New Line/MGM
I’m usually not a hard person to please when it comes to movies. I can appreciate something representing just about all genres, eras and themes. However, when it came to How to Be Single, I had difficulty finding anything about it that I liked. Newly released on Blu-ray by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, this movie is geared as a romantic comedy suitable for a girls’ night out, and at least one reviewer proclaimed it “hilarious and heartfelt” according to the brightly colored Blu-ray packaging. However, I’d beg to differ with the film critics who supposedly said either of these things.
Let me give you the promising film synopsis first: “There’s a right way to be single, a wrong way to be single, and then … there’s Alice. And Robin. Lucy. Meg. Tom. David. New York City is full of lonely hearts seeking the right match, be it a love connection, a hookup, or something in the middle. And somewhere between the teasing texts and one-night stands, what these unmarrieds all have in common is the need to learn how to be single in a world filled with ever-evolving definitions of love. Sleeping around in the city that never sleeps was never so much fun.”
First off, kudos to the writers who developed that description because it makes the movie sound interesting and full of romantic possibilities, doesn’t it? I don’t have a problem with a movie about people hooking up in a big city. I’m sure the bigger your city is, the bigger your potential dating pool must be. And there are many who prefer a single lifestyle where they can see wherever the road may take them.
Most young people are like kites – they want to soar to new heights without someone holding too tightly to their strings. This generation seems to be waiting longer than ever before to pursue marriages, have children and settle down and buy homes (myself included in that equation, although I’m over the age of 30). However, I’m also left to wonder if this is indicative of a bigger problem now plaguing society: an entire shallow, uninteresting generation of millennials hooking up at the bars on every street corner because they’re bored or uninspired or because they’ve ordained that’s their right and privilege to do so? There are so many more worthwhile ways to reinvent yourself and your future … surely it’s just sloppy writing and not newly acceptable societal norms, right? These singles are a far cry from the gal pals on Sex and the City, who somehow managed to make sleeping around seem wittier, less shallow and a whole lot more fun.
Dakota Johnson stars as the main character Alice, a girl who breaks up with her college sweetheart Josh (Nicholas Braun) for no apparent reason other than to “find herself” as a recent graduate/paralegal in New York City. That seems like a good reason in theory, and I fully support the notion that a woman doesn’t have to have a man around in order to feel complete, no matter what society sometimes makes us think. However, Alice doesn’t seem to move forward but rather circular, sideways and maybe even a bit backwards, as she makes poor decision after poor decision encouraged by her new best friend Robin (Rebel Wilson). Thrown into the singles mix are the intertwining tales of bartender Tom (Anders Holm), the ever-relentlessly-pursuing-a-husband Lucy (Alison Brie), the impossibly-perfect-boy-next-door-who-wants-to-be-your-partner Ken (Jake Lacy), the young-but-successful-widower David (Damon Wayans Jr.) and Alice’s older-but-certainly-not-wiser-sister Meg (Leslie Mann).
For someone who wants to be alone and “discover herself,” Alice seems to have a need to have a man. She first sleeps with Tom the bartender, but then realizes he’s better suited to be her fuck buddy. Tom’s outlook on dating is probably the bleakest one I’ve ever seen: he won’t even hook up his water because he doesn’t want any of his one-night stands to misconstrue the basic need for drinking water as a clue that he might want to settle down and be in a relationship. She then sleeps with David, who on the surface seems to have everything together. He’s handsome, successful and a terrific father to his young daughter. However, he isn’t able to emotionally deal with and move past his wife’s death and he unceremoniously dumps Alice for trying to “replace his daughter’s mother” when she’s seen playing with and singing to her. Perhaps we should all just be cruel to our date’s children – there, problem solved. And don’t even get me started on Josh and his need to hook up with Alice because it’s technically not cheating on his new fiancée when he and Alice have already been intimate with one another in the past. Wait … what?
Then there’s Robin who seems to sleep with a different man every time she goes to a bar like changing her coat at the end of the evening, and Lucy who has a darker outlook than the characters on Seinfeld about how many of the general population would make suitable dates – and yet she’s determined to make every single one of them a potential husband until they run away screaming. Finally, there’s older sister Meg who decides to have a baby on her own and pushes away a decent guy who wants to be a father to her unborn child even though it’s not even his (Ken) for no reason aside from her own insecurity and irrationality. Please tell me people don’t act like these are all acceptable, normal dating behaviors because that seems utterly depressing.
I’m not sure if I’m angrier at the depictions of single men or women in this movie … but I think a more appropriate title for How to Be Single would be “How to Be Shallow.” Absolutely nothing about it felt heartfelt or genuine, and that’s a shame because it had such a talented, promising cast and premise. The characters themselves are all unlikable dullards (okay, I’ll concede that Damon Wayans Jr. manages to rise slightly above the rest, but that’s not saying much). At best, they’re hollow caricatures of what twentysomethings are supposed to be like. Are they really all out enjoying the single life and all of its seductive perks like this? What, you aren’t out partying every single night and then stopping off at your local drugstore for a quick hangover remedy involving children’s medicine and then going to the mall for a complimentary makeover before jetting into your position at a prestigious law firm some four hours late for your work shift? I can’t think of a single person living that lifestyle and successfully getting away with it other than Rebel Wilson. And I have to say it didn’t look all that enticing. She looked haggard, sloppy and unprofessional – not like a smart, independent, successful young woman.
Hell, she didn’t even seem like an adult, and neither did anybody else. Everyone acts more like petulant teenagers wandering aimlessly about in a world where it’s fashionable to retain an irresponsible teenaged philosophy well into adulthood. We apparently don’t need to forge successful career paths or relationships anymore when we can go about chalking every poor decision we make up to being single and our need to “discover ourselves” because nobody understands us … eye roll. I suppose I should be thankful that at least they all had good jobs and weren’t just sitting around playing video games in their parents’ homes that they refuse to move out of even as they approach the end of their twenties.
But maybe that’s a bit too harsh. Maybe you’ll enjoy How to Be Single. The Blu-ray release also includes a few bonus features, including three featurettes: “The Pros and Cons of How to Be Single,” “Rebel Rabble: A Look at Rebel Wilson” and “The Best Idea Wins! The Humor of How to Be Single,” as well as outtakes, deleted scenes and a gag reel. I usually find Rebel Wilson funny, but maybe I’m getting tired of her antics because this character – and movie – fell flat for me. The laughs were few and far between, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it didn’t receive a needless sequel anyway.
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