ONLY YOU: A Deceptive Romantic Drama

It’s a meet-cute ripped straight out of the most cliched romantic comedy: two strangers meet each other on New Year’s Eve while arguing over who was first in the queue for a taxi. And for a good portion of its first half, Only You, the debut feature by writer/director Harry Wootliff, seems like a deliberate attempt to marry these narrative expectations with a distinctively British take on the mumblecore genre – taking the most fanciful moments in a cinematic romance and bringing them down to earth.

Not your average fairytale romance

But Wootliff has far more on her mind than merely recounting all the important moments in a passionate relationship, taking our expectations of romantic bliss in the movies and turning them on their head in a way that’s increasingly devastating. After meeting two people who seem perfect for each other, not to mention madly in love, their happiness becomes compromised by one factor that threatens to overwhelm everything they’ve built together – a textbook love story, albeit one with an indie twist, that slowly transforms into something altogether more tragic. She may take far longer than necessary in guiding us towards this turbulent moment in their lives, but once we get there, she takes a perfectly charming but fairly inessential love story and turns it into something quietly haunting.

The aforementioned meet-cute takes place between Jake (God’s Own Country star Josh O’Connor) and Elena (Laia Costa). He’s a 26-year-old DJ leaving his NYE set, she’s a 35 year old woman leaving a house party with her friends who have mostly settled down already. Their attraction is intimate, and the film’s opening half hour is a whirlwind of integral moments to their relationship, from moving in together, to deciding to start a family.

But it’s the latter part of the equation when the difficulties start arising – no matter how hard they try, they can’t seem to conceive, despite medical check-ups showing the pair are both perfectly healthy. And when the solution of IVF is placed on the table, the rift between the two becomes more apparent, as they realise they’ll have to compromise their idealised dream of raising a family together – two people who seemed perfect for each other have found themselves on different pages for the first time.

This isn’t the first recent drama to deal with the complications that arise in starting a family, nor is it the best; Tamara Jenkins’ 2018 film Private Life may have viewed this story from the vantage point of middle age, but it was similarly a charming and quietly moving take on a struggle many couples face. Only You, even in its earlier stages, doesn’t shy away from telegraphing factors about the couple that could cause for problems later – namely, the initially insignificant age gap that becomes a wider barrier as the struggle to start a family accelerates. Elena frequently has to face friends giving birth and raising children, and the pair struggle to stay at a get together upon discovering an acquaintance is about to have a baby with his new girlfriend, who he got together with seemingly long after the pair began their battle to conceive.

Trouble in paradise

As somebody who isn’t planning on settling down and starting a family any time soon, there were certain stretches during the film’s extensive middle section where the drama lost momentum, the seemingly irreparable issues hindering starting a family largely left unspoken. This is an issue with serious consequences for the pair, through no fault of their own, and the way Wootliff handles their growing frustrations during the torturously long middle section feels somewhat clumsy. The repetition of their arguments may make for realism, but from a narrative perspective, can often feel like she’s merely stalling prior to the major ramifications of the final act, entering into a cycle of squabbling and half hearted attempts to reignite their passions that’s made less interesting due to how many times the director forces us to witness this same cycle on a loop, with no profound developments.

When that final half hour does arrive, it’s made all the more painful due to the magnetic onscreen chemistry of O’Connor and Costa. Following his breakout role in God’s Own Country, O’Connor is proving himself to be the thinking man’s romantic lead, effectively portraying a wild chemistry with his co-stars (sexual and otherwise), without letting that compromise the moral complexities of each character.

Which isn’t to say Jake is a bad person – he’s caring, and wants nothing more in the world to raise a family with the woman he loves. But the third act does its best to complicate this, making two people who seem perfect for each other appear like polar opposites in temperament. Their arguments aren’t violent, or particularly unusual for a couple in this situation. But when their chemistry together has been expertly depicted in such an intimate way, a rift in this manner (as normal as it may seem) transforms into something far more impactful.

Only You: Conclusion

Even the most fairytale romances hide larger problems, and Harry Wootliff has managed to explore a struggle many couples face within what initially seems like a quieter take on a love story as old as time. The middle section may be something of a slog, but thanks to O’Connor and Costa, there is never a second where you won’t believe you’re seeing the intimate difficulties of a real couple laid bare onscreen.

Only You will be released in UK cinemas and Curzon on Demand on July 12.