ALL OF YOU - Mark Reviews Movies

All of You, Apple Original Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 25, 2025

At some point in the approaching-future setting of All of You, "science" has made it possible for a person to discover an individual's soulmate. This raises an assortment of questions that screenwriters William Bridges, who also directed, and Brett Goldstein, who also stars, don't seem able, willing, or interested enough to ask, let alone answer. Hidden away in the end credits is a note that the movie was based on the script for an unproduced episode of a television series, so that must partially explain why the screenplay takes the science-fiction premise of the backdrop as an understood given.

Indeed, the gimmick is pretty much irrelevant once the movie reveals that it's little more than a relationship drama about two close friends who are clearly in love, refuse to admit it, and only realize that reality until it's apparently too late for either of them to really do anything about it. Well, they could do something about it, of course, but that brings us back to the initial issue in the first place. Bridges and Goldstein have these two characters repeat that cycle here, so we can add the fact that neither character can learn a simple lesson to the list of reasons they likely can't and/or won't be together.

The friends are Laura (Imogen Poots) and Simon (Goldstein), who have known each other since college, staying in touch while all their other pals from that time are falling in love and getting married and all the rest. Both are unlucky in love, and after a recent and disastrous romantic relationship came to an end, Laura is tired of dating and just wants to find out who her soulmate is. Simon compares it to receiving an unwrapped present, which is why he refuses to take the test to determine who his soulmate is.

Plus, it's painfully obvious that Simon has feelings for Laura that extend beyond friendship. The guy quietly stares at her for so long and so frequently that it's a wonder only one character here, a woman named Andrea (Zawe Ashton) whom Simon starts dating after Laura connects her two friends, actually notices.

Even Laura's soulmate Lukas (Steven Cree), who rather conveniently is around her age and lives a short plane or train ride from his home in Scotland to hers in London, doesn't consider this. In a way, that's good on Lukas for being the trusting sort, but in another, the guy's complete lack of suspicion or even basic observation skills is almost as convenient for the plot as how close he and Laura live when they find out they're soulmates.

All of this does put us in the mindset that the story will be heading more in the direction of melodrama, in which the situations and circumstances the characters find themselves in are more vital to what happens than the characters themselves. The script does have an intriguing hook beyond the vague soulmate angle, too, because the story of Laura and Simon unfolds over the course of a number of years but does so as if no time has passed at all. The narrative jumps forward with little concern for what has happened to each character on his or her own, including when Laura marries Lukas or when Andrea dumps Simon.

This is a smart move, because the bond between Laura and Simon is, after all, the central focus here. Nothing else matters to story, since nothing else really matters whenever the two of them are together. The chemistry between Poots and Goldstein, which feels so natural as the two joke for fun or to distract each other from whatever troubles they might be having, is quite convincing, so when the inevitable happens, we accept that, as well.

That a romance feels inevitable, however, is kind of a problem here, too. The characters ultimately don't come across as individual people but as a pairing from the very beginning. The only reason the screenplay possesses a bit of interest in their lives, personalities, values, and anything else that makes them who they are as individuals is to add some complicating factor for the relationship. Laura's marriage to Lukas, for example, only exists as an obstacle, and so, too, does the couple's daughter, whose growing-up is really the only way to gauge how much time is passing in this story.

Laura does seem to have a life outside of this relationship, at least. That's more than can be said about Simon, who must be an absolute bore whenever his best friend/secret lover isn't around, given how the entirety of his character comes down to his feelings for Laura. Even his job doesn't seem important, except when it becomes yet another potential barrier in the way for these two.

The lead actors give a broad sense of passion and connection, but that can only take a love story so far. All of You poses a fascinating premise, ignores it, and only gives us the bare minimum of a potentially complex romance.

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