A sweet & sunny South London love letter.

While I’m not normally one to get personal with a review, it feels like context is key with this one. So, here goes nothing.

Full disclosure: I’m a South Londoner.

Born and raised in Lewisham and currently residing in Greenwich – both a stone’s throw from Peckham – I have spent much of my life in and around South London. As such, the place is pretty damn close to my heart, and it therefore breaks it that such a large chunk of London is so repeatedly disregarded and disrespected on the big screen.

Of course, it can hardly be complained that London, as a whole, has lacked representation, yet the story is very different south of the river. Forever looked down on and dismissed as the scummier, rougher, less desirable half of the Capital, we’ve had to feed off scraps when it comes to positive media portrayals through the years, and while these tired negative stereotypes have slowly shifted over time, they’ve left behind pitifully few films we can proudly call our own.

Until Rye Lane, that is.

Still reeling from recent bad break-ups, the lives of Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) converge over the course of one eventful day in South London. Attempting to move on but stuck in a spiral of melancholy, the two twenty-somethings spend their walk down Peckham’s Rye Lane attempting to help one another deal with lingering heartache and nightmare exes, all while battling to restore their rapidly dwindling faith in romance.

It kind of goes without saying, but love is the crucial ingredient for any aspiring rom-com. I mean, of course it is. It’d be a brave (and probably unsuccessful) rom-com to have no rom in it.

This love takes many forms, however. So, while the romance between protagonists is usually the focal point of any rom-com, love can shape a film in more ways than one. It could be an era, a genre, a specific time, or, in the case of Rye Lane, a place.

Whether it’s Manhattan and Manhattan or La La Land and LA, the love between characters is often matched, if not outright trumped, by the film’s overt affection for its location. Granted, Peckham may not have the glitz or glamour of a New York or a Hollywood, but that doesn’t diminish Rye Lane’s affection for it one iota.

For those not in the know, Rye Lane is the main road that runs right through the heart of Peckham, South East London. It’s a high street that has taken the buzz and bustle of London from a bygone era and the kind of creeping gentrification that has consumed many parts of the Capital and balanced them surprisingly smoothly.

It’s a location that’s as overwhelming as it is endearing, where bustling butchers and buzzing barbers rub shoulders with rooftop bars and hipster burger joints relatively seamlessly, and it’s a place that’s clearly close to the heart of all those involved in Rye Lane. As integral to the narrative as both Vivian Oparah’s Yas and David Jonsson’s Dom, Rye Lane’s South London is far more than a mere backdrop, it’s everything.

As Yas and Dom float through Peckham and across Brixton, director Raine Allen-Miller drops both her characters and us right in the middle of a living, breathing organism. As our central couple’s tentative romance blossoms before us, Rye Lane merrily ticks by around them, offering cute, seemingly incidental, moments with background characters, market stools, front gardens, and everything in between, letting us know full well that this corner of London is as much the star of the show as our protagonists.

Landing somewhere between Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, and Richard Curtis, Rye Lane feels both charmingly detached from reality and buried deep within it. Colourful and playful, but never letting itself get lost in its own whimsy, Raine Allen-Miller’s film paints a vibrant portrait of Peckham that has its head in the clouds, but its feet well and truly anchored to the South London pavement.

Bubbling along on Nathan Byron and Tom Melia’s razor-sharp script and the quick witted, warm-hearted performances of Oparah and Jonsson, Rye Lane is a proper little charmer that, despite indulging in plenty of familiar rom-com cliches, blithely bops along to its own rhythm. Coming across like one long, beautifully choreographed, dance routine, the flow of Rye Lane is utterly unique and thoroughly intoxicating, with music, camerawork, and dialogue all blending in a highly affecting symphony of style and colour.

As pinks, oranges, yellows, and blues pop off the screen, Raine Allen-Miller sends us swirling through a veritable South London kaleidoscope. Dreamlike but very real, Allen-Miller manages to capture Peckham and the surrounding areas like few before her, eschewing the usual gritty, grimy stereotypes that have dogged South London for years, yet never once straying into Notting Hill-style whitewashed gentrification.

A little Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a bit Wes Anderson, a lot Before Sunrise, Rye Lane is a lyrical, colour-stuffed walk-and-talk romantic comedy where, in truth, nothing monumental happens, yet that never once matters. Like Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke chitchatting their way through the backstreets of Paris, Dom and Yas’ journey is geographically simple, yet, in the moments we have with them, their personal journey means the world.

On paper, the simplicities of the plot and the location could have very easily caused Rye Lane to fall flat, however, writing, directing, and acting combine to craft something far greater and far deeper than it has any right to be. I’m sure we’ve all seen rom-coms not too dissimilar to Rye Lane stumble as they lean too heavily into either quirkiness or schmaltz, yet this film wisely avoids all that to offer something completely unique.

As with any romantic comedy worth its salt, the true key to Rye Lane’s success is its central couple. For all the delightful things going on around them, it could all very easily come crashing down if Yas and Dom weren’t particularly endearing, however, Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson are about as affable, engaging, and – most importantly – not annoying as you could possibly ask for from a rom-com.

Quite frankly they are a delight. From the off, Oparah and Jonsson form the kind of sparkling bond many rom-coms can only dream off, as their will-they-won’t-they romance positively pops, walking a thin line between believable and capricious that makes their relationship utterly relatable yet delightfully fantastical.

Backed up by the film’s impressive script and Raine Allen-Miller’s impeccable direction, Oparah and Jonsson bring both their characters and their environment to life. With the streets, parks, and markets humming around them, the couple feel utterly at one with their surroundings as they pen a beautifully wholesome love letter both to one another and a scandalously affection-starved South London.

Pure cinematic joy, Rye Lane is a loved-up instant classic that wears its rom-com influences on its sleeve yet feels utterly its own thing. Vibrant, heartfelt, witty, and insanely wholesome, through Raine Allen-Miller’s bold, big-hearted direction, a sparkling lead pairing, and a scene-stealing role for the streets of SE15, Rye Lane is an absolute charmer that will warm your very soul.