Single All The Way – Quick Review

Netflix’s 2021 romantic Christmas comedy ‘Single All The Way’ has a familiar plot at the center of it – a single man doesn’t want to look pathetic in front of his nosy family, so he convinces his flatmate/best-friend to pretend to be his boyfriend for the Christmas holidays. If you’ve seen enough romantic films, you already know where the story is going.

Directed by Michael Mayer and written by Chad Hodge, ‘predictability’ is definitely not a problem with this film. Those who love the romance genre are always up for a good old ‘friends to lovers’ tale. Michael Urie plays Peter, the protagonist and Philemon Chambers plays his super-cute bestie. The two unfortunately don’t have any chemistry. Chambers is endearing in his role of a writer/handyman who has a cheery demeanor that warms the hearts of those around him. Urie on the other hand didn’t look comfortable for most parts and delivered a lot of dialogues through clenched teeth. Jennifer Robertson who plays Peter’s sister too seemed to speak through clenched teeth and all her laughs are fake as hell. Kathie Najimy gets the nicest character, she is the loving mom who is cool enough to set up her son on a blind date with a hot gay gym trainer. Jennifer Coolidge has a cameo as her sister Sandy, which is clearly meant for comic relief, but isn’t amusing and almost unnecessary.

Visually, the film is colorful and vibrant, with some beautiful scenes. I loved the bits with snow covered-trees and Christmas decorations. The first half does elicit decent amount of laughs; Peter’s family is sweet, supportive and their banter makes for a fun watch. Towards the second-half however, things slow down drastically and it’s hard to keep yourself invested in the plot. Maybe a little tweak to the cast would have made ‘All The Way Single’ a lot of entertaining that it otherwise is.

It’s a 5/10 from me.