Movie Review: How to Be Single
Are you ready for a Girlfriends’ Night Out? Then grab your cute boots and a couple of tickets for How to be Single. I know, I know, another movie about single twenty-somethings trying to get by while living the dream in New York City. Possibly make some money. Probably don a chic new outfit in every scene. Definitely fall in love. Everyone gets something out of films like this, though: flirtation, tenderness, humor, naïveté, cheese, adventure, sex, city life, architecture, grit, glamour, and detachment amidst a concrete sea of millions of strangers. This has been a done a million times already, right? C’mon: When 
Harry Met Sally, Hitch, New Year’s Eve, Maid in Manhattan, Sex and the City, That Awkward Moment, and the list goes on and on and on….
Could How to Be Single bring anything new to the table? What could it show an audience that it hasn’t seen before? I was hoping for tear-streaming laughter. Or, at the very least, some genuine belly laughs. Heck, some hearty chuckles and a few hand-over-mouth moments of hilarity would be nice. And that’s what I got. In fact, the first few minutes of the film were the funniest – and that’s not to disparage the rest of the film. It started off with a bang, and that bang rarely subsided. (Pun intended.)
Truth be told, the movie’s not terribly deep. It is, in its heart of hearts, a chick flick. But there were raw moments of tenderness if you looked hard enough – or maybe let them smack you in the face a time or two. But let’s back up.
What I enjoyed most about How to Be Single is that, throughout the movie, I was momentarily smitten with most of the leading characters. Right off the bat, both Alice (Dakota Johnson) and Josh (Nicholas Braun) glued a giant grin on my face. When Alice tells Josh she “needs a break” to “find herself,” we don’t hold our breath. There’s not a person in the audience who hasn’t given or been on the receiving end of that line. Cliché? Yes. Does it work anyway? Definitely.
Shortly afterward, Alice moves to the city and befriends Robin (Rebel Wilson). A boisterous partier who fondly refers to Alice as “Season 3 Ross” since hearing about the non-breakup-breakup, Robin elicits constant guffaws from the crowd with her nonchalant, vulgar one-liners. She’s a consistent rap on the funny bone, though we’ve seen these things from Wilson before. As Alice is fairly awkward and unsure of venturing out into singledom (unfortunately not a far cry from the character we’ve only recently seen Dakota play in Fifty Shades of Grey), Robin feels like the perfect sidekick and antidote.
Let’s not forget about Alice’s sister and occasional emotional caretaker, Meg (Leslie Mann). Mann has unfortunately become a pigeonholed actress who tends to play the same sidesplitting, just-raunchy-enough-to-be-Rated-R hot mama. I have the utmost respect for her; she absolutely brings it. Mann portrays Meg perfectly: A single, yearning-but-not-looking role juggler and breadwinner. Some of the more tender moments in How to Be Single surround Mann, but she brings down the house with more than one slightly touching, mostly riotous, unladylike rants.
The leading males can’t hold a candle to these ladies, but they are well cast. David (Damon Wayans Jr.) makes for an affectionate father and friend, and Paul (Colin Jost, who we’re used to seeing behind the Weekend Update desk on Saturday Night Live) does well with his smaller role, as well. Tom (Anders Holm), George (Jason Mantzoukas), and particularly Ken (Jake Lacy) did a service to the film with some charm and quips.
I had a great time with this film. The problem is that, while How to Be Single wants to be an uplifting movie – not about relationships, but about truly “finding yourself” and ultimately appreciating that person – it is a movie about relationships. It’s about boyfriends and girlfriends, casual hook-ups, lovers, friends, caretakers, and networking. It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s even a little inspiring, if you dig deep. But really, it’s just a fun couple of hours to spend with your girlfriends.
Mandi Ruffner
