‘One Night Only’ serves up a meet-cute in a dystopia

I’ll say this much for “One Night Only” – you don’t see many rom-coms set in a Christofascist dystopia. But director Will Gluck’s movie makes a game effort to be a sexy, charming entertainment about two appealing characters falling in love in an alternate America where Big Brother is always watching, especially in the bedroom. Fun!

The hook in Travis Braun’s screenplay (which was on the notorious Blacklist) is that, in a country under right-wing authoritarian rule, premarital sex is illegal in America. The catch is that, every year, there’s a 12-hour “Purge”-like reprieve where the unmarried can do whatever they want with each other. On that night, the streets are full of people trying to find somebody to get it on with, lest they have to wait another 364.5 days to try again.

This is presented not as a dark satire about where our country is headed but a fun, fizzy high-concept idea for a rom-com. The movie definitely works better the less you think about it and its implications – it’s no surprise that the trailer doesn’t even mention the premise until halfway through. (Although I couldn’t help thinking – does that mean there’s a baby boom exactly nine months later every year? Would millions of Americans have the same birthday? Would it be impossible to reserve a room at Chuck E. Cheese for a party on that day?)

Rom-coms really run on limitations, whether it’s the social mores of Victorian England or the byzantine customs of ‘80s high school. “One Night Only” just enshrines its romantic restrictions into national law.

Navigating this strange night is Owen (Callum Turner), a New York pizza shop owner whose girlfriend (Maya Hawke) wants to try an open relationship for 12 hours, and Allie (Monica Barbaro), a commercial jingle singer who turns hits like “Brave” and “A Thousand Miles” into ads for psoriasis medication.

Over the course of their misadventures, Owen and Allie meet and separate, meet and separate, meet and separate, until gradually it dawns on them that hey, maybe they were meant to be together. Rom-coms really run on limitations, whether it’s the social mores of Victorian England or the byzantine customs of ‘80s high school. “One Night Only” just enshrines its romantic restrictions into national law.

While it strains credulity that either Turner or Barbaro would have trouble hooking up in any 12-hour period, both are appealing performers and have good chemistry together under the direction of a rom-com vet like Gluck (“Easy A,” “Anyone But You”). A scene where Owen makes a late-night pizza for Allie has more of an erotic charge than any of the half-naked fumblings elsewhere in the movie.

I know I’m probably taking the movie a little too seriously, but I guess the dispiriting underlying message of “One Night Only” is that, given enough time, America can get used to anything?

As the couple (and the movie) amble from scene to scene, “One Night Only” almost feels like a collection of linked sketch-comedy scenes about life in a sex “Purge.” We learn that condoms cost $50 (“surge pricing”) on this night, brands like K-Y and, strangely, Dunkin’ tie their ad campaigns into the night, and there are “REPEAL” signs everywhere opposed to the law.

That was the strangest aspect of “One Night Only” for me, that Gluck and Braun don’t present any sort of active resistance movement to this law, except for the occasional passive sign in a shop window. I know I’m probably taking the movie a little too seriously, but I was expecting Owen and Allie to rebel against the system in some way. I guess the dispiriting underlying message of “One Night Only” is that, given enough time, America can get used to anything?

In fact, there’s a sneaky, somewhat prudish sense that the characters in the movie prefer the one-night-only restriction, that it somehow is more romantic that just having total sexual freedom at all times. That’s not an abnormal message to hear in a love story. But there’s something deeply icky about it here, like suggesting that, hey, maybe Gilead wasn’t all bad.

“One Night Only” opens Friday in theaters. In Madison, it will play at Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, AMC Fitchburg 18 and Flix Brewhouse Madison.