A British romantic comedy will always grab my interest and I'd heard very good things about Rye Lane for some time.
I've been a rom com fan since I could watch films I think. There doesn't seem quite so many hitting the cinemas these days as there were in the 80s and 90s, pre-streaming of course - Pretty in Pink, When Harry Met Sally, Four Weddings, You've Got Mail, to obviously name but a few! Then there are the more quirkier rom coms - Punch Drunk Love, Amelie, Scott Pilgrim. Plus some newer ones such as Palm Springs, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Ticket to Paradise. They all have that special ingredient, it makes me want to go back for more and leaves me feeling better about everything in the world, even if just for a moment. I think Rye Lane falls very nicely in between the classic and quirky, making it a pretty much a perfect addition.
At 82 minutes in length, it's a very welcome and refreshing change to feel like you've not been in the cinema for days and in recent times that has become more and more common (not necessarily a bad thing, however, a point to note).
I sat grinning from ear to ear, laughing out loud and was just bereft when the credits rolled and the film finished and I had to leave the comforting darkness of the auditorium. I rushed home, opened my laptop and needed to write about it straight away!
Set in South London, we meet Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) who meet randomly, both having recently gone through traumatic break-ups. They wander, chat and start to get to know each other and have a very eventful day! I'd read a couple of reviews with some comparisons to Linklater's 'Before' trilogy (which I love) and I completely agree.
There are so many things that work and which I loved about Rye Lane, I don't know where to begin.
The flow of the film just keeps you absorbed from beginning to end. This flow is in part down to the fantastic script, by Nathan Byron and Tom Melia. It's not a spoiler but there is one line in particular which stayed with me, something along the lines of "he was diluting my squash, had to get rid of that satan", which had me nearly spitting my smarties out and laughing out loud. I am definitely using that in the future! It carried on though, so many great lines, so well structured and very funny.
Director Raine Allen-Miller has made such a visually stunning film, it is colourful, vibrant and the best word I can use is 'alive'. The wonderful diversity in London and the great characters and community are brought to life in such a wonderful way throughout. The background is brought to the foreground so many times. The main characters' chemistry is another of the huge successes of the film. They are perfectly matched and such rounded and full characters with great comic timing.
It has moments for all generations too. Musical moments, which for my age group will bring back a lot of nostalgia and have you holding back from singing along.
No spoilers, but there's also a great surprise which had me looking twice and laughing out loud, so well done, so unexpected!
I feel very lucky to have caught Rye Lane at the cinema and I hope you can too. If not, hopefully it won't be too long before it's streaming because I can't wait to see it again!
This is up there now amongst my favourite films of the year so far.
Films like this should win all the awards.
I'm off to listen to some Terence Trent D'Arby (when you've seen it, you'll know...!).
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