Romances don’t always have happy endings, but most of them do. Not every movie is about a prince picking up a glass slipper and trying to find his princess, but they typically end the same way: the protagonist gets the man or woman. This romantic comedy, a motion picture breakout for director Alicia MacDonald, was released on August 28th.

Emily Raine (Angourie Rice “Mean Girls” (2024), “Every Day”) befriends Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn “Alien: Romulus” and “Tell Me Everything”), while helping him search for the Emily he believes he fell in love with. During that time, she is also using the situation as part of her own experiment about love.

Both actors portrayed their love for each other naturally, making viewers wonder if they would end up together. The conflict was very believable and made their connection feel stronger on screen. The movie had a few cute moments, but most of them happen toward the very end, maybe the last 30 minutes of the 1 hour and 50 minute movie.

As a romance, the ending is pretty predictable, but I would say the emotional buildup wasn’t really there, and they kind of just popped out of nowhere. The tension between them wasn’t fully developed yet.

Some of the humor worked really well for me, while other jokes felt like they were trying a little too hard to remind me that I was watching a rom-com. That label doesn’t quite work; I would put the movie more in the romance category. However, the relationship and conversations between Owen and his brother could be considered a bit of comedic relief, as well as the couple of lines Owen delivers throughout the movie.

The characters both played their parts pretty well. Angourie Rice gives Emily a confident but complicated performance. She plays someone who thinks she understands love academically, while clearly struggling to understand it in her own life. Her character can be manipulative and frustrating at times, but that actually makes her more interesting than the typical rom-com role.

Owen Brampton adds to Rice’s performance by bringing a more genuine side to her character. Emily sees love as something she can study and prove, while Owen seems to actually believe in it. Their opposite views on love make Emily’s character more interesting as she starts to question whether her experiment is really just an experiment.

The side characters don’t add much to the story besides supporting Emily and Owen. They show up when Emily and Owen need advice or encouragement, but they don’t really have much development of their own. I didn’t dislike them, but I also didn’t feel like the movie would have been much different without them.

“Finding Emily” has a somewhat predictable storyline, but in a satisfying way. The movie follows some familiar rom-com ideas, but the central conflict makes the story feel different and interesting. Instead of the story’s conflict being only about whether the two characters will end up together, Emily has her own love experiment, while Owen’s conflict adds another layer. Having two different conflicts kept the plot from feeling like a typical romance.

The pacing was also pretty good overall. However, I felt the main conflict’s resolution took a little too long. Then when it finally happened, it felt like it went by too quickly compared to how much time the movie spent building toward it. The ending was still satisfying and felt like a good fit for the story the movie was trying to tell.

Overall, “Finding Emily” follows some familiar rom-com rules, but its unique conflicts make it stand out from the typical love story. The movie is funny, romantic, and easy to follow, even if the resolution feels a little rushed compared to the build-up. I would recommend “Finding Emily” to anyone looking for a lighthearted rom-com with a little more going on than just two people falling in love.

“Finding Emily” is rated PG-13 for sexual references, language, some crude material and drug references. It is available for purchase on YouTube, Apple TV, and Google Play.