Director Will Gluck is no stranger to rom-com’s, arguable producing some of the best and most talked about films like Easy A, Friends with Benefits and Anyone But You, his latest One Night Only takes a massive swing and throws an outlandish premise that looks great on paper and carries the movie for the first hour, unfortunately the final act of the film feels like the writer just ran out of ideas and wasn’t sure how to close it out so let’s just finish it off with a dance party to a song that is incredibly overused during the film (fortunately it is not Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield) So what is the premise? The U.S. Government has introduced a new mandate, like some sort of Christian/Islamic paradise, all pre-marital sex is outlawed and monitored by a compuslory bio chip in your arm that measures your dopamine levels to alert the police if you are single and caught in the act. This is in effect for 364 days of the year, there is one day that singles can participate in a “sex purge”
Once you get your head around this premise and the state of the world, the story focuses in on two characters Allie (Monica Barbaro) a singer who makes her living doing jingles for medical products to the theme of popular songs and Owen (Callum Turner) a pizza shop owner who finds himself unexpectedly single on the night of the “sex purge”. Together the two keep randomly running in to each other as they attempt to get laid across New York City.
The film is shot on location in New York City and this is the biggest advantage it has over another NYC film that released last week. The city feels alive (and VERY horny!) with extensive scenes in Downtown, Midtown, SoHo, the East and West Village, they even filmed the subway scenes on that actual moving subway. Gluck knows that making the city a character in its own right is a quintessential part of getting a romcom right and this shines off the screen. A lot of the background shots are singles making out or full on just going for it in cars, on the street, through windows, highlighting the fact that our two leads are on the look out for a stronger connection on the night they shouldn’t be out looking for that.
I was genuinely impressed and surprised by how much background was given around the opposition to the mandate and the inclusion of queer characters and how this impacted them. It isn’t an extensive dive into it, but it was nice to get some acknowledgement in a film that could easily have just stayed squarely in its own lane. That being said, the attempt to try and cover everything and overexplain, does make the runtime feel a little overstuffed in certain parts (that I don’t want to spoil).
The film is anchored by its two incredibly charasmatic leads. Barbaro plays the frustrated with love and life perfectly. She is funny and charasmatic and her quest for love and a real connection on a night that is the antithesis of that is a genuine joy to watch. She also allows her comedic chops to shine, her quest to buy the last condom in the city leads to some surprising hijinx that require a lot of physical comedy harkening to Carol Burnett and Melissa McCarthy. Turner is the love struck pizza shop owner, who instead of being crushed and down about breaking up with his girlfriend on the purge night, is determind to find a sexy distraction. Turner is awkward yet confident and his aura of sincerity oozes old school Hugh Grant rom-com style charm.
While the film mostly succeeds in the first hour, clearly defining the state of the world, the mandate, the two leads and their chemistry. The last 40 minutes takes a complete nosedive, the last scene in particular feels like the writer ran out of ideas and the only thing they could think of was a dance sequence on a lighthouse.
One Night Only feels like a massive swing for Gluck who usually sticks to the traditional rom-com formula. The wild idea of a sex purge in a world that mandates physical attraction is an interesting premise, it’s a shame that for a movie about the joy of sex and the release it brings, the two main characters are mostly conservative and the ending paints a confusing message about the core parts of the film. Fortunately Gluck is a master of comedy, so the jokes and wild antics are hilarious and make this a worthy trip to the cinemas to enjoy with an audience. It’s a fun and heavy hitting story with an outlandish premise that rom com fans will love.
One Night Only is in Australian cinemas Thursday August 13.
