The premise of Christian Ditter’s How to be Single reads like a Taylor Swift lyric: four girls – “happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time” – struggling to overcome or, rather, embrace singledom – “it’s miserable and magical”. Naturally, such a plotline risks becoming a giggly “sisters before misters” cliché – perfect fodder for a fluffy Galentine’s Day watch, but hard to tell whether it can offer anything more than an updated Sex and the City-style romp through the streets – and sheets – of Manhattan.
The outset isn’t promising on this front; Alice’s (Dakota Johnson) opening voiceover has a touch too much of Carrie Bradshaw about it. Unsurprising, really, when the film is based on a novel by Liz Tuccillo, holder of one of the many pens that wrote life into glitzy 1990s New Yorkian. This film “is not about relationships, but the times in-between when maybe, just maybe, real life is happening,” she faux-philosophises, a dull talking excerpt from an entitled teen’s diary.
Naturally, such a plotline risks becoming a giggly “sisters before misters” cliché
Moving away from mock-depth and into its true plot, however – a kind of Love Actually mash-up of unconventional singleton story threads where, refreshingly, no one just ‘gets’ the girl (or guy) and big gestures don’t equal happily ever afters told through the misty haze of cocktails, clubbing and casual coitus – and it’s on far steadier (and more hilarious) ground. Except it isn’t Love Actually – a neatly packed little set of interweaving storylets – it’s messy and maladroit just like the lives of its protagonists: newly-single paralegal Alice, who ‘temporarily’ dumps her college sweetheart to live the free-spirited dream before settling down; her sister Meg (reliable laugh-bearer Leslie Mann), an Ob-gyn considering IVF; Alice’s co-worker, unapologetic party girl and serial one-night-stander Robin (a riotous Rebel Wilson); and Lucy (Alison Brie), desperate to find ‘true love’s kiss’ in a dating site algorithm.
While the cinematic tropes are plentiful – lacklustre establishing shots of the NY skyline, birds-eye club scenes and shots, shots, shots – they subtly tie together a quietly subversive narrative. Here, all lifestyles are celebrated: no-strings sex is joyful, free and abundant, women can be breadwinners and, even if a relationship is the goal, that’s okay too – and we don’t need a smattering of ‘Independent Women’ on the soundtrack to know that. It’s a world where interracial relationships are depicted sans comment or comedy (something that Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck failed to do – seriously, it’s 2016), Robin’s weight isn’t the punchline to her character, a widowed single father isn’t necessarily The Holiday’s Jude Law and there’s a dude more excited by a baby that’s not his than its own mother-to-be.
These ladies don’t ‘find themselves’ Eat, Pray, Love-style but rather via clumsy, pathetic and brilliantly funny experiences
For all this casual progressiveness, though, the laughs still take centre-stage with the effervescent (and arguably underused) Rebel Wilson leading the way with gags on “dicksand” – like quicksand, but with dicks – and “lady garden” sass. These ladies don’t ‘find themselves’ Eat, Pray, Love-style but rather via clumsy, pathetic and brilliantly funny experiences, including protagonising a hilariously timed pre-sex sequence to the Harlem Shake.
Perhaps the ending does fall a tad flat after the preceding delightful chaos, but a love-filled climax wouldn’t have hit the mark either. Despite this, How to be Single does leave a sense of optimism in the air – it’s a fresh and witty love letter to JOMO, which might just be a new beginning for the tired RomCom.
