RYE LANE - A Review

Rye Lane is a well-balanced rom-com.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Raine Allen-Miller's vibrant feature debut may begin with a fly over of multiple bathroom stalls, but don't be fooled: This movie is not taking the piss. At a tight 82-minutes, it's a walk-and-talk getting-to-know-you rom-com that finds joy in every frame and pathos in every line of dialogue. Once the camera settles over sad-sack accountant Dom (David Johnson), he immediately meets would-be manic pixie dream girl/costumer Yas (Vivian Oparah), and their journey together begins. He's crying, and she's curious. It's no meet-cute, but it is appropriately quirky and vulnerable.

The two are at an art installation put on by a mutual friend, and after some polite small talk end up heading the same way home. He can't seem to shake her and is soon over-sharing about a recent breakup. She sympathizes, having recently experienced her own split, though she's seemingly okay with hers. By the ten-minute mark we know the rest of the film will be these two wandering the streets of South London. And that's exactly what we get: two strangers with instant chemistry bouncing from karaoke bars to backyard barbecues, running into exes, and getting to know each other. Complete with Scrubs-like asides where stories are exaggerated and fantasies can be acted out apart from the more grounded reality of the main plotline. These are some of the funniest moments in the film as well as a smart, quick way to establish intimacy between Yas and Dom.

The screenplay, by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia, is as sensitive as it is clever. It's the kind of script where everyone comes off in a good light, even cheating exes and pretentious artists. They're not bad people, just... kind of vain and stupid. Our leads are complicated. Dom is sweet and funny, but he's also a pushover resigned to his humdrum career and the fact that he's back living with his parents. Yas is a free spirit who can build others up with ease, but she lacks confidence in herself. You know they would be good for each other, if only they can let go of their baggage, and desperate for them to figure it out. Rarely is the genre this compelling.

The film is shot mostly if not entirely through fisheye lenses, which in any other film would be distracting, but here makes perfect sense. The camera is literally diminishing the world around our leads, as enraptured by their chemistry as we are. They wander a skewed and colorful world, dreamlike and familiar and gorgeously composed in wide-angle. It's almost a cartoon. Like a cross between Before Sunrise and Bob's Burgers, where Jesse and Céline find themselves on Ocean Avenue, talking life and love while eccentric neighbors and merchants bounce by in the background.

Rye Lane has a familiar premise, but it skillfully avoids the shallow trappings of other rom-coms. It's spry and warm and focused and has no intention of bogging itself down in melodrama. It invests in its characters, allows them to make and overcome mistakes, and is as complex as a movie twice its runtime. It will no doubt enter the regular rotation in this house. Which will be easy, as it is streaming right now on Hulu. Everyone involved is probably about to blow up. Be there for the beginning of it.