How to Be Single (2016)
Directed by Christian Ditter
New York City is full of lonely hearts seeking the right match, and what Alice, Robin, Lucy, Meg, Tom and David all have in common is the need to learn how to be single in a world filled with ever-evolving definitions of love.
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The connection isn't kismet; "How to Be Single" is based on the 2008 novel by Liz Tuccillo, a former "Sex and the City" writer.
Esta se muda a Nueva York con la esperanza de seguirle los pasos a Carrie Bradshaw, el rol emblemático de Sarah Jessica Parker en “Sex and the City”, y rápidamente se da cuenta que la soltería no es para ella.
A host of suitors arise, fizzle out, and spring back up in this rom com adapted from Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo’s 2008 novel of the same name.
It remains a puny little amateur-night rip-off of Sex and the City, without the saucy wit or sharply-drawn personalities.
There's the film's de facto lead, Alice (Dakota Johnson), who has broken up with her good-guy college boyfriend, Josh (Nicholas Braun, the poor man's Justin Long) of four years so she can go act out scenes from "Sex and the City" until she decides that she wants him back.
The screenplay for How to Be Single — based on the novel by former Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo, who also co-wrote the book He’s Just Not That Into You — was co-written by Dana Fox (Couples Retreat) and Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the same duo who wrote Never Been Kissed and, yes, the movie version of He’s Just Not That Into You.
Loosely based on the novel by Liz Tuccillo , co-author of “He’s Just Not That Into You,” “How to Be Single” follows several characters and their romantic entanglements—or their strenuous efforts to avoid them.
(The film it most resembles is He’s Just Not That Into You, although that one had Drew Barrymore and was therefore, by definition, better.)
There have also been more than a few ensemble films dealing with love, from He's Just Not That Into You to Valentine's Day to New Year's Eve .
The story, cribbed from Liz Tuccillo’s book, is credited to rom-com writing duo Marc Silverstein & Abby Kohn (The Vow, Valentine’s Day, He’s Just Not That Into You) and Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas), so it shouldn’t be surprising that the film subscribes to so many clichéd notions of love and lust in the Big City.
This would make more sense if “How to Be Single” were an ensemble film like “He’s Just Not That Into You,” both of which are based by books by Liz Tuccillo.
They then went on to work on Valentine’s Day (2010), The Vow (2012), and now, How To Be Single, a film also co-produced by Barrymore.
(And on this Valentine’s Day, it’s certainly preferable to his 2010 film “Valentine’s Day.”)
The story, cribbed from Liz Tuccillo’s book, is credited to rom-com writing duo Marc Silverstein & Abby Kohn (The Vow, Valentine’s Day, He’s Just Not That Into You) and Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas), so it shouldn’t be surprising that the film subscribes to so many clichéd notions of love and lust in the Big City.
No surprise that co-screenwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein also collaborated on Valentine's Day, Garry Marshall's 2010 movie in which a cavalcade of stars do jazz hands about love (not to be confused with 2011's New Year's Eve, in which a cavalcade of stars do jazz hands about love, but in December).
It is directed by Christian Ditter from a screenplay by a veteran romcom writing crew: Abby Kohn, Mark Silverstein and Dana Fox (whose CVs include Valentine's Day, He's Just Not That Into You and The Wedding Date).
The slot has previously worked for Warner’s Valentine’s Day (which took $110m domestically and $106m internationally in 2010) and He’s Just Not That Into You ($94m at home and $85m elsewhere in 2009), though Single might be limited, in the US at least, by its R rating.
It reminds me of What Women Want from 2000.
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But at heart this is actually a sweet, sentimental film focusing on the adventures of four single women in New York City, and yes, there’s a “Sex and the City” reference here, as well as nods to “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Friends” and other recent pop-culture touchstones about single women trying to make a go of it in today’s crazy world.
Cut from the same cloth as “Sex and the City” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary” — both explicitly quoted — with a dash of “Girls” thrown in for whiny, self-defeating good measure, what should be a fizzy comedy of contradictory manners instead comes across as dutiful and unforgivably dull.
At one point, Mann’s Lucy tells Alice that she needs to stop expecting Bridget Jones’s Diary and episodes of Sex and the City to provide some window into what it’s really like to be single.
Gently poking fun at Bridget Jones’s Diary and Sex and the City (a show Tuccillo wrote for) makes for knowing and amusing moments and the evolving relationship between Alice and Robin delivers a satisfying denouement.
It features the heirs of “Sex and the City” (for which Tuccillo once wrote an episode) and “Bridget Jones’s Diary” — both of which are namedropped in the dialogue.
Meanwhile, the film’s director Christian Ditter’s last work was the melodrama Love, Rosie (2014), and additional screenwriter Dana Fox — who wrote The Wedding Date (2005), What Happens in Vegas (2008) and Couples Retreat (2009) — also created the 2012 sitcom Ben and Kate , which starred Dakota Johnson.
One of the best parts of the script from Abby Kohn & Marc Silverstein (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) and Dana Fox (“ Couples Retreat ”)—although those previous films theoretically wouldn’t provide much cause for optimism—is the way that it judges none of the characters for their sexual choices.
The only thing that keeps it watchable is the yeoman work of a talented ensemble laid to waste by soulless, juvenile writing by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) that’s been poorly doctored by Dana Fox (“Couples Retreat”).
The screenplay for How to Be Single — based on the novel by former Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo, who also co-wrote the book He’s Just Not That Into You — was co-written by Dana Fox (Couples Retreat) and Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the same duo who wrote Never Been Kissed and, yes, the movie version of He’s Just Not That Into You.
The 2008 novel of the same name – Tucillo’s follow-up to the self-help book, co-written with Greg Behrendt, on which He’s Just Not… was based – was adapted by Dana Fox (Couples Retreat) and He’s Just Not… screenwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein.
Kohn and Silverstein’s breakthrough script was the charming Never Been Kissed (1999), which Barrymore starred in and also exec-produced.
The screenplay for How to Be Single — based on the novel by former Sex and the City writer Liz Tuccillo, who also co-wrote the book He’s Just Not That Into You — was co-written by Dana Fox (Couples Retreat) and Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, the same duo who wrote Never Been Kissed and, yes, the movie version of He’s Just Not That Into You.
No surprise that co-screenwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein also collaborated on Valentine's Day, Garry Marshall's 2010 movie in which a cavalcade of stars do jazz hands about love (not to be confused with 2011's New Year's Eve, in which a cavalcade of stars do jazz hands about love, but in December).
There have also been more than a few ensemble films dealing with love, from He's Just Not That Into You to Valentine's Day to New Year's Eve .
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These digressions mostly wind up in the same place “fetch” did in Mean Girls, and Wilson’s one-note I’m-so-crazy schtick is starting to get very stale.
Meanwhile, the film’s director Christian Ditter’s last work was the melodrama Love, Rosie (2014), and additional screenwriter Dana Fox — who wrote The Wedding Date (2005), What Happens in Vegas (2008) and Couples Retreat (2009) — also created the 2012 sitcom Ben and Kate , which starred Dakota Johnson.
The story, cribbed from Liz Tuccillo’s book, is credited to rom-com writing duo Marc Silverstein & Abby Kohn (The Vow, Valentine’s Day, He’s Just Not That Into You) and Dana Fox (What Happens in Vegas), so it shouldn’t be surprising that the film subscribes to so many clichéd notions of love and lust in the Big City.
Depicting the amorous misadventures of young and, in one case, not-so-young New Yorkers as they go looking for love in all the wrong places, this latest effort from the screenwriters of such films as He's Just Not That Into You, Valentine's Day and What Happens in Vegas inevitably trods familiar territory.