British director Raine Allen-Miller, who became the toast of Sundance in January, has jokingly characterised her praise-laden debut feature (from a script by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia) as a tale of two people spending a day together and having a lovely time. That’s a deceptively simple description of a hugely enjoyable romp that effortlessly combines the “limited time” romcom format of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy with the in-your-face visual cheekiness of Peep Show. Unfolding against the vibrantly photographed backdrop of sunny south London locales (Peckham, Brixton and the South Bank), Rye Lane blends the warmth and charm of a formulaic love story with the colourfully street-smart grit of Brit pics such as Shola Amoo’s A Moving Image or more recently Reggie Yates’s Pirates, creating something that is at once playful, poignant and personal.
Rising stars Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson are thrillingly engaging as Yas and Dom, two young guns who meet-cute in the gender-neutral loos of an art gallery (“Of all the toilets in all of London”), where he is crying his heart out after breaking up with his girlfriend Gia (Karene Peter). “This is private,” Dom blubs from the sanctuary of his cubicle, to which aspiring costume designer Yas tartly replies: “It’s not that private” – a truth borne out by the fact that the newly-mets spend the rest of the day walking and talking their way through the “mess” of their respective lives.
