REVIEW: “One Night Only”
Courtesy of Universal Pictures
One Night Only starts off with a setup that feels genuinely promising. At first, it looks like the movie might shake up the usual romantic comedy formula, maybe by poking fun at the genre’s tried-and-true tropes or turning them on their heads. But instead, the movie takes its high-concept premise and delivers one of the most conventional rom-coms imaginable. Even though it’s marketed as a modern, slightly edgy sex comedy, the final product is surprisingly tame, dutifully going through the usual meet-cutes, misunderstandings, separations, and romantic reunions we’ve all seen countless times before. That doesn’t make it a bad movie, but it never quite becomes as clever, funny, or memorable as it could. Instead, it’s merely satisfied with being just okay.
The movie is set in an alternate reality of America where premarital sex is illegal, except for one exception: a 12-hour window each year when single people are legally permitted to hook up. It’s not an original comparison, but it’s hard not to think of The Purge; instead of people running around free to commit crimes and murder whomever they’d like. People run around trying to find someone to spend the night with. It’s an absurd conceit with plenty of comedic potential, but One Night Only rarely pushes far enough to make the most of it.
At the center of the chaos are Allie (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner), two New Yorkers who cross paths on the biggest night of the year. Owen is nursing a bruised ego after his girlfriend dumps him so she can test the waters elsewhere during the legal window. Allie, meanwhile, is looking for something real in a crowd geared up for casual hookups. Thanks to a mix of misunderstandings and bad timing, they keep running into each other and end up journeying around New York together, each hoping to make the most of the night in their own way.
The movie actually starts off pretty well. Director Will Gluck, who’s previously proven his rom-com mettle with Friends With Benefits and Anyone But You, shows again that he understands how to keep a romantic comedy moving at a brisk pace. There are some genuinely funny and clever moments, but they unfortunately don’t last long. For a movie built around such a provocative idea, One Night Only plays things surprisingly safe and misses opportunities to comment on modern dating and hookup culture. And without that commentary, the movie’s unusual setup just feels like a way to create obstacles for the main characters and their inevitable getting together. And the more you think about the whole thing, the less any of it makes sense.
The movie has two big problems that hold it back even further. First, the leads simply aren’t very funny. Barbaro and Turner have both proven to be capable dramatic actors, but comedy is a different challenge, and their performances here prove the old saying that “dying is easy, comedy is hard.” Both display an ease with what the movie asks them to do, but neither has the natural comic timing needed to make the jokes work. Lines that should be funny fall flat, and their banter often feels rehearsed more than natural. This problem might be easier to overlook if the romance was strong enough to make up for it, but that brings us to the film’s second major problem: Barbaro and Turner just don’t have any real chemistry together.
Both actors are perfectly likable on their own, and neither is giving a bad performance here. But together, there’s just no real spark. The movie wants us to root for Allie and Owen because that’s what usually happens in romantic comedies: two strangers meet, clash, drift apart, reconnect, and eventually realize they’re meant to be together. The script follows every expected beat and tries to convince us that there’s something special between them, but none of it ever feels earned or natural. They fall for each other simply because the script says so, and without genuine chemistry to anchor it, the movie’s emotional center feels hollow.
The supporting cast (including ‘80s rom-com star Molly Ringwald as Owen’s mother) brings some much-needed energy to the proceedings. And a few of Allie and Owen’s solo romantic adventures are genuinely funny too. But none of it is enough to rescue the main story. For a movie built around a supposedly unforgettable evening, not much of it actually sticks with you after it’s over.
For audiences nostalgic for the days when major studios regularly churned out mid-budget romantic comedies, One Night Only might be a pleasant throwback, even if it falls short of its potential. Ultimately, for a movie that promises a wild night out, it’s disappointing to see it stick to the usual formula and leave you wondering why there weren’t more sparks.
One Night Only is currently available to rent on VOD.