Finding Emily understands the assignment all too well

Alicia Macdonald Wakes the Modern Rom-Com Up With Finding Emily.

Words by Dio Anthony

The very first frame in Finding Emily reveals a quote from Sigmund Freud—“Love is a state of temporary psychosis.” It’s a sentiment believed by the film’s main character, and one she uses to support the thesis of a very important college dissertation.

You know, the kind of assignment that can make or break your college career—and Angourie Rice’s Emily, an easy-going and ambitious student at the fictional Manchester City University, is taking no chances on a drop to her GPA; or, more importantly, her scholarship.

Alicia Macdonald’s Finding Emily is a romantic, college-campus-set comedy that, while occasionally tense, somehow manages to keep a smile on your face for most of its 111-minute runtime. Boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy embarks on a campus-wide crusade to find said girl. The aforementioned boy is Spike Fearn’s Owen, a hopeless romantic with a penchant for vulnerability. He’s soft, with kind eyes and in a perpetual state of good intention when he meets the first of many Emilys in a genderless bathroom during a costume party one night. She appears almost like an apparition—a fleeting meet-cute that immediately sends Owen searching for her again.

Owen, at a glance, is an easy target for heart-eyes. He’s a dreamer, albeit a grounded and unpretentious one, with zero qualms about baring his feelings and laying them out on the table—or, in this case, on the campus news show. Which, in turn, makes him the perfect “patient” for Emily’s paper, a choice that eventually puts her at odds with both herself and her new friend.

Finding Emily is reminiscent of early-aughts rom-coms starring the likes of the late Brittany Murphy and then-new guy Ashton Kutcher. But Macdonald has crafted a story firmly rooted in our tech-rattled present, where romance is complicated by parasociality, politics, gender roles, and the ever-present pressure of being perceived.

Macdonald succeeds at taking a very old-fashioned romantic premise and running it through a very modern social environment, turning all of those competing forces into one big, lovable mess.

Finding Emily Opens in Theaters August 28th.