The times are tough and crazy right now, but we all know that, yes, it can actually get worse. This film is basically what happens if it does, and it’s a crazy premise to start off with.
One Night Only’s story starts in the near future, 3 years after “The Mandate” has been passed by the United States, and apparently most of the world over. What The Mandate entails is a ruling over our bodies, forcing everyone to get chipped and branded with a body chemistry sensor that detects sexual activity. Why? Because premarital sex is now banned, except for just one night a year.
Yes, every year all the non-married folks can go out there and bang like bunnies that think their life is going to end any second. It’s basically like a reverse-purge, if you will, except that no, you can not make new lives… because you must wear condoms. Yes, you can not procreate during the one night; you must pop a jimmy on yer meat whistle and only have safe sex.
It’s an interesting place to start, no? Well, once you get filled in on the basics of what this future holds for the unmarried, we are introduced to our leads in separate quick cuts that introduce us to them, their basic rom-com stereotype personalities, jobs, and moments that basically give you their overall views on the world, and we are off to the races.
We are introduced to Monica Barbaro as Allie: a cute and funny woman whose job is to sing the inspiringly saccharine and hilarious parodies of early 2000s pop hits into commercials for psoriasis and vaginal cleaners, and they are so damn hysterical. Right off the bat, I thought we were in for a completely farcical satire, in the best possible ways, and boy, were we close! We find out who she is, what she does, and basically everything we need to set things in motion.
Then we are introduced to Callum Turner as Owen, with his girlfriend, Maya Hawke, at a trendy sushi restaurant preparing for the big night, until things take a sour turn and he winds up on his own for the night, as she drops one hell of a bomb. That’s when you start to see these crazy cameos, even in just still shots and photos, and even more, I thought we were in for a satirical treat!
And we are, for the next 45 minutes or so! The film starts off with a high grasp of the concept they introduce as we watch our two leads stumble in and out of opportunities to spend the one night with someone, only to have pratfalls and failure come one after the other, with tons of big star cameos from Molly Ringwald and LeVar Burton, to the completely unexpected, yet hilarious, Pete Davidson and Bobby Cannavale. The concepts of how this world has turned are really handled expertly, but the film starts to fall apart by the final 3rd.
Once you start to see that Owen is written as the stereotypical rough-and-tumble, man’s man, nice guy with a tough exterior, the film starts to show its cracks. Immediately, it just felt like this wild premise started to feel a little too safe.
The one thing I wasn’t expecting was the film to become just your garden-variety rom-com, which it unfortunately does. It turns into a trope-heavy story of the starry-eyed lover who has to convince the jaded one that there is still a romantic left in them, while trying to find each other in New York City. Yeah, it gets that trite and predictable.
Still, the first 2/3 of this film are a really fun and funny satire that had some great ideas that I wish they would have been able to seal the deal on this film better than the characters could. (Seriously, the amount of forehead slapping you are going to do when you see this…) Anyhow, I was entertained, but you can sit this one out at the theater and wait for it to hit streaming. It will be perfectly serviceable there.
