THE STORY – In a recognizable near-future, Simon accompanies his best friend, Laura, as she takes a new test guaranteeing to match anyone with their soulmate. As Laura hurtles towards milestones with her new man, Simon understands how deeply he cares about her, even if he’s not ready to accept it.
THE CAST – Brett Goldstein, Imogen Poots, Steven Cree & Zawe Ashton
THE TEAM – William Bridges (Director/Writer) & Brett Goldstein (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 98 Minutes
It would be a far less intriguing film if William Bridges’ “All of You“ had played out anything like its opening montage suggests. That is saying something, considering how prominently the film’s science-fiction element, a test called “Soul Connex“ that scientifically matches people with their soulmates, is featured in its plot summary, press notes, and the supercut in the prologue. In reality — ours as viewers, not the recognizable future that Simon (Brett Goldstein, who also co-wrote the film) and Laura (Imogen Poots) live in — the test feels more like a narrative point that helped its director, a former “Black Mirror scribe,“ get off and running with his idea for what ends up being nothing more than a sturdy, lovely romantic drama (and a damn good one at that).
It seems that the only reason said narrative component made it out of the first draft – aside from it being part of the source material, the AMC show “Soulmates,“ helmed by Goldstein and Bridges – was to ensure that audiences would immediately clock how head-over-heels in love Simon is with his old pal. A journalist, he pays her fee for the test (notably not without wincing at the price, a gut punch), perhaps in hopes it might be him that shows up in her results. Or, maybe he’s just a good friend who hates the idea of the test but is willing to help a bud who trusts its presence in the modern world. In any case, Laura’s test points her in Lucas’ direction; played with a smile by Steven Cree, he’s a nice enough chap, despite possessing the zeal of a stale crumpet, but he’s a loving partner to Laura and a great father to their daughter, Sasha. Simon, meanwhile, keeps on being not-so-secretly in love with his best friend, even after she pairs him up with a friend, Andrea (Zawe Ashton), who sniffs out his true feelings in no time.
The structure of “All of You“ makes for a more exciting experience than might otherwise be the case. It’s not a non-linear romance like “We Live in Time,“ a fellow TIFF selection to make its world premiere at the festival, but it hops forward in time without warning. This leaves the viewer to piece together events that may have unfolded in the intervening months or years, like Sasha’s birth, Simon and Andrea’s split, or a career change for our two primary characters. The one constant is that, regardless of their years-long friendship, conversations between Simon and Laura remain strictly about one another’s love lives, as though both are hoping for the other to let slip that they might be feeling something towards the other, forbidden or not.
Before long, that hope materializes into an affair that is more akin to a long-distance relationship than it is a prolonged and illicit sexual rendezvous. A montage of their many weekends away together comes around the film’s halfway point, deftly eliding the “fun“ bits of their romance, for Bridges and Goldstein’s script is far more interested in the complications it brings about. Lucas, the “right“ choice but not the exciting one, appears suspicious at one point, even asking Simon whether or not “something happened“ between them. He values Simon’s presence in Laura’s life, even if he’s not fully aware of the extent to which he has been present. “We hurt people, and they don’t even know we’re doing it,“ she says at one point of the impact of their affair, a line that says more about infidelity than most other romances bother to broach.
It’s a curious choice, positioning Laura as the primary offender – after all, she’s the one with the spouse – a role that Poots helps transcend beyond the beats that might typically apply to the male archetype in a romantic drama. She’s selfish and occasionally immature, but she’s written with a light touch that makes her character reasonably likable despite how undeniably horrible her actions tend to be.
While Simon is certainly an equal participant, Laura is the lone partner in his life; for all intents and purposes, she’s his girlfriend, just one who happens to be married to someone else. As the painfully hopeless romantic who continues to hold out hope that his best friend will finally obtain the courage to pick him, choose him, and love him, Goldstein steals the film, maintaining the sardonic charm that became beloved during his run on “Ted Lasso,“ and turning in the most layered (and best) performance of his career.
That the “Soul Connex“ test never causes any significant problems for the film’s principal duo isn’t so much a bug as it is a feature. Had its inclusion led to a cataclysmic event, like the realization that Laura’s results were wrong and, gasp, it was Simon all along, “All of You“ might feel like a rejected episode of “Black Mirror“ that Bridges continued to workshop until finally cracking its big twist. Instead, the film he turns in here is a complex yet unfussy entirely void of big reveals, one that remains sharp in its authenticity from its opening frames to its closing twist – not that kind! – of the emotional knife. The fact Bridges and Goldstein manage to inflict these wounds without ever being cheap in their execution is the sign of a mature drama for adults that understands its goal and its audience. At a time when films that wouldn’t know where to begin if given their talent and premise are constantly pretending to know who they’re for and what they’re about, “All of You“ is a gift for all of us.
