One Night Only

One viewing only, a tepid rom-com with an intriguing premise

Despite some films being heralded as the saviors of theatrical rom-coms (think The Big Sick (2017), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), or Anyone But You (2023)), the domain has largely migrated to streaming with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018), The Kissing Booth (2018), and Tall Girl (2019) spawning various forgettable sequels. That hasn’t stopped studios from trying to throw in the occasional rom-com into theaters; the latest to try is One Night Only (2026).

One Night Only has an original premise that feels like a satirical take on the horror film, The Purge (2013). In that Ethan Hawke-starring movie, the government passed a law where all crime is made legal for one night a year. In One Night Only all premarital sex in the United States is banned except for one night a year. We follow two New Yorkers, pizza shop owner Owen (Callum Turner) and commercial jingles singer Allie (Monica Barbaro), two stranger romantics in a night of lust. Yet when Allie’s friend Jacinta (King Princess) leaves her early in the night and Owen’s girlfriend Malika (Maya Hawke, curiously another Hawke in a Purge-like world) decides she wants to hook up with a neighbor, Owen and Allie are left unmoored in the NYC night. Their stories weave in and out of each other, where they start of disliking each other, but inevitably can’t deny their attraction.

One Night Only is directed by Will Gluck (Easy A (2010), Anyone But You), who takes on a script by Travis Braun, which was featured in the Blacklist of most-liked unproduced scripts. Yet the original script reportedly underwent heavy re-writes by Gluck. The result is an interesting premise that is shoehorned into a rather tepid and predictable romantic comedy. The setting and the time constraint do much to break from the romantic mold that Gluck seems very keen to place the film in, and Braun seems to have taken heavy inspiration Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1985), yet without the same daring and admiration for the grimy beauty of the Big Apple.

For a romantic comedy to work there have to be various factors that click: one is the casting of the leads and their chemistry: two is the dialogue and banter, and finally the stakes of the “will they won’t they,” you have to be incapable of imagining these people with someone else.

The casting for One Night Only is great on paper, two extremely attractive Hollywood rising stars. Yet despite their charm they never seemed to crackle with any irresistible aura. Barbaro has shown herself to be an incredibly talented actress, after her Oscar-nominated turn as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown (2024) and similarly carries most of One Night Only with a charm and charisma like the best of romantic leads. Turner is solid in his role, yet he’s the type of star that Hollywood has been desperately trying to throw to audiences artificially (remember Jai Courtney?), but he hasn’t shown to have much range or has been pigeonholed in his roles. He first popped onto viewers’ radar as a secondary character in the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), when that saga fizzled out, he was placed in Oscar-bait fare like The Boys in the Boat (2023) which similarly went under the radar, and afterwards was placed as a lead in the Emmy-eyeing Apply TV series Masters of the Air (2024) which was under watched. In all his roles he’s been playing the same variant of arrogant and entitled alpha. One Night Only demands a bit more range of him, playing a square and uptight romantic, but I never bought his character. I kept expecting him to throw a small quip or smirk, revealing a suave nature instead. It’s no wonder he’s being considered to be the next James Bond, yet paired with the more arrayed abilities of Barbaro, he pales in comparison.

However, any romantic comedy with incongruous leads can be somewhat saved by good dialogue. Sadly, One Night Only doesn’t have that benefit, it falls into generic and bluntly expository territory, most notably in the first act where we’re inorganically recited character bios as if we were in a video game character selector. Braun and Gluck never transcend the cliched beats even in their song selection, which seems to be a Top 40 shuffle from 2014.

That leaves the stakes, which with a ticking clock structure in place promised to usher a solid risk for our central couple. Yet even here, the effect is diluted with a rather confusing flipflopping of the film’s stance on the night’s rules. One Night Only  feels like it’s taking a political stance against government regulation of bodies (and honestly the actual premise of the film doesn’t seem crazily far-fetched in today’s America), yet it also appears to be undercutting itself on its celebration of the sexual freedom it intermittently portrays. The finale is incredibly confused, getting tangled and confused in defining and differentiating between love and sex. It would be a fascinating exploration and conversation to have, especially in a modern world where dating happens through apps, young people are having less sex, and the social media and porn are shaping expectations of bodies and intimacy.  Yet, One Night Only seems to scamper away from any introspection, and ends up appearing to both condemning sex as unromantic and championing it as well. The result is that the stakes are never fully defined and by the end become inconsequential.

As it stands One Night Only is a rather tepid and harmless rom-com with a fun premise if poorly executed. The leads are attractive if unbalanced in their capabilities, and you end up with a midrange film that is unlikely to do any favors in reviving the romcom. Yet, it hooked me on a small personal avenue with the easiest of cliches: its setting.

I was born, grew up, studied, and worked in NYC until last year when I moved to Madrid, Spain. It’s been over a year since I’ve been in my hometown and simply seeing a pizzeria, bodega cat, grimy subway, or a character taking a Citi bike was enough to bubble up an irresistible nostalgia. It’s only when living abroad that you realize how much NYC is featured in films, with each frame becoming a pang of memory and reminiscence. You can for sure get crazy NYC nights that can feel like an After Hours or One Night Only, and I don’t think you become fully baptized as a New Yorker until you do. Because of this, with the setting that was probably motivated around tax incentives than creative choices, I felt like I was coming into a warm embrace of a cheesy and forgettable movie, but one that gave you the secret handshake of a childhood friend.

6.2/10