All of You 2025 Movie Review
Greetings again from the darkness. This plays like a spin on the old Verizon commercials: Do you love me now? Writer-director William Bridges and co-writer/ lead actor Brett Goldstein deliver one of the more frustrating and cringey romantic movies I’ve seen in a while. There are a couple of character references to situations feeling too “adult”, and I kept thinking, why don’t any of these grown-ups act like an adult?
Simon (co-writer Goldstein, “Ted Lasso”) and Laura (Imogene Poots, THE FATHER, 2020) have been best friends since their days at university. Their bond is so close, they seem one step from having their own secret language. As the opening credits play, we are inundated with advertisements for Soul Connex. The ads claim all it takes is “a simple eye test” to find your forever soul mate. Now, in real life, it’s possible that two people as connected as Simon and Laura might recognize the soul mate sharing inside jokes with them, but in this movie, complications are mandatory.
Laura decides to take the test, while Simon adamantly refuses. He prefers to let nature take its course (a rare toaster analogy), while she prefers to charge his credit card for her test. She’s certain they will remain friends, which contrasts with his line, “I’ll miss you every day”. Sure enough, Laura finds her match in Lukas (Steven Cree, “Outlander”), while Simon becomes a periodic third wheel. She loves Lukas and they have a kid together, while Simon wanders through the forest of potential mates … periodically meeting up with his old BFF as sparks are re-ignited.
There is a major shift when Laura’s dad dies, and the film becomes one of the most maddening scenarios that any movie has dared present. The settings are often stunning, and the people are quite pleasant to look at, but the recurring situations defy all rational romance and true love preferences. It becomes something we have no interest in participating in, and frankly, turns these two previously pleasant and easily likable characters into quasi-villains that we no longer care for in the least.
Typically, I can find something positive to latch onto in a movie, regardless of however much negativity I feel towards the rest. All I can say here is that both lead characters need to realize it’s time to be an adult – and that means doing the right thing (or at least it used to).
