It would be really easy to dismiss How to be Single as just a bit of harmless chick flick fun, but the
more I think about it the more I really dislike much of what this film
supposedly has going for it. Regardless
of whether you think the film is particularly funny or not, it’s an absolute
clusterfuck of plotlines and a demonstration of sexual attitudes that I
realistically know are normal for the average twenty-something but are still
depressing nevertheless. And the saddest
thing is that there is actually a premise in there with some potential that gets
grossly overshadowed by meaningless distractions.
This premise comes in the form of Alice (Dakota Johnson,
proving that she is not well suited to comedy), a woman who has never been
single who decides to take a break with her longtime boyfriend, only to
discover that when she wants to reunite he has moved on. Now she has to try to discover who she is
without the influence of a relationship.
That’s actually a very empowering theme that I would have loved to see
the film commit fully to, but it doesn’t get to that conclusion until the very
end, forcing Alice to muddle through missing her ex and having a casual sexual
partner and dating another man, all of whom are severely underdeveloped so as
to be little more than plot device stepping stones that ultimately lead to the
same place the single break-up could have.
Alice herself doesn’t even get that much development, instead having the
film’s moral explained to her via dialogue without undergoing an on-screen
character arc until a montage in the film’s final moments.
You may also notice that there are three other women on
the movie poster, and every single one of
them has an in-depth subplot that is either entirely unnecessary or
completely overemphasized. Alison Brie
plays a woman who desperately wants a boyfriend and then eventually gets one,
and also has next to nothing to do with the rest of the main cast. Rebel Wilson plays a party girl who is mainly
there to spout gross one-liners and has a forced strained-friendship arc with
Alice toward the end of the film. Leslie
Mann is a career-oriented woman who decides she wants to have a baby, only to
fall in love with a guy after inseminating herself with donor sperm, which feels like it would have been
better served in a separate movie altogether rather than as one of a ridiculous
number of subplots in this one. It
furthermore doesn’t help that none of these characters has room to develop beyond
being defined by their relationship with men (or with motherhood), completely
undermining the central thesis of the title that there is value in having a
singular identity.
But a lot of folks will probably just want to know whether
the film is funny or not, and your mileage may vary. I’ve never been a fan of Rebel Wilson’s
gross-out shock humor, and if the laughs in my theater were any indication, the
general reaction is lukewarm. There were
two scenes that legitimately made me laugh, but they were brief and didn’t save
what was ultimately a pretty slow film.
A lot of what is supposed to pass as comedy is based on stereotypes of
how men and women supposedly act, and often the women in this film come across
as naïfs subject to the manipulative influence of men in ways that are not only
condescending but also legitimately creepy.
A good example is a joke about how a certain number of drinks will lead
two people of the opposite sex to fuck no matter what, and as Alice counts the
final requisite drink she has had with a guy, she pounces on him in full vigor
like subject to a law of physics. Given
the real-world implications of alcohol in a sexual atmosphere and a culture
that esteems men for getting women drunk enough to conquer sexually, what was
supposed to be a funny scene comes across as shockingly gross, and this is only
one extreme example in a film full of tone-deaf moments.
This review is slightly longer than my normal word count,
which you wouldn’t probably expect from a throwaway rom-com, but that’s a
legitimate reflection of my problems with this film. My worry is that a lot of people will go to
this film and see their own sexual politics affirmed, and that’s just sad. The fact the film is a structural mess that
feels it necessary to tell rather than show only makes it worse, and the
potential for a good story only makes it sadder. Don’t see this one, even if only for stupid
fun. If you’re anything like me, you’ll
only be disappointed: in the film, in yourself, in other moviegoers, in society
as a whole.
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