Rye Lane – surely the best romcom of the year, out now! (QFT until Thursday 30 March)

The opening scenes of Rye Lane establish a beautiful feeling of anticipation about a somewhat random film: an awkwardly honest encounter in a grim toilet, an art exhibition complete with a rich hoverboarding buyer, social awkwardness that is nearly off the scale, and a stream of wide-angled shots that place the cast within much larger than usual streetscapes in Peckham and Brixton. Every extra is extraordinary … and not just the one that you’ll do a double take when you recognise his cameo.

Raine Allen-Miller’s film (co-written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia) is as much a celebration of the area, its vibrant and diverse communities, as it is a voyage of fantasy following Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) around as they unexpectedly spend a day in each other’s company south of the Thames spilling other’s people’s ‘tea’.

Yas is confident and assertive while Dom is nervously emerging from the depression that followed a breakup. But Yas is hiding the truth about her own breakup behind embellished fabrications. Former partners add spice to the story and encourage empathy. Individually Yas and Dom are a mess, but together they offer each other hope.

It’s hard to see how Rye Lane could be bettered as a romcom this year. The plot is of no lasting consequence, yet the roots of the characters extend deep into your mind during their all too brief 82 minutes on-screen. This is a beautifully edited film, with a cheeky soundtrack and lashings of feelgood rubbed all over. Oparah and Jonsson have great dialogue and even better physicality. It would be a challenge not to leave the cinema with a smile on your face.

Rye Lane is being screened at Queen’s Film Theatre and most other cinemas.

 

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