Owen (Callum Turner) and Allie (Monica Barbaro) are each looking for love, or at least someone to spend the only night of the year where sex outside of marriage is legal. Owen had big plans to spend it with his longtime girlfriend with the intention of asking her to marry him. She, however, wants to have a one-night stand with another man in their apartment building. Allie finds herself flying solo after her wing-woman hooks up with a guy for the night quicker than the two had originally agreed upon. Each adrift in the streets of New York, they find themselves crossing each others’ paths multiple times and in those chance encounters discovering an attraction between them.
The problem with One Night Only is that it goes out of its way in the first twenty minutes to provide all the rules and background of how “the Mandate” came into being but, outside of a couple of satirical quips from various characters, it doesn’t seem at all interested in exploring the concept either storywise or thematically. Owen and Allie could just as easily state that they are just looking for Mr. or Ms. Right as opposed to everyone else apparently hooking up with M. or Ms. Right Now without all the overwritten window-dressing the film’s central conceit adds.
Granted, what the film’s two protagonists go through could be seen as a microcosom of what dating can sometimes feel like. Pressure to find someone who is hopefully compatible enough to start a relationship with while dealing with FOMO as it seems like everyone else is making connections relatively easily and quickly. It could be viewed as a critique of hook-up culture. Is the film a satire of abstinence-only arguments or a proponent? Who knows because One Night Only isn’t really interested in any of these things. It just focuses in on the misadventures of its two leads as they continually run into each other while trying to traverse their night. Frankly, the high-concept foundation that the film is built on isn’t needed at all and acts more as a distraction than anything else. The audience could have perhaps been better served had the filmmakers just made this more of a throwback to the rom-coms of the late-1950s and early `60s.
If there is anything to recommend the film it is both Turner and Barbaro playing their characters with a breezy charm. The material doesn’t quite give them enough to really work with, but they make the most of it. A surprise appearance from LaVar Burton in a small, supporting role also stands out.
