In the world of the holiday rom-com of which I spend most of my waking life we often hear calls for ‘family friendly films’ or ‘clean films’ and what that really means is movies that pretend like LGTBQ people don’t exist. Fortunately, things are changing in this corner of the movie-sphere and people are being pushed to accept love stories from all kinds of perspectives and experiences (and we are all a lot better for it).
I bring this up only to emphasize how special the new comedy Single All the Way is. Not only is it funny and romantic but it’s one of the most joyous depictions of family I’ve seen in a long time. I LOVED it!
On the surface the story in Single All the Way is rather pedestrian. The friends to lovers and fake relationship tropes are well worn and predictable. However, it’s like I always say it’s not a bad thing to use tropes. It’s what you do with them that makes it stand out!
Michael Urie plays Peter a gay man living in LA who is unhappy in his work and his love life is even worse having been recently dumped. Rather than face his family alone he invites his longtime roommate Nick (Philemon Chambers) to come with him and pretend to be his boyfriend for the holidays.
The ruse doesn’t really last long when his Mother sets him up with a hot local man named James played by Hallmark hunk Luke MacFarlane. As Peter gets closer to James, Nick begins to realize he may have more than just platonic feelings and things go from there.
What made Single All the Way special is not that it was a queer story, although that is nice. Happiest Season last year mined similar terrain last year to less success. What makes it stand out is how funny it is and how joyous it is (huge contrast from Happiest Season).
The cast is full of heavy-hitters including a hilarious turn from Jennifer Coolidge as Peter’s eccentric Broadway dreaming aunt who is putting on the Christmas pageant. There’s also Kathy Najimy and Barry Bostwick as Peter’s parents and they couldn’t be more warm while still being funny.
Urie and Chambers have fantastic chemistry and the whole family is rooting for their relationship. When revelations are made everyone cheers and is happy. It was so refreshing to see a family that loves each other unconditionally and is again joyous to see Peter in love. It made me happy to see them so happy. Maybe some people will find Single All the Way too trite and fluffy but I just loved it. I thought it was one of the best rom-coms I’ve seen in years and that’s saying something coming from me. These are 2 people, Nick and Peter, that I was rooting for the whole time and was so happy to see them get together. Isn’t that what we want in a romantic comedy? It is for me.
We should see more joyous families in movies and TV. Sure the dysfunctional families can be funny and help us relate to our own moments of dysfunction, but the movies should also be aspirational. They should show us something to work towards. The family in Single All the Way gave that to me. I hope I am as joyous towards everyone in my life, friends or family, as this family was for Peter and Nick. It was great. I loved it. Watch it. I hope you love it too!
9 out of 10
Smile Worthy
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