Even a James Bond contender can’t save this passion-free romcom

Review by

Sarah Watt

Film reviewer·New Zealand Listener·

17 Aug, 2026 06:00 PM2 mins to read

Sarah reviewed for the Sunday Star Times until 2019. After a career change to secondary school teaching, she now she works in alternative education with our most disadvantaged rangatahi.

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Failure to fire: Allie (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner) have one night to make a match. Photo / Supplied

One Night Only, directed by Will Gluck, is in cinemas now.

Imagine the US government doing something as controversial as enforcing a law that controls how citizens use their bodies.

Writer-director Will Gluck (Anyone But You, Friends With Benefits) has spun this not-so-outlandish notion into One Night Only, an
unfunny and unerotic romcom that posits a near-future dystopia in which unmarried Americans are permitted to have sex only one night a year.

Pizza chef Owen (Callum Turner) takes his girlfriend to a fancy restaurant intending to make a romantic evening of it, except she dumps him to use her hall pass with another man. Left wandering the frenzied New York streets as couples everywhere start making out in public as if just released from prison, Owen bumps into Monica Barbaro’s similarly unattached Allie. They meet-cute in a decidedly not-cute fight over NYC’s last remaining condom (the law prosecutes anyone who doesn’t use protection), then spend the entire running time will-they-won’t-theying until the film’s predictable climax (ha ha). It’s not that one is too prudish to enjoy a movie predicated entirely on people getting laid (see this ecstatic review of The Invite for a better option); it’s that this fantasy is so flaccid. The dull dialogue and passion-free performances never spark.

Shamefully, a story which explicitly acknowledges how crass it is (characters literally talk about “the most unromantic night of the year”) still falls into every Instagram influencer’s trap. Gluck exploits the myriad charms of the talented, colt-legged Barbaro, who shone as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, by forcing her to sing here too (delivering the movie’s one sweet moment), and dressing her in only a handful of sequins and impractically high heels. Both Owen’s and Allie’s other suitors are all pectorals and tight undies. But where’s the emotional investment if the leads are beautiful people who would have no trouble finding a mate the other 364 days of the year?

British actor Turner (The Boys in the Boat) should be having quite a moment: he recently married pop superstar Dua Lipa, and is currently the bookies’ favourite to become the next James Bond. Alas, so dire is this showcase, it’s hard to see him leaving anyone feeling shaken or stirred.

Rating out of five: ★½

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