“The Purge” for sex is the best way to describe the premise of “One Night Only” unless you prefer Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” for one-night stands.
As the movie announces right away: The U.S. government has passed a mandate that premarital sex is illegal except for one night a year. For the past three years, sex out of wedlock has been off limits except for an annual 12-hour reprieve. “It’s been a lot,” reads the opening title cards.
Such a concept, naturally, spawns a lot of questions. How could such a policy be policed? Where, exactly, are the lines drawn? And why hasn’t everyone moved to Canada?
But “One Night Only,” directed by Will Gluck (“Easy A,” “Anyone But You”), is less interested in extrapolating the potentially very bizarre ramifications of its dystopian concept than it is selling a surprisingly tame romantic tale. “One Night Only” may be dressed up as a raunchy sex comedy, but it’s a rom-com at heart, and a chaste one at that.
That makes “One Night Only” a disappointingly denuded comedy without the gumption to interrogate its satirical gimmick. And yet its charming leads, Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, do enough to keep “One Night Only” pleasantly watchable.
The health of the rom-com is perpetually debated, but one of the genre’s most abiding benefits is in giving young stars an uncluttered big-screen stage to shine on. Turner, the Bond-rumored British actor, has already appeared in one (also monogamy-friendly) rom-com in last year’s “Eternity.”
But “One Night Only” is an especially welcome showcase for Barbaro, who has thus far stood out largely in male-dominated ensembles (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Crime 101”). So, while “One Night Only” is unlikely to be a standout in her filmography, it’s the one that most proves her lead-actor incandescence.
One of the biggest stretches in a movie full of them is that these two — neither of whom are exactly hard on the eyes — are among the only ones striking out on a night dedicated to scoring. Owen (Turner), who runs a Manhattan pizzeria, has his engagement plans thwarted when his longtime girlfriend (Maya Hawke) says she plans to sleep with someone else. Allie (Barbaro), meanwhile, is a single singer (she gets paid to belt out pharmaceutical jingles) who has to be coaxed by her friends into even going out.
Both are romantics on a night for flings. After bumping into each other and meeting on the street, they spend the night traversing New York, separately but often together, through nightclub escapades and condom shortages.
In Travis Braun’s high-concept script, the cleverest parody isn’t of conservative political intervention in private sex lives. It’s of a swipe-right sex culture, where old-fashioned romance is hard to find. But “One Night Only” — populated in product placement ads from Durex to K-Y — has little about it that suggests something particularly sincere.
Instead, “One Night Only” constantly feels like it’s narrowing its many possibilities. Early on, one character notes the night belongs to the straights because gay people long ago learned to circumvent repressive restrictions. Instead of widening its satire into contemporary sex life, Gluck’s film turns throwback, even leading to a climax atop a New York landmark.
So “One Night Only” isn’t bawdy or trenchant enough for its concept or quite sweet enough for its romance. It’s more successful as a meta comedy about a pair of charismatic Hollywood stars reckoning with their onscreen sex appeal. Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell and Pete Davidson all make a kind of cameo. And on that score, neither Barbaro nor Turner have much to worry about.
Hopefully, though, there are more “Purge” riffs to come. One night only for … backgammon? Just imagine the chaos.
“One Night Only,” a Universal Pictures release in theaters Thursday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for sexual material, language and brief nudity. Running time: 102 minutes. Two stars out of four.
