Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro in “One Night Only.”
Universal Pictures
One Night Only, a new romantic comedy starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, is getting mixed vibes from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
Directed by Will Gluck, One Night Only opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The film takes a Purge approach with its story, but instead of one night of unenforced killing, a government-imposed mandate allows singles over the age of 18 one night of premarital sex, as they use protection.
As such, everybody in the country has had a tattoo on their wrist so the government can detect spikes in dopamine to alert them of illegal sexual activity. Caught up in the mandate in New York City are Allie (Barbaro – A Complete Unknown and FUBAR), a lovelorn commercial jingle singer, and Owen (Turner – Eternity and Masters of the Air), a pizza shop owner cruelly kicked to the curb by his girlfriend, Malika (Maya Hawke).
Throughout the night, Allie and Owen’s paths continue to cross in the hotbed of lust sweeping across the Big Apple, leading each to wonder if they are truly meant for each other or just there to exist as the means for a desperate encounter.
Rated R, One Night Only also stars Michelle Hurd, Charlie Gillespie, Molly Ringwald and LeVar Burton.
One Night Only to date has earned a 49% “rotten” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer based on 78 reviews. RT’s Critics Consensus, Audience Summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
A “rotten” score will likely do little to detract audiences from seeing One Night Only, especially considering that Gluck is the director behind Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney’s 2023 smash hit rom-com Anyone but You, which wasn’t exactly a hit with critics.
With a production budget of $25 million before marketing costs, Anyone but You not only scored $219.8 million at the worldwide box office, but it was also a big streaming hit when it debuted on Netflix. Perhaps the most important numbers for Anyone but You, though, are 53% “rotten” critics’ score (based on 117 reviews) on RT and the 87% “fresh” audience score that the film received on the site’s Popcornmeter based on 1,000-plus verified user ratings.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘One Night Only’?
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter is among the top critics on RT who gives One Night Only a “fresh” score, writing, “Luckily for director Will Gluck, who is tasked with turning this flimsy concept into fizzy fun, he has two charming leads in Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner. Their easygoing chemistry makes us root for them to get over the many contrived hurdles.”
Randy Myers of the San Jose Mercury News also gives the film a “fresh” score, writing in his RT review summary, “One Night Only gets the most laughs when depicting sexual blunders but ultimately it celebrates unexpected love connections that sometimes take their own sweet time to blossom. Love can happen like that.”
Cary Darling of the Houston Chronicle also awards the film a “fresh” score, writing on RT, “The totally charming One Night Only … makes the most of its easily digestible premise — what happens when premarital sex is outlawed except for one night? — and its captivating cast.”
Matt Goldberg of The Wrap also deems One Night Only “fresh,” writing on RT, “Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro make for a charming couple in a concoction that floats above its Purge-like setting.”
Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service is among the top critics on RT who gives One Night Only a “rotten” score, writing in her review summary, “Turner and Barbaro give it their best, but not even their charisma can reliably bolster the inherent structural flaws of this concept and its execution. One Night Only needed to go back to the drawing board.”
Alison Wilmore of New York Magazine/Vulture isn’t a fan of One Night Only, either. Wilmore writes in her “rotten” RT review summary, “I don’t think it’s possible to separate the rom or the com of One Night Only from its context, but the movie is not very good at either.”
Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post also deems One Night Only rotten, writing on RT, “Quite by accident, Gluck’s routine film ends up resembling so many of the one night stands it’s about: A fantastic plan at first, but an unsatisfying let-down in the light of day.”
Also not impressed with One Night Only is Natalia Winkelman of the New York Times, who writes on RT, “With nothing to say about sex or society, the repression plot mostly gets in the way of a movie that would prefer to be a routine romance.”
Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner in “One Night Only.”
Universal Pictures
‘One Night Only’ – A Mini-Review
Rotten Tomatoes got it wrong with its overall “rotten” rating of One Night Only. Yes, the film is flawed, but it’s still a surprisingly entertaining romantic comedy that takes a unique concept and has fun at the expense of a ridiculous nationwide chastity mandate instead of moping on and on about just how frighteningly oppressive it would be in the real world.
In short, the movie is about reveling in the fun of the moment, and you can feel that energy throughout. Yes, the characters are well aware of just how crazy the mandate is and are no doubt unhappy with it, but for the sake of the plot, they just go with it and make the best of the messed-up situation.
The key to the success of One Night Only is the undeniable romantic chemistry between Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, no matter how many plot wedges are driven between them throughout the film. True, it’s way too convenient how Allie and Owen continue to find each other in a particularly wild night in a city of 8.5 million people, but no matter how contrived the notion is and how predictable the outcome will be, you still find yourself rooting for the couple in the hopes that everything will work out.
What really makes One Night Only stand out, though, is that it’s a rare, big-screen romantic comedy that’s a complete breath of fresh air in a summer filled with action epics, horror thrillers, animated adventures and superhero escapism. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with those genres of films; instead, it’s just so damn refreshing to know that rom-coms — so long as they work well, like One Night Only does — still have a seat at the table.
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