All of You: Film Review
After working on the script for All of You with director/co-writer William Bridges for 10 years, Brett Goldstein was finally able to get the project made after becoming famous with Ted Lasso.
Goldstein and Imogen Poots play Simon and Laura, who have been best friends ever since they met at university. They have never been together romantically but they are so close that it’s not much of a stretch to see them in a relationship. This ‘will they won’t they’ situation seemingly ends when Laura takes a test to find her soulmate and is paired with Lukas (Steven Cree).
This near-future sci-fi romance drama, which is based on an episode of Bridges and Goldstein’s 2020 TV series Soulmates, takes the One Day approach to its timeline. We don’t meet Simon and Laura on the same day every year but the narrative jumps ahead between each sequence. You don’t always know how much time has passed and that annoyed me initially but I grew to like the technique. It’s interesting seeing how their lives have changed and how their friendship has evolved since we last saw them.
All of You is very familiar but it’s still a joy to watch because the script is so strong. It is sharp, really funny and very realistic. Simon and Laura believably interact like old friends and have a wonderful rapport. You think you know where this is going but it defied my expectations and didn’t pan out how I imagined. There were some interesting character choices, let’s put it that way!
Goldstein and Poots have fantastic chemistry – you get the sense that they’ve always had romantic feelings for one another but never wanted to risk ruining their friendship. They bounce off each other wonderfully in the light-hearted scenes and bring the goods as the story becomes more dramatic and emotional. Their co-star Zawe Ashton also deserves a mention for her perfectly pitched portrayal of Andrea, Simon’s girlfriend.
All of You didn’t need the Black Mirror-style sci-fi hook, because the romance drama is crowd-pleasing enough on its own.
Seen at the London Film Festival. Streaming on Apple TV+ from Friday 26th September