‘All of You’ Apple TV+ Movie Review - Barely Moving, Barely Passionate

In William Bridges' All of You, love enters the arena of science. All you need to do is go to the Soul Connex company and take a test — no, the Test — to find your soulmate, your better half, your partner in crime. Laura (Imogen Poots) is one of those people who takes the Test and meets Lukas (Steven Cree), who, if the science is right, should be the love of her life. But you don't need to be a genius to see that Laura's soulmate should be Simon (Brett Goldstein), her best friend who constantly beholds her with puppy eyes. And anyway, as the movie progresses, it becomes clear that Laura and Lukas aren't exactly living in heaven. Well, I suppose he's happy to be with her, but she isn't too excited. Near the beginning of the film, Laura calls Lukas "square," and when she talks about him, you feel as if she's forcing herself to like her soon-to-be husband. The science, alas, is not right. Why, then, does Laura start a relationship with Lukas? Why does she end up marrying him and having a kid with him? And if the Test can be wrong about Laura's soulmate, then there must be other unhappy customers out there, right? Has anybody openly criticized this scientific method? Are there articles or social media rants? Have couples appeared on news channels to discuss the Test's drawbacks? How exactly does the Test work? What's the actual process that's implemented to locate a person's soulmate? Even a subpar film like Param Sundari had a similar concept, but at least it made the effort to explain the workings of its Tinder-like application. All of You, on the other hand, is simply too self-satisfied with its high-concept.
 

That self-satisfaction stops the film from being curious. Bridges and his co-writer Goldstein trap their characters in a hermetically sealed world, where only plot-related details are allowed to draw breath. Those details, unfortunately, are also scant. For instance, it's mentioned that Laura and Simon went to uni together, but the name of the university is left unstated. We learn that Simon is a journalist, but where? What journalism has he done? What does he write about or cover? In one of the scenes, he says that instead of him, some other new guy got the promotion. Is his workplace toxic, or is that new guy actually good at what he does? Apart from Simon, Laura is often seen conversing with Andrea (Zawe Ashton); however, these conversations don't venture beyond the narrow scope of the drama unfolding around them. When Andrea says that she got inspired by Laura and took the Test, we are meant to recognize the facade that Laura has constructed about her marriage. But that's something you grasp very early in the film — the point made is too apparent. All of You moves like Lone Scherfig's One Day (just remove the dates). We watch Laura and Simon meet during particular events (a wedding, a funeral, a double date), and what happens between the scenes is filled in through expository exchanges (Simon, for instance, reveals how he tried to connect with his dad). Nonetheless, Bridges' real interest lies in activating the tear ducts of the audience. He has created a weepy about unfulfilled love, about feelings left unexpressed, about lost romantic opportunities, about not saying the right thing at the right moment.
 

Since the characters are thin and their words are limited to the boundaries of the screenplay, we don't feel too invested in their situation. At best, they come across as a warning to never trust algorithms for something as warm and soulful as romance (the Test may be seen as analogous to arranged marriage, or to any framework in which couples are expected to commit without prior emotional or interpersonal engagement). Bridges, though, is not concerned with educating the audience. The mood he sets is that of a tragic tale, and this mournful tone strains to present itself as a "stirring romance." The result feels much like watching Celine Song's Past Lives: an undercooked story that leans heavily on the romantic in us to fill in the gaps, to search for meaning in small gestures and lingering glances. Both Poots and Goldstein are fine, but the camera doesn't capture two characters—it observes two actors doing "actorly stuff" with their eyes, lips, and hands. All in all, there's nothing swoony about All of You—it's barely moving, barely passionate. It feels like an idea for a film that's still searching: for ardor, for inner life, for texture—for a soulmate.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Release Date: September 26, 2025, on Apple TV+