One Night Only is a film about two very different things, and there are a lot of good reasons why they don't go well together. It's possible to see why someone might have thought the idea of bringing these two things together could have resulted in a winning film, but this particular take on the concept never commits one way or the other. It's too much but not enough, which is never a good start to a relationship.
The more charitable reading here is this: at a moment where the pressure is on the have sex, and in a world that seemingly values the physical act above all else, two young people gradually realise they want to build a relationship on something more than just a physical act. Sounds like a winner? Hang on a second.
To judge this film purely based on that reading - we'll get to the problems in a minute - it's a moderately entertaining take on the timeworn "one crazy night" genre. Our two leads - pizza store proprietor Owen (Callum Turner), and advertising jingle singer with slightly bigger dreams Allie (Monica Barbaro) - both start the night with firm romantic plans, only to have things repeatedly thrown into disarray even as they keep running into each other.
The jokes are good (not great) and the pair have decent chemistry without ever being overwhelmingly convincing as lovers. Which works for the story - it's meant to be something of a slow burn. If it didn't have a completely insane hook it would be the kind of film that vanishes without trace, a slightly sweet, occasionally silly take on two people falling in like.
Problem is, this film has a hook that is, as previously mentioned, completely insane: in a near-future US that looks identical to today, the government has made premarital sex illegal. But don't worry - to keep all the unmarried fornicators on board, the law is lifted once a year for 12 hours. Hurrah?
The idea is that while everyone else is rutting like rabbits, Owen and Allie discover a deeper connection through being forced by various wacky situations to wait. Turns out it's harder to get laid on a night when everyone is looking to get laid than you might think; Allie keeps meeting creeps, Owen keeps getting interrupted, it seems premarital sex is only allowed with a condom and they now cost a hundred bucks each.
The trouble is that "being forced to wait" is exactly the thinking behind this horrifically repressive situation. Which means the film ends up suggesting that a law that prevents people from doing what they want with their own bodies is... good? It's Keep it in Your Pants: The Movie.
If this was just explained in an opening crawl and never mentioned again, it's possible One Night Only could have worked as just a slightly weird rom-com. But it's constantly mentioned throughout the film in ways that are impossible to ignore. We even learn how it's enforced: everyone is implanted with a sex chip that turns green when it's legal to have sex and reports you to the cops if you try to get it on at any other time. Wow, how romantic.
This is such a bleakly repressive situation that the fact people aren't constantly rioting in the streets becomes a plot hole. There is a lot of anti "mandate" graffiti around the place, but we're told this Sex Purge has been going on for three years now and it doesn't seem like sex-starved youth have been assassinating high level government officials on a regular basis, which feels a little implausible.
It's possible all this is a very dark joke at people's ability to adapt to and accept nightmarish political situations. But this never really spells it out in a way that suggests there's more going on here than what it seems. That is to say, it seems to be a romantic comedy built around a premise that sounds entertainingly silly until you start to think about it.
Which means One Night Only's big problem is one that's ruined a lot of casual sex: overthinking it.
- Anthony Morris
