Finding Emily

CinemaSerf

"Owen" (Spike Fearn) is the sound guy at a student party who meets and falls for "Emily". She is about to head off when he asks for her number, but in her haste (or perhaps deliberately?) she only gives him ten of the necessary eleven digits. He's well and truly smitten and so decides he is going to track her down. Easier said than done as there are hundreds of girls called Emily at the university. His first enquiry introduces him to one who is over from the USA (Angourie Rice) and who is in need of a special project to complete her studies and, hopefully, secure a working visa for herself. She agrees to help him, but with her own ulterior motives never far from her mind she only succeeds in making things extremely complicated for a young man whose innocent enquiry ends up seeing him swimming against a tide of angrily toxic feminity that brands him as just about everything from a pest to a pervert. Meantime, he is having to deal with selling his late mother's home he shares with his brother "Matt" (Jack Riddiford) and his girlfriend "Freya" (Isabella Laughland) and, of course, with all this publicity he can't quite fathom why the real "Emily" isn't getting in touch. Is there any chance this man is going to find his dream fairy before he gets himself further manipulated by one lass and possibly lynched by all the others? The charismatic Fearn is on good form throughout this quite entertainingly written and quickly paced comedy that isn't without it's teeth. It takes a swipe at the ridulousness of excessive political correctness; at those who take themselves far too seriously and - thanks to a few sparing but cutting contributions from Minnie Driver - at those unforgiving types who toss their grenades in first, regardless of any justification. It's good fun, this, and though perhaps a little on the long side - especially at the end - it's worth a watch.