shift working as a sound engineer for the on-campus student union nightclub – he crosses paths with a young woman named Emily (Julia Rogers) and becomes smitten with her, even when she hurriedly gives him her number before he can even know a few more details. However, the number turns out to be incomplete, and with nothing else to work with other than the name “Emily” he sets out to find her in a haystack full of Emilys.

This is where another, very different Emily (Angourie Rice) enters the picture. An American psychology student, she is struggling to put together the final pieces of her dissertation that seeks to disprove the necessity of love itself, but after sensing an opportunity to use Owen and his feeble quest as a case study, she volunteers to help him search for his Emily and secretly record his progress. However, things quickly get out of hand when the whole campus catches wind of Owen’s pursuit after a poorly worded email to all the numerous enrolled Emilys makes the rounds and even goes viral, provoking a mixture of outrage and fascination among the students. Worse still, as tends to be the case with most rom-coms, there’s a small chance that Emily may be disproving her own morals by developing feelings for Owen, and vice versa.

Naturally, Finding Emily follows many of the traditional rom-com conventions but, thanks to Hirons’ thoughtful script and MacDonald’s lively direction, it not only executes them pretty well, but it also has fun picking some of them apart within a modern-day lens. Owen’s madcap pursuit of his mystery Emily is straight out of something that Richard Curtis or even Nora Ephron may have written about back in the more anything-goes era of rom-coms, but in today’s society where the #MeToo movement and the concerning rise of manosphere-influenced misogyny have caused many to reevaluate gender equality and female agency, that particular mindset would probably not go over so well.

That is realised in this movie, where there is significant backlash towards Owen by many who are quick to view him as a walking example of male entitlement and even incel behaviour, but interestingly neither MacDonald nor Hirons choose a specific side in this argument, as they also present some of the people advocating against Owen as being cartoonishly self-righteous with their outrage being largely performative. It makes the film less a critique of archaic rom-com tropes and more of a commentary on how people in this day and age would respond to them, adding an enjoyable layer of self-awareness to the otherwise familiar genre template.

But again, this movie happens to be a solid example of those conventions in practise, while also leaving room for plenty of other elements to be charmed by. For one, there’s a bright spark between leads Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice, his puppyish awkwardness giving strong Four Weddings and a Funeral-era Hugh Grant vibes (but with a much thicker Mancunian twang) and her sunny charisma recalling the likes of Meg Ryan in her heyday both working in tandem to deliver a couple you can easily see warming toward one another despite their initial reservations.

MacDonald also incorporates some stylish staging that brings to life some inventive visual ideas, such as all the Emilys reading the initial message at the same time within Owen’s home, and while the pacing can occasionally be a bit wobbly (particularly as it heads into the third act) the director evens it out with an overall optimistic tone that makes much of what we’re watching easily likeable. And of course, there’s Manchester itself and its many iconic locations from the gay bars on Canal Street to the exquisite interior architecture of the John Rylands Library, all and more of which are presented with such vibrant personality and a heavily inviting energy that it could almost double as a tourism ad for the city.

Like I said earlier, Finding Emily is a love letter towards Manchester as much as it is a love story in and of itself. But coupled with its charming and enjoyable deconstruction of classic rom-com traditions while also honouring them in all their glory, it’s one that will lift the spirits of audiences (especially Mancs) everywhere.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Finding Emily is a fun postmodern deconstruction of archaic rom-com templates that director Alicia MacDonald’s lively filmmaking, along with the winning on-screen chemistry between Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice, as well as the overall enthusiastic passion for the city of Manchester, transforms into an easily likeable love story of its own.