Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn) is an aspiring musician, but when his mother passed away nearly a year ago, he had to give up his band and get a regular job. He now works as a sound engineer for Manchester City University, where he maintains the sound equipment for the student union. He lives with his older brother Matt (Jack Riddiford) and Matt’s girlfriend Freya (Isabella Laughland) in their mother’s home, but will likely be forced to sell the property due to the high mortgage payments.

One evening, while working an fancy dress party at the student union, Owen meets a fascinating girl named Emily (Sadie Soverall), who is dressed as a fairy. Their encounter only lasts for 20 minutes, but as they dance and talk, time stands still for Owen. He feels a real connection with this girl, and as Fairy Emily rushes off to another party, she gives Owen her phone number. But when he tries to text her the next morning, Owen realizes the number is one digit short, and he doesn’t know how to contact her, or even Emily’s last name.

Owen heads to campus, in hopes of finding his Emily, but the folks in charge aren’t willing to just give out student information. During his efforts, he crosses paths with American psychology student Emily Raine (Angourie Rice). Emily is a scholarship student with her visa on the line if she doesn’t do well with her final dissertation. So far, she has not had any luck finding a good case study for her thesis, which her professor describes as “to scientifically prove that everyone in love is in fact a self-sabotaging Neanderthal sheep.” But when Emily sees Owen putting up posters around campus, looking for info about his Emily, she realizes he is exactly what she is looking for. Unbeknownst to Owen, he becomes her new test subject. Owen just thinks that Emily is being nice, offering to help him locate this girl he made a connection with.

Emily’s professor warns her not to get involved with her subject, or cause inference bias in the study. However, as she helps this lovesick musician look for his dream girl, her own academic ambitions and growing attachment to Owen start to influence her suggestions and Owen’s actions. She keeps giving him bad advice that may be good for her research, but just seems to make things worse for Owen. Things really take a turn when she suggests that Owen email the 318 Emilys on campus. But he accidentally cc’s them all in a single email, inadvertently creating an Emily group chat. Some of the Emilys are creeped out, and start trying to hunt down the identity of this “stalker”. This kicks off a campus-wide frenzy. If Owen reveals himself, will he finally find his Emily, or will it just push her away? And if his identity is revealed, there could be consequences for his accessing and misappropriating student information. And how will Owen react if he finds out what Emily is really up to?!

Finding Emily is a fun little romantic comedy. I was not really familiar with lead Spike Fearn before watching this film, but I found him to be quite charming, reminding me of a young Hugh Grant in the way he plays this innocent lovesick young man who is constantly stammering as he tries to explain his feelings. Everything Owen does with the best intentions just seems to accidentally make things worse, often to humorous results. While Owen’s motives are pure, and out of positivity and a belief that true love is actually a thing, the more cynical observers question this and assume something else must be going on—that he’s some sort of creepy stalker looking for this girl who likely gave him a wrong number on purpose just to get away from him.

Meanwhile, Emily is one of these cynical people when it comes to love. She has had a crush on classmate Tristan (Timothy Innes) that she thought was mutual, but something happened and she has been friend-zoned for the past three years. She doesn’t believe in true love anymore, which is why she likely came up with such a pessimistic thesis. While she initially tries to remain objective and distant when working with Owen, she can’t help but nudge him in certain directions in order to get the results she needs. She’s running out of time and only has two weeks before the end of the term, and doesn’t have the luxury to just let things play out naturally. But in doing so, Emily is inadvertently doing the exact self-sabotage she is trying to prove with Owen!

While Emily’s motives aren’t pure, the film provides enough to not make the viewer hate this character, and gives her some redeeming qualities. Angourie Rice does have chemistry with co-star Spike Fearn, which makes the idea that Emily and Owen could fall for one another (if they can get over the idolized dream-partner they each have stuck in their heads). The film also has a variety of fun supporting cast/characters. Owen and his brother have this very realistic relationship, where they razz on one another, but also support one another in times of need. Emily also has a similar relationship with her roommate Anna (Cora Kirk). Minnie Driver also stars as the no-nonsense Dean Watkinson.

I first saw this film in the theater as one of those mystery AMC Screen Unseen films, but enjoyed it just as much the second time around watching at home. Universal/Focus Features has released Finding Emily on Blu-ray and Digital. We were sent the Blu-ray release for review from AV Entertainment. The single disc is placed in a standard-sized Blu-ray keepcase. There is no digital copy included, and our review copy did not include a slipcover. The technical presentation of the film is generally very good, with a solid, clean, detailed picture. Dialogue is clear throughout, and there are moments when the stereo and surround channels are well-utilized to provide a more immersive ambiance, such as during party sequences, or when crowds of Emilys are chanting against Owen. The disc is fairly barebones, but does contain 9 minutes of deleted scenes.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:50:34)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English DVS (Descriptive Video Service), Spanish 5.1 DTS Digital Surround
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes (9:13)
  Collection of four deleted scenes. Play All, or select from:
  • Stop Checking That Phone (1:13)
    Emily’s roommate tells her to stop checking her phone, and asks if she’s happy with her arrangement with Owen.
  • Emily Party (2:47)
    Owen is a bit nervous about his disguise; Emily heads into the Emily Party and meets the others, trying to gauge their opinions of Owen.
  • Rambler (:50)
    Owen sits on the hillside screaming into his jacket as a man and his dog walk by.
  • Cactus Sting Live (4:25)
    Owen’s band Cactus Sting performs their song “Weatherman” live at Night and Day on September 1, 2022.

Final Thoughts:

Finding Emily is a fun romantic comedy that feels both like something fresh and new, but also follows a familiar tried and true formula. The cast is a lot of fun, and have good chemistry with one another. There is also some great music on the soundtrack. Universal’s Blu-ray looks and sounds great, and even includes a small collection of deleted scenes. This is worth checking out for fans of the cast or of romantic comedies in general.