How to Be Single (2016)

Russian title:
“Actively Looking”

Directed by: Christian Ditter

Written by: Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein, Dana Fox

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Rebel Wilson

Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: I gotta say, living a trailer-free life is where it’s at. The only preconceived notion I had coming in to this movie was that it was a chick flick. That’s it. I had no expectations, false or otherwise, from the studio, and just sat down and watched the movie from a really pure place. I did that with Guardians of the Galaxy, and I wasn’t disappointed, so maybe I’ll make it a life rule that I never watch a trailer again as long as I shall live. You read it here first, folks!

Bit-O-Trivia from the IMDb page: “Dakota had all her tattoos covered for this role.” [Sorry. That was the most interesting bit of trivia I could find.] 

1 hour, 49 minutes later…:  Coming into this, I was expecting the formulaic rom-com scenario of watching two illogically good-looking people fall in love, fuck up really bad, miss each other miserably, have a three-minute make-up conversation, and happily ever afters, sunsets, babies, blah. I waited for that to happen the entire movie. For starters, there were no illogically good-looking people in this movie. (Sorry, Dakota. Your mom may be Melanie Griffith, and your grand-mom Tippi Hedren, but you’re just normally good looking. And you remind me of a college friend, but that’s an entirely different blog.) This was really refreshing, because I think having relatively normal looking people grounded the story a little bit. 

But throughout the movie, I kept waiting for a relationship—any relationship—to start. I was like, “Oh! Alice is going to have a fling with the bartender, and they’re going to fall in love, and then she’s going to go back to her boyfriend who she's ‘on a break’ from to break up with him, and he’s going to be in bed with another woman, and sunsets and rainbows and kids and yadda.” Nope. THEN I was like, “Oh! That wallflower stealing the WiFi at the bar is going to fall in love with the bartender, and she’ll ferret out his philandering lifestyle, and call it off, regret it, text him, and end credits.” Nope. This happened throughout the entire movie. At one point I was heard exclaiming at the screen, “Will something good happen, please?” Luckily my friend and I were pretty much the only people in the theater, so I did not get Junior Mints thrown at me. But I think it was the fact that they didn’t focus on the gushy romance and the perfect relationship and all of that stuff that gave the movie its charm. 

But you know what didn’t give the movie its charm? Rebel Wilson. I have to confess that I’ve never seen Pitch Perfect, (which I am putting on my spreadsheet right now, IRHSTOSLers. Don’t you worry.) But the fact that her character didn’t match the tone of the other characters and that she was too over-the-top and weird, it became clear to me that she was playing her PP character, but with a different name. She didn’t fit. She was a very round peg in a very square hole. The movie could have been much better if her character had been toned down a bit. 

Final Thoughts: I’m going to give this film 5 slices of pizza out of 6. It wasn’t your typical rom-com. It defied convention, which is awesome. But unfortunately, Rebel Wilson stole that one slice of pizza, mugged at me, and left before I could grab it from her. Yes. That was a fat joke, which is okay because I, too, am of the corpulent persuasion. (Love you Rebel. You're really funny. But just choose different roles. Diversify your portfolio.) To recap: Great acting. Great story. Little less Rebel would have been great.