All of You Review – An Unapologetic Tale of What It Means To Be Messy and Human

Originally posted on Men's Journal | By Billie Melissa | Last updated Nov 11, 2024 6:28 AM ET

In recent years, we have seen a host of gracious movies about lost love.

Just last year, Celine Song's stunning Past Lives stole hearts by injecting audiences worldwide with that precise feeling you get when you realize a person will always be your past and not your future. Not in this life, at least.

Months later, Pablo Berger's Robot Dreams similarly strolled onto the scene, sinking into people's souls through its benevolent depiction of a fleeting encounter between two friends whose companionship lasted just one sweet summer.

Both Past Lives and Robot Dreams share a kindness. They are gentle to their protagonists, providing them space to move on from their heartache in a way that wraps neatly in their 105-minute run-time. In doing so, they allow themselves and the audience space to breathe a deep exhale of closure when the credits roll.

You leave the film feeling like you've healed something, resolving the niggling itch you had to send that call or text that should likely stay in the drafts.

Enter William Bridges, who has pulled out his own Past Lives-esque tale and chucked it into the brutal streets of London, where gracious goodbyes are not commonplace.

Brett Goldstein plays Simon, and Imogen Poots is Laura in All of You, which follows two best friends who met at university and are now entering the messy world of "real" adulthood.

Like most of us in our mid-to-late twenties, Simon and Laura seek out what's next for their lives, but Bridges chucks in a Sci-Fi twist similar to the one Christos Nikou utilized in his recent film, Fingernails, that will determine that for them.

In this near-future London, there is a test you can take that matches you with your supposed soulmate, and within the first ten to fifteen minutes, Laura gets matched off with a man named Lukas.

He becomes the father of her child, her husband, and the man she chooses to love, even when all signs point to Simon.

Imogen Poots and Brett Goldstein in All of YouBFI London Film Festival

The film's first quarter moves too swiftly, and at just 98 minutes long, Bridges could afford to slow down and let things bubble. He's establishing a history between the two, and with a decade to span, he's found a gem of a duo in Goldstein and Poots, who soak in the chemistry required to make this tale compelling.

Simon is skeptical but not cynical. He believes love should be found, not prescribed, an absorbing conflict to pit against Laura's romantic belief that there is a One.

Optimistic that the test has led her to her happy ending, Laura's world crashes around her when complicated feelings for Simon lead the two down a rocky path – one that'll ultimately break them.

Bridges must be commended for leaning unapologetically into what it means to be messy and human. Laura and Simon aren't always likable. They don't always make the right decisions. They act on desire, lean on the comfort they find in one another, and, in the process, hurt themselves and others. Their feelings do not get watered down to serve the neat ebbs and flows required of traditional story structure (sometimes to the film's detriment), but it doesn't matter because it feels real.

The two make imperfect decisions, ones that are easy to judge. They go back and forth, wandering farther from their morality, which drags them down and grows more painful as they mature.

Goldstein and Poots handle their characters with care, and although much of the narrative is about their relationship with one another as opposed to their individual inner lives, it almost doesn't matter as audience members can use each character as avatars for catharsis.

Bridges has made a thoughtful gem of a film that dives into the nitty gritty of how it feels to be uncertain about certainty. It feels reflective of a time that leans on algorithms and tests to dictate the future and pushes back on that ideal, inviting the audience to take the initiative to stop relying on "perfection" as a driving force in our lives.

The screenplay Bridges co-wrote with Goldstein stunts it slightly, and the aesthetic isn't always gorgeous, but it does dissect a worthwhile conversation with thought and care, giving grace to its audience while allowing its characters to be the ones to shoulder messy reality.

This article first appeared on Men's Journal and was syndicated with permission.

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