Movie Review: ‘One Night Only’

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Where to begin with One Night Only. As a romantic comedy, it is a decent enough movie. It plays all the clichéd hits and is largely predictable with audience pleasing sights, music, and humor. The leads, along with most of the cast, play their roles well enough and the story is silly and fun so long as you do not think too much about the gimmick that makes it comparable to, and almost as frightening as, The Purge.

In the movie’s reality, America has banned pre-marital sex, except for one 12-hour period a year, like if The Purge was a romantic comedy without the death. The plot tries to cover a few questions or problems that this might cause, but there are so many more that the movie does not really try to answer. For starters, I believe there are political and religious groups that would love to ban pre-marital sex, but I do not believe these groups would compromise and allow for the 12-hour exemption (even with the protection rule), so how did the movie’s reality accomplish this? Also, are all the paparazzi single in the movie’s reality? Do cops show up if the condom breaks and how would they know? How tiny is New York? I get that the movie is trying to be a fun, R-rated, romantic comedy, but the more I think about the world setting, the more questions I have.

Setting the dystopian setting aside, the romantic comedy storyline follows the two leads, Allie (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner), as they meet and repeatedly split up and get drawn back together by fate (or screenwriters). They are both abandoned before or shortly after the start of the hours of exception; Owen by his girlfriend (played by Maya Hawke) to whom he was apparently going to propose, and Allie by her friend (played by King Princess) who hooks up with a random guy in the first few minutes. Randomly, Owen and Allie meet, and it seems like love at first sight, until Owen throws up on Allie.

There are quite a few plot holes that one could possibly overlook given the quick pace of the movie. For example, why does it seem like there is only one condom left for sale in all of New York on what would have to be their biggest sales night of the year. There may be limited options, but you can still buy Halloween candy the day after Halloween. Why would Owen think his mother’s apartment would be empty when he was already thrown out of her apartment earlier in the evening so she could hook up with Levar Burton. Why is Allie afraid to sing in front of a small party when she records jingles for a living; sure, a live performance is different than a recording studio performance, but the jingle is probably heard by way more people.

Speaking of Allie’s musical ambitions, the scene with her performance of Only You is the best part of the movie as far as I am concerned. My only criticism of it would be it was exactly like the opening scene of the Paul Rudd/Nick Jonas movie, Power Ballad. Musician sings to a small party while imagining it is getting a bigger and better reaction than it turns out to be getting. I think the camera even spins around the same way to show an imagined crowd. I’m not trying to complain about these scenes; I love both in both movies. I am just pointing out that even the best scene is lacking originality. “Coin flip” with a sewer grate in the background nearby? The “coin” is going in the sewer. Character daydreams early in the movie to trick the audience? There will be at least one more daydream to try to fool the audience.

Between the distracting fascistic world setting, the highly predictable but cute romantic comedy storyline, and the outstanding and enjoyable music, I would maybe mildly recommend seeing this movie, though you can wait for it to hit DVD or streaming. I did enjoy it on some levels though I doubt I will see it again unless Cinemasins covers it.