‘One Night Only’ Review: Callum Turner & Monica Barbara Rom-Com

Coming from Universal, the studio that brought you The Purge, comes a sort of kissin’ cousin to that movie, One Night Only. Instead of a 12-hour period annually where you can kill people without consequence as is the case with Purge, the idea here is the polar opposite: It is set in New York City in a time in the near future when a mandate has passed limiting premarital sex to one 12-hour time span, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., each year. If it worked for death then why can’t it work for love?

I can’t swear screenwriter Travis Braun was watching The Purge when he came up with this idea because he says instead he was on his honeymoon musing about all the ups and downs in his love life before marrying his wife — and also wondering how he could tell it all in the span of a single day. So this is the gimmick, but any other similarity to The Purge is strictly coincidental because this film from rom-com guru Will Gluck (Anyone But You, Easy A, Friends With Benefits) has created something more akin to After Hours, which similarly was a series of mishaps during one long night in NYC. Not nearly as dark as that Scorsese gem, One Night Only, despite its unique premise, follows the template of the romantic comedy genre in predictable fashion. Boy meets girl of his dreams, neither realizes the cosmic connection, but a series of disastrous attempts at sex, if not true love, may just find them drawn together.

What makes a rom-com successful no doubt is all in the casting and the chemistry of its two leads, in this case Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro, and they make a great pair for this kind of confection. Turner is Owen, a pizza shop owner whose live-in girlfriend Malika (Maya Hawke) breaks the news to him that she is not going to spend premarital sex night with him but instead wants to try out someone new. This devastates him, but with her blessing sends him out to also find the perfect one-night stand for the occasion. A promising prospect is Allie, played by Barbaro, who we first meet in the recording studio where she is laying down tracks for musical commercials singing about psoriasis and vaginal creams. When it seems this hopeless romantic has met Mr. Right in the form of handsome Owen and sets out to go out on the town with him, he throws up his sushi dinner all over her. Not a good move.

On a night where condoms are completely sold out, Allie and Owen set out with their own plan to find one in order to do the deed with new prospects. Never in any movie has the quest for a condom been stretched to this extreme, but this is just the beginning of a string of bad-news hookups for both that go south including Allie’s unfortunate choice of a rock star named Ezra Stone (a game Charlie Gillespie) who isn’t what he’s cracked up to be, and a stud (Andrew Burnap) who, as it turns out, is on parole and chased butt-naked out of the bedroom by the cops. Owen has similar disastrous results with his attempts including one hot-to-trot woman ditching him after discovering his mother (Molly Ringwald!) is too close for comfort bubble-wrapped with her BF (LeVar Burton).

If all this sounds a bit much it really isn’t because for Gluck, as he proved in the last big studio rom-com hit Anyone But You, less is more, and he squeezes some big laughs into a premise that isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. In fact, the film gets pointedly political, blaming right-wing types in the government for pushing through this mandate no one really wanted, all in the name of a more wholesome America where marriage rules. There are some nice satirical jabs at a Fox News-like network enthusiastically reporting the news that quite frankly in the era of Trump and Project 2025 is not all that implausible. We’re heading in this direction, and in fact is more believable than some of the stuff coming out of Washington D.C. daily these days. To that end Gluck purposely doesn’t turn this all into a dystopian sci-fi exercise, but smartly sets it all in NYC just as it is today. The message, and there is one, is maybe love is a greater commodity than sex, and the endless dating apps and efforts we endure to find it don’t have to end on just one night in the sack, but instead trusting your heart can last a lifetime.

Both main stars shine here. Turner finds a lighthearted story to show off his comedic and romantic chops, much better than last year’s rather plodding Eternity did. Barbaro is really appealing, both musically and as a woman who yearns for the real thing and not just an annual meet, greet, and hit-the-sheets experience. The supporting cast certainly is game, notably Gillespie and Burnap who don’t hold back.

This is all fun entertainment, a nice date movie and summer place to go for some laughs and a pretty decent rom-com, a genre sadly few and far and between this season.

Producers are Gluck and Jacqueline Monetta.

Title: One Night Only
Distributor: Universal
Release date: August 7, 2026
Director: Will Gluck
Screenwriter:Travis Braun
Cast: Callum Turner, Monica Barbaro, Maya Hawke, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, Julia Fox, Charlie Gillespie, King Princess, Mike Birbiglia, Ben Marshall, Ziwe, Andrew Burnap, Quintessa Swindell, Flavor Flav
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 42 mins