“You know this is going to ruin our friendship,” Simon (Brett Goldstein) tells Laura (Imogen Poots) as they hop on a subway together at the start of “All of You,” giving no clue as to what exactly is about to come between them, but the strength of their bond has been predicated on ignoring the obvious. Thick as thieves since university, everyone in their orbit has to wonder why the two never became romantically entwined, which is explained away as a mix of bad timing and comfort with what they have, but talking around the elephant in the room has a nifty dual utility in William Bridges’ lovely debut feature with a subtle bit of sci-fi when it’s revealed the friends are en route to a center where Laura will find out who her soulmate is, based on a new breakthrough where matters of the heart can be settled with genetic testing.
Bridges and Goldstein, also the film’s co-writer, are wise not to expend much energy on the demystifying the test, with the former knowing how to handle such a high-concept drama as a frequent director on “Black Mirror,” considering only its implications on this particular pair whose compatibility might not register on such an exam for the mere fact alone that Laura is eager to take it while Simon is not. In the same way that natural birth versus use of an epidural is discussed in our current reality, there are those in “All of You”’s that would prefer to do things the organic way as Simon is consigned to a life of dating for potentially the rest of his days while Laura is assigned a partner almost immediately in Lukas (Steven Cree), a completely reasonable suitor that you only get to know as far as it seems his wife does as a means to an end. Still, Goldstein, who you couldn’t help but like as the irascible soccer star Roy Kent on “Ted Lasso,” wrote a similarly irresistible leading man role for himself as the science skeptic that Laura starts to suspect may have declined the test when it might reveal the two weren’t made for each other.
There’s at least a little Richard Curtis in “All of You” when the differences between Simon and Laura are clearly part of the attraction and to find love seems like an exclamation point on a deeper connection as friends. Goldstein and Poots have a wonderfully playful rapport, with the sillier they get a reflection of how serious the stakes are for their relationship and even if it weren’t for the nuanced forward-thinking work of costume designer Nat Turner, in which wristwear becomes a measure of years gone by, and the sleek simplicity of Luke Moran-Morris’ production design, situating the couple in time after Bridges and Goldstein stretch out the story over decades, the film feels distinctly modern in considering what the purpose of coupling is. Providing only fleeting glimpses of Simon and Laura’s lives outside of their rendezvous, “All of You” nonetheless shows the shifting place they hold in each other’s minds as practicalities can supersede a surrender to passion, something the test would seem to account for yet goes against all other logic the two have.
The cost of putting personal feelings to the side has been a part of dramas as old as time, but there is something immediate in watching a future grow cleaner by all appearances as its messier particulars are shifted into the private lives of those struggling to adapt and when Simon and Laura have to work at keeping their connection in spite of the convenience available to them, romance extends beyond what could exist between its main duo to what an audience is bound to feel when the investment is more than worthwhile. In a genre that can feel a little predetermined these days, “All of You” may not make a judgment on its characters for wanting to know the future, but clearly suggests the less known path can be vastly more rewarding.
“All of You does not yet have U.S. distribution. It will next screen at the London Film Festival on October 10th at 6:10 pm at BFI Southbank and October 11th at 8:30 pm at Prince Charles Cinema.