Official Synopsis
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 hook-up, 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.
Despite the misconception that the male gender doesn’t like sappy love stories or stories of budding independence, some of us males dig those things (huge fan of Sleepless in Seattle and Clueless — not ashamed). Character building films that have someone develop from a clingy koala to an independent individual is the stuff of strong stories. And that’s the key, the stories have to be strong for the concept to work. How to Be Single has elements of a strong story, but ends up overcomplicating itself with needless side stories that get far too much screen time, while short-changing what matters.
In the words of Terry from On the Water Front, “I could have been a contender”. As could this movie have been if it had focused a bit more on its central character and not other characters that didn’t mean as much.
Let’s get right into this thing.
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The first act establishes our main character, Alice (Dakota Johnson), who is trying to find her true self by breaking up with her current boyfriend Josh (Nicholas Braun). Seeking independence and trying to get out on her own to find out who Alice truly is, she departs her relationship with a ‘break’ and goes exploring. Along the way, she finds herself at a law firm in New York City where she meets party girl Robin (Rebel Wilson — she is an absolute treat) and begins to live the high life, which includes hooking up with an honest bartender named Tom (Anders Holm). The romp with Tom sets her straight and she begins to see who she wants to be in life. Satisfied with who she is, Alice goes back to her ex-ish boyfriend, but is rejected as Josh has moved on. Destroyed by the horrible truth that she cannot have her cake and eat it too, she does her best to pick up the pieces.
The first act of the film sets a lot in motion. Director Christian Ditter and writers Abby Kohn, Dana Fox and Marc Silverstein do their best to build up their main character and her plight for spiritual discovery, as well as freedom through random encounters. The crew does a good job with establishing who this main character is and do a commendable job with ending the first act on a low note that’s eye-opening/true to the audience, as well as Alice. It’s a proper result from a series of established events. More so, it’s a believable build up and response to Alice’s actions. So, yay for the first act, they nailed it.
Sadly, after such a good first act, the second act gets a bit lost in its accomplishments.
Act two begins with Alice going out and partying hard with Robin, trying to drown her sorrows in liquor and one-night stands. Her life goes off the rails a bit, her relationship with her sister Meg (Leslie Mann) starts to tread rocky ground and Alice spirals toward hitting rock bottom. As she is stewing at the bottom, we get a taste of Meg’s story about her wanting to get pregnant (she is an OBGYN and single), we get to dabble in Tom’s story about his obsession with a girl named Lucy (Alison Brie) and we get Robin for comedy relief when it is needed to fill time or break up a serious moment. As act two starts to wrap up, Alice sees the wickedness of her ways and tries to clean up her act. She pumps the break on partying, rents an apartment and begins to venture out into New York City on her own. In addition, she meets up with a single father named David (Damon Wayans Jr.) and spends a good amount of time with him, though we never see that good amount of time (and it abruptly ends).
Act two just goes to heck in a hand basket in regards to story. While it starts off strong with more of a freedom cry from Alice, be it a cry of guilt/regret, the side stories introduced are introduced way too late in the game. Tom’s story doesn’t stick. Meg’s story is certainly huge, but doesn’t get enough room to cultivate into anything powerful. The most tragic part of act two is the small space allotted to Damon Wayans Jr.’s David, who seems to show up, establish a connection with Alice and then implode it in a span of 5-7 minutes. Seriously, his story is so incredibly disjointed and empty, and it certainly is implied to be powerful, that the beef between Alice and him doesn’t really mean anything. In fact, the moment of split between Alice and him is edited down so bad that you are left confused about what the heck just happened. Had the writers and director made a decision to cut out Tom, who is a throwaway storyline, or some other story, then maybe this might have made the relationship issues between Alice and David more meaningful. It was a lost opportunity to help make the main character a bit more defined through this particular story branch.
Anyway, there is so much in act two to setup and payoff that there is little time to truly pay any of the storylines off.
As act three is set in motion, we have an independent Alice doing fine…until
Josh makes his way back into the picture. I won’t give anything away in act three, as I never want to be ‘that reviewer’, but I will say that nothing goes as planned and no character storyline is wrapped properly, sans Meg. Act three did its best to correct the sins of act two, but there just wasn’t enough time to put the pieces back together properly, nor was there enough time to add any real depth to the side stories established. It’s a shame, as act three had a decent wrap for Alice, but it didn’t mean much because of the second act.
Overall, How to Be Single is a film that did way too much and didn’t focus enough on what mattered. It wanted to be a strong love story of independence/personal redemption, but ended up struggling with becoming the new Love Actually, which it didn’t need to become. In short, there were too many things going on, not enough time to properly develop and finish them in the span of two hours. It was simply a missed opportunity to create something endearing.
The special features on the other hand are endearing and entertaining. Here is what you’re looking at:
– “How to Be Single” Blu-ray contains the following special features:
– The Pros and Cons of How To Be Single
– Rebel Rabble: A Look at Rebel Wilson
– The Best Idea Wins! The Humor of How To Be Single
– Deleted Scenes
– Gag Reel
– Rebel Wilson Outtakes
Solid special features that have some fun direction to them. The gag reel is priceless, as well as the featurettes. There is a lot of solid humor here and in some respects more than the film. Anyway, you won’t be disappointed with the extras.
Onto the summary.
Own How to Be Single on Blu-ray or DVD on May 24 or Own It Early on Digital HD now!
