The romcom has lapsed into such an anaemic state that Rye Lane feels like a miracle. Here’s an entry into the genre that doesn’t surrender to thinkpiece-ready neuroticism. And doesn’t demand two A-listers shoulder the entire job of summoning chemistry from a dead-eyed script. And, most refreshingly, doesn’t subsist purely on nostalgia for romcoms of old.
Raine Allen-Miller’s breezy, south London-set debut is exactly what we deserve from this genre. With one foot in the present and the other in the past, it follows a day-long flirtation – à la Before Sunrise – between two of life’s loveable losers, Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson). Both are shipwrecked by post-breakup shame. But when Yas catches Dom in the act of a not-so-private sob session in an art gallery bathroom, the pair become unlikely allies in the search for emotional closure. Yas subs in as Dom’s faux-girlfriend during humiliating peace talks with his ex Gia (Karene Peter), and the himbo (an excellent Benjamin Sarpong-Broni) with whom she cheated on him. Dom, in return, helps Yas steal back her A Tribe Called Quest LP from the conceptual artist (Malcolm Atobrah) she regrettably used to date.
