Finding Emily (2026) – Review and Summary

Finding Emily embraces the cringe, anxiety, audacity, and perhaps naivety of being young (early 20s) and thinking you may have found the one after an enjoyable chance encounter.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on
Owen (Spike Fearn) and Emily Raine (Angourie Rice)

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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“Finding Emily” Film Details

  • Director(s): Alicia MacDonald
  • Writer(s): Rachel Hirons
  • Runtime: 1 Hour(s) and 51 Minutes
  • Public Release Date (In Theaters): August 28, 2026
  • Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, Young Adult
  • Content Rating: Rated PG-13
  • Primary Language: English
  • Images © of / Courtesy Of Focus Features

Movie Summary

Owen is a 23-year-old sound engineer at a university in Manchester, and sometimes he works at a local venue as well. Together, the money gives him enough to contribute to the household he shares with his brother, but maybe not enough to live by himself. But while things aren’t perfect living with his older brother and his brother’s partner, things were going well, and when Owen met Emily, he thought life was giving him a break after a rather rough year.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. He meets Emily, who is this wonderful girl whom Owen fancies almost instantly, but with her missing a number when she put it into Owen’s phone, she triggers something in him. You see, Owen is a bit awkward, and maybe not as aware of social norms as he should be. So, he goes on a quest to find his Emily, only to encounter another girl named Emily.

She is a psychology student from America, trying to finish her paper in which she pushes love to be a negative thing. So, upon learning the extent Owen is willing to go, she joins the ride first as an observer, then a participant. Leading to Owen trusting her with his heart as he goes further than most are comfortable with, to the point of his efforts going viral.  

Cast and Characters

Owen (Spike Fearn)

  • Character Summary: Owen is a 23-year-old sound engineer and a younger brother. He chose to bypass university and jump straight into the working world because he’s always felt that school wasn’t his thing.

Emily Raine (Angourie Rice)

  • Character Summary: Emily is a psychology student from Iowa who has a negative take on love and, for her degree, tries to prove, through using Owen, how it causes people to go into a temporary psychosis.

Review and Commentary

Owen’s Accent

Let me begin by saying, Owen’s accent isn’t BBC News English, i.e., it doesn’t sound like Sir Idris Elba, Dame Judi Dench, or Sir Ian McKellen. It is local and requires you to adjust in ways which may, in the beginning, require you to rely on context clues or the words that are clear. But, in time, you’ll get used to it.

Highlight(s)

Owen Is Made To Be Lovable, But Doesn’t Feel Simple [87/100]

Owen is the type of guy who you can see as so earnest that some may think something is up with him. He’s socially awkward; his inhibitions are inconsistent and lean towards being oddly willing to do cringeworthy things, and he doesn’t take well to being misunderstood or ignored. The film portrays this as part of his charm but also can make him seem like, even at 23, he hasn’t gained the skills and, to be frank, the shame most people have at his age.

This is something that, strangely, never leads you to feel Owen is unreal. Spike Fearn’s performance mixed with how Rachel Hirons wrote him produces this incredibly stable tightrope. I would even say, minus the globetrotting, what Fearn gives us is a Forest Gump type of vibe, but with Forest being raised in or around Manchester.

The Span Between Creepy, Cringe, Adorable and Interested [84/100]

One of the many reasons modern romance can feel immensely complicated is because of how aware everyone can become of your mistakes. You blow it with a guy, and it could become a viral story either locally or online, all from text messages or a Snapchat video. Or, in Owen’s case, you believe you had this magical night with a girl, and in your pursuit of finding her, your actions become part of a worldwide study on toxicity, what an incel acts like, and more.

Yet, thankfully, there is some effort in Finding Emily to explore how romance plays out in modern times, with romantic gestures being the main focus. Such as, at what point should someone let go of a missed connection?

Then there is what is considered going too far? Going to their assumed school and asking around? Is that weird? What about hitting up bars, hoping bartenders can give you answers? How about sending emails to everyone at a university, over 300 women, with the same name?

Note: there is a need to remember Owen is 23, and while an adult, he is still young and inexperienced in love. So, there isn’t this feeling of being jaded, used, having to break up or being broken up with hanging over him and making him a pessimist. He is still hopeful, in Emily Raine’s eyes blindingly so, about the possibility of love. And I think in many ways, Finding Emily wants to honor people like that, while recognizing why they are a dying breed.

Loving Supporting Characters Enough To Almost Wish This Was A Mini-Series [85/100]

Even with clocking in just shy of two hours, it can feel like Finding Emily had far more story to tell. You have Owen’s relationship with his brother, his handful of friends, and gaining a better sense of how he got onto the track he is on, besides not being that great at school. With Emily Raine, there is the question of why Manchester, when you are from Iowa, out of all places? How her dad’s absence has affected her take on love, and that’s just focusing on the two leads.

Then you have Emily’s roommate and her pursuit of life and romance. There is the Emily who is the Student Union president and her story, which we don’t get to know, and also wanting to know the student news broadcaster who also feels like she has more to offer than reporting on Owen’s story.

Truly, what Hirons did with each character is not just give them purpose for moving things along for Owen, but also giving just enough to make it clear that none of these women, and some men, live and breathe only when in Owen’s presence. They have lives of their own, and it is just that Owen has become too big a topic to not be affected in some way or another.

Overall

Our Rating (85/100): Positive (Worth Seeing) – Recommended

Finding Emily is the imperfect romantic comedy that easily could become part of the rotation for people who love the genre. Owen is the kind of leading man who doesn’t fit a mold, could be literally any guy, and because his intentions are always honest and clear, you love and adore him. And while, yes, some of his decisions may make you wish his brother was more involved in his life, or his friends in preventing him from making certain decisions, that’s another asset for the film. They all care for Owen, but clearly have their own jobs, schoolwork, and lives they have to tend to. They can’t drop everything for him.

Which is why we think this is worth seeing. Finding Emily somehow navigates everything that makes dating difficult, especially for guys like Owen, but often tries to pursue nuance. It recognizes the extremes, and how those takes can be valid regarding Owen, but it also wants you to understand there is no one-size-fits-all, and while romance isn’t dead, many of us are taking stabs at it to make sure it keeps dying.

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.