Film Review : One Night Only (2026)

One Night Only, while being an incredibly generic rom-com, will go down as having the most insane plot line of the year.

We follow two people in a world where the government has taken over what single people can and can’t do with their bodies. With these new laws there is a purge like date where once a year single people are allowed to be sexually active. From here we follow two strangers who through a strange series of events realize what they’ve wanted all along is each other.

Now this premise alone is insane. They don’t give much of a backstory at all here as to why it happens or how theres no revolt or anything. Each person is also branded with an almost tracking system for it. On the date that its allowed it seemingly also has ruled out any public indecency crimes as well which begs the question as to where are children on this date when people are screwing on the street almost.

As a rom-com though this just isn’t that great. Our two leads with Monico Barbaro and Callum Turner are just fine. Barbaro exudes chemistry and Callum has his moments but it felt like the two didn’t connect all the time. The small cast of secondary characters too have the potential to be great but just aren’t around enough. A shame when the likes of Maya Hawke and Molly Ringwald, and LeVar Burton are wasted.

Even as a comedy it just isn’t that funny. The writing and jokes aren’t clever or always land and the zany situations aren’t anything super memorable. Instead its just more of watching the absurdity of people navigating this day of the year with almost no pre planning it seems.

The premise really carries the film here. Outside of it, the film is a very lackluster and forgettable rom-com.

Score :

2 / 5