One Night Only: The Dreaded Rom-Com Formula Strikes Again (Blu-ray)

The Film:

Once again we return to the realm of romantic-comedies in the sheer hope of finally coming upon one that's brave enough to stand up and reject the same tired, cliche-filled formula that filmmakers fall victim to over and over again, resulting in carbon-copy products that are quickly tossed in the stack of other forgotten films just like it. This brings us to the latest contender, Will Gluck's "One Night Only," which attempts to throw a rather bizarre foundational premise into the genre in hopes of shaking things up a bit. Will this be the one that finally delivers something a little different than the multitude that have come before, or will it merely be another stroll down the same old road that we've already been down countless times?

The film opens by informing us that premarital sex was outlawed three years ago, with an exception being made for only one night a year. We are then introduced to our main characters, which includes pizza shop owner Owen (Callum Turner), who wants to use the night to propose to his girlfriend Malika (Maya Hawke), only to find out that she wants to sleep with someone else that night. We also meet Allie (Monica Barbaro), a singer for commercials, who plans to go out with her friend and make a meaningful connection with someone, which doesn't go quite as planned. Coincidentally, Owen and Allie keep managing to run into each other over the course of the evening, only to go their separate ways, but could it possibly be that they were meant to find each other?

As always, the fundamental questions we find ourselves asking upon the conclusion of this latest rom-com revolve around its adherence to the usual formula and any attempts it made to break away from it. In regards to the latter, Travis Braun's screenplay really only offers the bizarre gimmick involving the outlawing of premarital sex and its allowance on this one specific night of the year. However, as far as the former goes, absolutely nothing is done differently, making the gimmick akin to putting a hat on a horse that's been beaten to death many, many times over.

The particularly sad part is that the gimmick doesn't even serve much of a purpose other than to parade a stream of shallow characters in front of Allie who want nothing more than sex, while only serving to get Owen into trouble, a situation that you can't help but roll your eyes at. This leaves our main characters adrift in a meandering, directionless plot that merely has you waiting for the inevitable, but of course you also have to wait through the standard event that makes you think that they won't get together, before they finally do. On a sidenote, it was quite strange to see almost the entire formula crammed into the last 20 minutes or so of the film, where it gets put on fast-forward to fit it all in, but it was either that or have the entire film be nothing but a series of unfortunate encounters for these two.

When it comes right to it, there's simply nothing here to see but a heavily-cliched story that gives you nothing new in the least. Even the cameos from LeVar Burton, Molly Ringwald, Michelle Hurd, Bobby Cannavale, and Nicholas Braun can't elevate it from anything more than the stale offering that it is. This leaves us to wait once again for a screenwriter who will be brave enough to leave the old genre trappings behind and do something unique, compelling, and perhaps even surprising for the audience that's sick of the same old thing again and again. As we saw with the box office performance of "One Night Only," they're clearly getting quite tired of it, but until someone is indeed willing to truly shake things up, the genre will simply remain ill, with very little chance of improvement.

Video/Audio:

"One Night Only" comes to Blu-ray in a 2.39:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of mostly decent quality. The picture presented is fine for the most part, though it does appear that the digital settings they used have made daytime scenes or those with lots of lights look much brighter than they should, but luckily it's not too much of a problem. On the other hand, the Dolby Atmos audio track is excellent, giving you all of the dialogue & music in outstanding quality. Overall, while the transfer itself could've used a little adjusting to even out the brightness, Universal has still done a fine job for the film's physical debut.

Special Features:

Feeling Sparks (5 Minutes): A brief featurette that has the cast and crew discussing the film.

Pizza 101 with Callum Turner (2 Minutes): Another brief featurette that has Callum Turner talking about making pizza.

The Plus Ones (6 Minutes): A featurette about the supporting cast.

No Glucks Given (6 Minutes): A featurette that has director Will Gluck and others talking about making the film.

Conclusion:

Will Gluck's "One Night Only" is sadly yet another rom-com entry that is too scared to stray away from the same tired old formula that we've seen many, many times before. It may try to dress it up with a bizarre foundational gimmick and a plethora of cameos, but that doesn't even begin to cover up the multitude of cliches that have the audience ahead of it every step of the way, right up to its inevitable conclusion, ultimately leaving us with a carbon-copy genre outing that rolled right off the assembly line.

Score: 2/5

Available on Blu-ray starting tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter @BeckFilmCritic.