‘One Night Only’ Reviews Are In: Critics Are Not Loving Monica Barbaro & Callum Turner’s Rom-Com Where Sex Is Legal for One Night a Year

One Night Only is coming this weekend, and the first reviews are here.

The rom-com from Will Gluck, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, hits theaters on Friday (August 7).

Here’s a synopsis: “Allie and Owen are two love-starved strangers who crash into each other in an ever-so-slightly fictionalized New York City on the one night of the year when single people are allowed to have sex. Recently dumped Owen and hopeful romantic Allie might be the only two singles in the city looking for more than just a quick encounter. They both feel a spark when they meet, but a series of missteps and side quests complicate their night, keeping them apart. As they each race toward and away from each other across the city, they just might discover that the one thing they want most is closer than they think.”

The film also stars Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, King Princess, Ben Marshall, Ziwe, Molly Ringwald, and LeVar Burton.

But what are critics saying about the romantic comedy? The reviews are in…

One Night Only has a 54% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes

TheWrap gave it a 3.5 out of 5, writing: “Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro make for a charming couple in a concoction that floats above its Purge-like setting.”

Boston Globe gave it a 1.5 out of 4, writing: “Its ideas are outdated and, for a movie about casual sex, it’s shockingly puritanical. Even worse, its old-fashioned ideas about romance and sex in relationships would make a Doris Day movie look like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.”

AV Club gave it a D+, writing: “Instead of sharing a laugh at the ridiculous pressure to have fun with every swipe, One Night Only has only one thing on its mind, and it’s disappointingly much more traditional.”

The New York Times says: “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.”

RogerEbert.com gave it 0 out of 4, writing: “If this is what it takes to get a rom-com greenlit these days, maybe we should just let them die. Death with dignity is surely a better fate for the genre than fascist capitulation.”

Variety says: “If One Night Only is aiming to comment on the hollow, ineffective nature of much contemporary political activism, then job done. But it’s hard to shake the sense that no commentary on anything in particular is intended here.”

The Guardian gives it 2 out of 5: “There’s both too much yet not enough world-building here, enough questions answered to encourage us to ask 10 more. It’s also just too unavoidably grim of a premise, especially at a dark political moment such as this.”

Slant gave it 2 out of 4, writing: “Romantic comedies rarely make it to theaters these days, which makes it that much more unfortunate that the ones that do feel like sitcoms.”

The Film Maven gave it a D, writing: “One Night Only becomes a cringe-fest the longer it goes on, sacrificing actual romance for a sex comedy that feels like it’ll give the wrong people ideas in the dystopian time we’re actually living in.”

Screen International adds: “Despite showing lots of skin and featuring sexually-suggestive dialogue, One Night Only suffers from a stultifying timidity.”

The New York Post gave it 2 out of 4, writing: “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.”

The Daily Beast adds: “Characters are thin, it’s drowning in a sea of product placement, and it’s far more interested in throwing them into one wacky situation after another than it is in making them feel like real people.”

Decoding Everything says: “One Night Only has an R-rated sensibility that evokes the edginess of Judd Apatow’s era-defining mid-aughts rom-coms only in a more absurdist direction… It may not be the type of rom-com that will linger, but as a one-night stand, it hits the spot.”

THR says: “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.”

Consequence concludes: “A movie that imagines a society that would buy party hats celebrating the one night of the year they have an ounce of bodily autonomy. An America that wouldn’t just surrender further to fascism, but turn it into branding.”

See Monica getting support from boyfriend Andrew Garfield at a recent premiere party.

First look photos were also released, and you can see them in the gallery of this post. Watch the trailer, embedded above!

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