Only You
Glasgow-set Only You begins like a soufflé-light rom-com, but director Harry Wootliff has something far more tender and grown-up in mind
Conception and IVF aren’t the most romantic of topics, but Harry Wootliff’s tender debut feature makes it seem so. It begins with the cutest of meet-cutes, like something straight out of a Nancy Meyers rom-com – Elena (Laia Costa), an office worker at the CCA shares a cab with PhD student-cum-DJ Jake (Josh O’Connor) on a chilly Glasgow New Year’s Eve. It doesn’t take long for their drunken one night stand to blossom into a intense relationship.
It’s these blissfully idyllic standards that Only You continuously subverts with ease and care. Elena slowly reveals she’s older than she first let on, which is no problem until they try to have children. Romantic clichés are never considered, instead it’s the biological clock that becomes the biggest threat. It’s for this reason why Only You resonates with its honest vulnerability. Charming performances from O’Connor and Costa elevate the slow-moving drama, and though it stretches itself thin over its lengthy two-hour runtime, Only You is never less than compelling.
Only You screens at Glasgow Film Festival, 22 Feb, GFT, 5.30pm