One Night Only (15)

In a near-future America, pre-marital sex is criminalised except for one night of the year. Pizza shop owner Owen allows his uncoupled employees, including himself, to finish early ahead of this year's 12-hour exemption beginning at 7pm. He intends to use the occasion to propose to girlfriend Malika but she discloses that she wants to sleep with someone else in the apartment they share. Crestfallen, Owen stumbles into heavily hormone-scented New York and bumps into advertising jingle singer Allie.

LondonNet Film Review

One Night Only (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Most romantic comedies pose a simple question: will or won’t they get together? We already know the answer. Go one step further and ask, should or shouldn’t they get together? Consider that question in the context of One Night Only directed by Will Gluck and, regrettably, there is only one logical response: no. This slickly conceived but fatally flawed romp asks us to root for a couple who repeatedly reject each other and spend almost the entire film trying to have sex with other people. Only when they are unsuccessful, not for lack of trying, does Travis Braun’s script suggest we root for their preordained happy ever after…

The film is set in a near-future America, which has criminalised pre-marital sex except for one night of the year when singletons across the country go crazy bedding anything with a pulse. Condoms are mandated to prevent a spike in unwanted pregnancies and STIs. Pizza shop owner Owen (Callum Turner) allows his uncoupled employees, including himself, to finish early ahead of this year’s 12-hour exemption beginning at 7pm. He intends to use the occasion to propose to girlfriend Malika (Maya Hawke) in a sushi restaurant but she kills the mood by disclosing that she wants to sleep with someone else in the apartment they share.

Crestfallen, Owen stumbles into heavily hormone-scented New York and bumps into advertising jingle singer Allie (Monica Barbaro), who has just been brushed off by her friend Jacinta (King Princess) after a bona fide prince Tejan (Okieriete Onaodowan) caught Jacinta’s lustful eye. Owen and Allie trade pleasantries and go their separate ways but repeatedly cross paths as he races around the city looking for a condom to bed bartender Skye (Julia Fox) while she swoons over musician Ezra Stone (Charlie Gillespie). Meanwhile, Allie’s roommate Arya (Quintessa Swindell) exploits a price surge for baby-sitters and accepts 5,000 dollars to look after a neighbour’s potty-mouthed 12-year-old son (Mateo Ray) until the exemption ends at 7am.

One Night Only is torpedoed by its own cute premise than craves horny over corny. Screenwriter Braun doesn’t expend any time or energy explaining why American voters would willingly accept a ban on pre-marital sex or submit to tattoos on their wrists that change colour to indicate when consummation is permitted. Barbaro and Turner are separated for swathes of the running time and both lose their clothes to outlandish plot contrivances. There is palpable screen chemistry between them but a climactic rom-com trope feels like an act of post-rejection desperation rather than a hard-fought battle for something meaningful that could last.

Supporting characters including Owen’s mother Linda (Molly Ringwald) and her partner Rick (LeVar Burton) provide the sweetness and sauce that is fundamentally lacking in the central relationship.

– Sarah Lee