SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
Thanks to a government mandate — and enforced by wrist tattoos given to every American that alerts authorities when not colored green — non-married people can only have sex one night a year. A pizzeria owner Owen (played by Callum Turner) has planned a romantic evening with his girlfriend (Maya Hawke) but is surprised to hear that she’s planning to sleep with someone else and their date ends with them going their separate ways. Meanwhile, commercial jingle singer Allie (Monica Barbaro) meets up with a friend Jacinta (King Princess) who have pledged to only go home with somebody they truly feel a deep, meaningful connection with. In line for the bathroom, however, Jacinta meets her prince and that pledge comes to a quick end. Left on her own, Allie aimlessly walks the streets of New York and continuously runs into Owen doing the same. The two end up at a private party where Allie’s favorite singer, Ezra Stone (Charlie Gillespie), is performing. Much to Allie’s surprise, the two seem to have a connection and decide to seize the opportunity. But will she regret her choice? Will Owen leave the party with a date of his own? Will the two find their way back to each other after their extracurriculars come to an end?
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
A fun flight of fancy but clumsily executed, ONE NIGHT ONLY is saved by Barbaro, plain and simple. Allie’s pharmaceutical parody of Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” is uproariously funny, she’s absolutely magnetic whenever she’s on screen and helps overcompensate for a largely forgettable performance by Turner as well as a script that can’t seem to pick a lane.
Written by Travis Braun and directed by Will Gluck, ONE NIGHT ONLY desperately wants to do two things simultaneously: have fun with the concept and attack an extreme example of conservative politics. The politics angle is like an attention-seeking little cousin at a family gathering. Every once in a while, it pops up out of nowhere, annoyingly reminds you it’s there, and disappears long enough for you to forget before doing this same song-and-dance all over again. Why they didn’t just set up the story with it and then maybe mention it one more time toward the end of the film is beyond me. Forcing it into lines of dialogue, graffiti tags on buildings and having couples yell “F the mandate!” from moving cars for no reason comes across as a desperate attempt to make a political statement.
Nobody thought naming the bar “White House Tavern” was a little too on-the-nose? We get it.
Are there laughs? Absolutely. Is it a fun premise? Sure. But, in the end, ONE NIGHT ONLY is a bit of a mess. Half of it’s leads are forgettable and whatever charm it has at any given moment is quickly broken by the agenda it unnecessarily pushes on the audience.
This is a streaming product, not a theatrical one.
JKG SCORE: 5.5
Untitled Film Project 