One Night Only

One Night Only
Starring Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Julia Fox
Directed by Will Gluck

It's no surprise I dislike romantic comedies - maybe it's because I'll never find love, or because they're so formulaic you can tell everything that'll happen from the first trailer. Either way, it takes a lot for me to be genuinely surprised by a romantic comedy, and it's rarely happened. "One Night Only" didn't break that mold, and I predicted everything that would happen from the (far too many) times I saw the trailer. While the concept is unique, the execution is baffling, but at least the main actors had strong chemistry together, even though they come off as being best buddies rather than lovers.

In the near future, a law is passed that makes having sexual intercourse before marriage illegal except for one night only, where singles can mingle for twelve hours. Pizza store owner Owen (Callum Turner) expects to spend it with his girlfriend, but she tells him that day she plans on being with someone else randomly. Wannabe singer Allie (Monica Barbaro) wants to find something more than a literal one night stand. As they try to score with other people, they keep running into one another, it seems fate has destined for them to be together - if only they thought so as well.

The trailer makes the premise plain and simple: two singles meeting on the only night of the year they're allowed to have sex, and the hijinks they go through in order to get to that point. It's not written by a rocket scientist, so there's no need for a spoiler warning when I say it ends up exactly as how you expect it to, but sometimes you enjoy the journey it takes to get there. Not so much with this, as the two characters don't even meet until about 45 minutes into the movie, and spend the most of the remainder of the time off on their own (mis)adventures before meeting up after each failed attempt. While still funny, we can't really connect with these characters because essentially the only time they're on-screen together is the time we see in the trailer, plus maybe a few minutes more.

Callum Turner and Oscar-nominee Monica Barbaro do have great chemistry together, but it's almost like best friends or siblings rather than romantic. They do the "playful banter" as flirting, but to me it didn't come across that way.

 The concept of something being legal for one night isn't new, as the "Purge" franchise has made millions on that premise - where all crime is legal for one night - so what happens when premarital sex is the only thing legal for one night a year? What you expect - a lot of horny singles getting it on everywhere, which serves as the background for the movie. Owen and Allie traverse the New York streets as people are doing it in windows, cars, steps, parks, wherever (I feel sorry for the cleaning crew in the morning, much like I do with them in the "Purge"), and it's supposed to elicit laughs, but I was just bored by it. Seeing it over and over takes away the shock value, and it becomes commonplace. Their separate journeys are pretty funny too, but run far too long (in particular a scene where Allie meets another guy and falls for him, leading to a very elongated search for a condom that Owen also is in search for). The editing needs cut back to a 90 minute movie rather than an almost two-hour sex fest, especially since we're all just waiting for the inevitable to happen. 

Much like the buildup to the climax, "One Night Only" is almost entirely filler, slowly building up to the predestined conclusion with two decent performances that have natural chemistry, even if it's not romantic.

The Score: C-