Rye Lane review: Charming British rom-com is slight but stylish
Director Raine Allen-Miller’s debut features two winning leads, a rich sense of place, and a tongue firmly planted in cheek
Directorial debuts are exciting because they often represent a director’s creative sensibilities in their rawest form, divorced from the studio notes that come with larger budgets. They showcase their talent as a visual storyteller within constraints that force them to prove themselves. Such is the case with Raine Allen-Miller’s first feature film, Rye Lane. Written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia, this seemingly simple story of two people romantically coming together during an adventure through South London is elevated by direction and performances that capture the absurdity of lost loves and first dates.
When Dom (David Jonsson) becomes overwhelmed by the emotional toll of his recently ended long-term relationship, he ducks out of his friend’s art show to hide in a unisex bathroom stall and cry. When Yas (Vivian Oparah) enters the bathroom to pee, she can’t help but notice the boy with pink shoes unsuccessfully hiding his sobs behind the sounds of her flushing. Later, Yas finds Dom back in the gallery and decides to tag along with him as he runs an errand to the Rye Lane neighborhood, their conversations unearthing the tragedy of Dom’s broken heart.
At first, it seems that Rye Lane is going to fall into the common romcom trap of only fully realizing the personality of one half of the prospective couple, with Yas serving solely as a quirky impetus for the reserved Dom to shed his emotional baggage. Thankfully, Yas turns out to have her own baggage to unload, with obfuscation baked directly into her character arc. Jonsson and Oparah have a natural chemistry, so not only does it never get old spending time with them, but they feel like people who should get together because they bring out the best in each other, even as they provoke each other into confronting their former relationships in increasingly comical ways.