[Review] ‘RYE LANE’ – a wholly original, imaginative and heartfelt rom-com

Jared McMillan // Film Critic

RYE LANE

Rated R, 82 min.
Director: Raine Allen-Miller
Cast: David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah, Simon Manyonda, Alice Hewkin, Poppy Allen-Quarmby and Levi Roots

Romantic comedies have always been a source of comfort for many movie-goers. And why not? It’s a tried-and-true formula that allows for a grounded fantasy through love-stricken characters. However, the formula gets in the way of itself sometimes. The movie introduces two characters, they meet, and then a comedy of errors takes place while we anticipate if the two characters will realize their chemistry and take that leap together. As a result, it can become very stale.

What makes a great romantic comedy is how it subverts those beats but still adheres to the formula that audience is looking for when watching rom-coms. It’s what made Nora Ephron such a great storyteller for romantic comedies, in that she would twist the meet-cute. For example, in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, Ephron saves the meet-cute for the movie’s end when Annie and Sam finally meet. She uses the happenstance that usually comes with two people meeting in a rom-com and stretches it out with the belief of signs or the magic of love at first sight. It’s still keeping the comfort of a romantic comedy, just playing with its makeup to give it a different look.

All of this is to say that RYE LANE, the feature-length debut from director Raine Allen-Miller, is the next great romantic comedy and the vibrant shot to the arm that the romantic comedy needs in 2023.

RYE LANE opens in an art gallery, where Dom (David Jonsson), crying in a unisex bathroom stall, is still pining over the breakup of his long-time girlfriend that happened three months ago. Enter Yas (Vivian Oparah), needing to use the bathroom and not quite sure what’s going on in the next stall other than some poor sap trying not to cry. It turns out they’re both mutual friends of the artist, but only Yas realizes that they just met in the bathroom. They leave at the same time, but Yas decides to tag along with Dom since they’re in the same direction, and the story unfolds from there.

Dom and Yas walk down Rye Lane together, moving through South London and getting to know each other. Yas, an aspiring costume designer, is forthcoming and jovial, slowly chipping away at Dom’s closed-off, straight-laced accountant to get him to loosen up and realize it’s not so bad out in the world. Once Dom hears she recently broke up with someone who mistreated her, he becomes inspired, opens up to Yas, and their walk home could potentially be something more.

Seems familiar, right? But RYE LANE does so much to elevate itself above the formula that it feels like a completely different movie. Rather than starting with character introductions, they meet first, and the audience gets introduced to Dom and Yas as they get to know each other. It brings the audience in so that we’re not just seeing two people fall in love, but we’re actually involved somehow.

Allen-Miller and screenwriters Nathan Byron and Tom Melia bring the audience in with paranoid close-ups from Dom’s perspective, cutaways to moments where Dom and Yas are ending their relationships, passing glances, soft smiles and smirks. Little things to keep the audience “in on it” as they realize their chemistry. In fact, Jonsson and Oparah have so much chemistry that you can’t help but smile or laugh as they navigate their pasts to figure out the present. And each time it feels they’re going to go their separate ways, Dom and Yas find an excuse to keep the walk going.

Another thing that Allen-Miller & Co. do is to make the environment more of a character than a setting. The camera flows through South London, incorporating the city’s color palette to give it a sense of vibrancy and life. There’s such a brightness to RYE LANE that even the story’s down moments, like Dom sitting down with his ex for closure, won’t let the audience feel down. From Dom’s bright pink shoes to shots of bright-colored shops to images of random people brightly smiling and having fun, it’s contagiously upbeat.

There is a lot of use of the fisheye lens, which can be a little distracting sometimes but ultimately enhances the energy one would feel on a first date. That sense of unknown envelops the two of you like a cosmic bubble as you become more aware of a connection. And that’s the beauty of a romantic comedy: It helps us relive that connection we feel at the beginning of falling in love. Too often, though, romantic comedies rely on letting everyone know romance isn’t dead. RYE LANE, however, lets everyone know that romance is life.

Grade: A

RYE LANE begins streaming on Hulu on March 31.