one night only can’t decide what kind of night it wants to be
A clever premise and undeniable chemistry aren’t enough to give this confused rom-com an identity.
The trailer for One Night Only has a way of camouflaging its biggest plot point. Sex outside of marriage is illegal and will be prosecuted. Except! For One Night Only a year. The country-wide ban does not exclude those in serious relationships. Without the legal slip of paper declaring your commitment and love to each other, sex outside of wedlock is the crime of the century. How does the government keep track of all the single people disobeying the law? Through a chip/symbol placed on each citizen that acts as a “biosensor,” tracking chemical levels in the human body. Once that biosensor lights up, the police will be at your door.
Starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, One Night Only reaches for a romantic comedy but can’t seem to find its footing, stuck in the murky middle of camp and melodrama. One Night Only couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be, leaving the rest of the audience los and disconnected from the characters and their journey.
One Night Only had the potential to be classified as a “camp” classic, but the lines were blurred along the way. On one hand, the humor was there at times, with Callum and Monica’s quirkiness. Then it switched to the rom-com favorite trope of invisible strong theory: right place, wrong time until it finally clicks. The issue is it’s very hard to have both sides of the coin. To have one night a year where premarital sex is allowed could be hilarious, but the feel lacked humor and instead carried a darker, dystopian energy. The reflection on today’s political climate felt intentional and too close to home, just with an added exaggeration.
This is where the film falls short. How do we mix a light-hearted love story with a dystopian limitation that still wants to border the line between satire and camp? The mix of genres can be done, but only if the film has decided what it wants to be— and that is what’s missing here.
Callum Turner is adorable, as is Monica Barbaro. They are hard not to love, but what exactly is the world they are living in? At times, it seems there is a real push for “change” driving the story, yet at other times, the sole focus is the connection between the two. Which way are we supposed to turn? Then, of course, there are the over-the-top caricatures like Julia Fox, Maya Hawke, and the random men courting Allie (Monica) through the night. The cast needed to make the film a success was right there, yet with a plot pulled in all sorts of directions, there wasn’t much they could make up for.
One Night Only wants the audience to take it seriously while also not taking it seriously at all. This formula works on rare occasions, but this was not one of them. The relationship between Allie (Monica) and Owen (Callum) was heart-warming and, at times, saved the film, but those moments were fleeting. I see the vision, but the follow-through did not align. The romance was charming, the characters were vibrant, and the dystopian plot had the potential to be compelling, but altogether, they could not mesh. I am sorry, but it must be done, the film is getting a 1/5 stars.
Shelby Ferguson
