Simon is secretly — but not subtly — in love with his best friend Laura, which makes sense because she’s played by a vivid and endearing Imogen Poots. Laura has never seemed to think of Simon in those terms, which makes less sense because he’s played by a sweet and strapping Brett Goldstein (gruff enough, but so much softer than he was on “Ted Lasso”) . I suppose there could be a number of sensible reasons why she hasn’t considered a romance with the boy from uni who really gets her, but the only one that matters to William Bridges’ “All of You” is this: Laura and Simon live in the age of Soul Connex, a test that can scientifically determine a person’s soulmate (the film’s press notes suggest it has something to do with quantum entanglement, but the film itself doesn’t bother with the details).
Laura is determined to pair off with the right man, and Simon is so eager for her to realize who the right man really is that he agrees to pay for her test and accompany her to the clinic. Statistically speaking it’s not the safest of bets, but the heart has its reason which reason knows nothing of, and all that. And sure enough, Laura is matched with a nice bloke named Lukas (Steven Cree), who’s a bit square but unfailingly kind to her; as the movie skips forward in time, often eliding several months or more between scenes, Lukas even proves to be a wonderful father to the daughter he and Laura have together.
The only problem is that Simon never stops loving her, and Laura, even though she’s together with her soulmate, begins to feel as if she’s missing out on something even more satisfying than science. And so our hyper-photogenic BFFs embark on a long and torrid affair that lasts for years and years, a blissful time that’s persistently overshadowed by the supposed wrongnessof it all. Then again, being a person’s “soulmate” doesn’t necessarily make them a good partner anymore than marrying a good partner makes them your soulmate. Cheating is cruel (especially the way that Laura does it), but maybe the real cruelty is being conditioned to think that one person can answer to all that we are and want from the world.
If that makes “All of You” sound like some kind of anti-monogamy propaganda, well… the movie doesn’t put too fine a point on things, but I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. Besides, it’s safe to assume that Laura and Simon would probably run into some problems of their own if they were ever given a chance to build a life together, just as it’s safe to assume that any and all speculative fiction about scientifically arranged partnerships will be at least a little skeptical of the idea that two people can solve each other without any spillover.
Regardless, this plaintively compelling drama — co-written by Bridges and Goldstein, who’ve carved a great romance into a series of sharply hand-cut slices — is much less interested in judging its characters’ choices than it is in ruminating upon how those choices conflict with each other. Laura choseto marry Lukas, and she chooses to stay with him every day (whether for the sake of their daughter, out of mercy towards her husband, or some other unspecified reason). At the same time, however, she also chooses to bewith Simon whenever schedules allow them to enjoy a rendezvous in the British countryside; these getaways are the true focus of her romantic life, and everything else is just waiting. Are those choices possible to reconcile? Should one choice have to preclude the other?
Elliptical in a way that allows it to pose open questions without stating them plainly (and to answer them with something akin to omission), “All of You” is an unusual high-concept relationship drama in that its concept seems to have absolutely no impact on the story whatsoever. The Soul Connex test, front-and-center during the opening minutes, is seldom mentioned again, and at no point does this feel like the kind of movie that might contrive a way to circle back to it; the test is more context than plot (Bridges weaves the technology into the film with an extremely light touch), and unlike in “Fingernails” or some such, you never get the sense that anti-tester Simon might submit to it in the third act or discover that Laura’s results were wrong or anything like that.
If Laura married Lucas simply because he felt like the “right” guy for her, the rest of this story would still unfold in exactly the same way. The chemistry between Goldstein and Poots would still be engagingly natural (simpatico and renewable in a way more befitting old friends than new lovers), just as the scenes between them would still hum with the low-wattage electricity of a couple that doesn’t have to try that hard. The relationship between Lucas and his first-act girlfriend (Zawe Ashton) would still fall apart because she can tell he’s in love with Laura. Simon and Laura’s picturesque trysts — which seem to dominate the vast majority of the movie’s runtime — would still be fraught but fun in equal measure, prone to all the same hot sex, warm chat, and burning guilt. So why does the test have to be a part of this story at all? Would “All of You” be less effective as a conventional drama about two long-time friends whose bond gradually develops into a deep-rooted affair?
Perhaps not, but the conceit at the heart (or at least at the start) of Bridges’ debut casts a longer shadow than it might seem from how quickly the film moves on from it. People want to feel like they made the right choice, or that one good choice might save them from a lifetime of more uncertain ones, and it’s easy to appreciate how Laura and millions of other Londoners just like her might take solace in the objectivity that a soulmate provides.
But the fact is that the heart is a messy hunter, and a scientific degree of certainty — comforting as it might sound — only serves to clarify how difficult it can be to make our feelings obey the circumstances we arrange for them. The test might seem to free people from the peril of their own decisions, and yet, for all of its sliver-like smallness, “All of You” cuts deep enough into the no-concept reality of our own lives because it never forgets that we may not get to choose who we love, but we always have a say in the love that we choose.
Grade: B-
“All of You” premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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