In Hollywood, a web platform lets writers submit their work for executives to vote on the best unproduced screenplays. In the past, films like Juno and The Imitation Game topped the site, so we are looking at quality work that eventually was made. I have a question. How did One Night Only get to be the most popular script in 2024? Because, based on the final product, I would hate to have seen what it beat. This is a one-idea rom-com that, once the basic premise is revealed, has very little else to offer apart from a ludicrous and unbelievable film that annoys more than entertains.

In the near future, the American government have introduced a policy that states sex for unmarried people is forbidden apart from one night each year. Owen, who runs a pizza restaurant, hopes to spend a romantic evening with his girlfriend, until she announces she wants to sleep with a neighbour, while Allie, a commercial singer, isn’t after a night with anyone but someone special. When the pair meet, it’s disastrous, and throughout that night, their paths cross, but are they right for each other?

Let’s start with the premise. A dystopian future where the government are obviously a fascist regime to have that much power to set rules like this. Think The Purge but without killing people. It’s fine to have ideas like this, but as soon as you understand what is going on, and that this is a law that everyone seems to be following, you realise that this is so bizarre; it could never actually work unless there was some form of martial law going on in parallel.

You’ve paid your money to watch this; you have to go along with it. The only problem is you are faced with the two lead characters, Owen and Allie. They seem nice enough. They don’t seem to have anything wrong with them. Which is instantly an issue. We are supposed to believe that these two people cannot find anyone on the one night when everyone seems desperate to be with someone. Then we spend the rest of the film watching these characters go their separate ways and run into predicaments that get more unbelievable with every passing minute. From trying to buy a $200 condom and finding the couple cannot withdraw the money, she because she can’t remember her password, he because he doesn’t have enough funds. They go off with other people; everyone seems to have issues that feel more like inconveniences than bad luck.

You know what the outcome is going to be, so hopefully there will be some laughs as we wait for the predictable ending. Nope, no laughs. There may be the odd line, but by the time they arrive, you are frankly bored and frustrated, and you care little for anything anymore. You care less for the characters, you care less for the situation, you only want this to run its course so you can leave.

It’s a shame because the people involved are usually reliable. Directed by Will Gluck, who helmed Easy A, which was a film that worked. Then there’s the casting, which doesn’t quite work, even though their performances aren’t terrible. Callum Turner, Mr Dua Lipa and contender for James Bond, is a fine actor who does his best with the clunky script, while Oscar-nominated Monica Barbaro, in her role as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, also does her best with the material, but seriously, if these two cannot find a date for the night, what chance does anyone else have? One saving grace is Molly Ringwald’s appearance as Owen’s mother. She brings some sassiness to the role of a single mother taking up the chance to be young again. It’s one of the film’s high points, and they’re few and far between.

One Night Only works if you can stretch your imagination to the point of snapping, but a film shouldn’t ask so much of its audience. Instead, you get a film that makes you grind your teeth. Unfunny, messy and a waste of two talented actors who you hope got a good enough pay packet so they can go back to making much more interesting pieces. As for the Hollywood Black List, if I hear a film was popular on that platform in future, I am going to watch with caution.

1 out of 5

Director: Will Gluck

Starring: Callum Turner, Monica Barbaro, Maya Hawke, King Princess, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, Charlie Gileapie, Quintessa Swindell, Mateo Ray Garcia, Julia Fox.

Written by: Travis Braun

Running Time: 102 mins

Cert: 15

Release date: 28th August 2026