"SINGLE ALL THE WAY" (Netflix Movie Review)

First, a confession: My waning interest in romantic comedies

I’ll admit I’ve gotten jaded. There was a time when rom-coms were cinematic crack to me. My favorite movie remains “When Harry Met Sally” which has held the crown for thirty-two years. I’ll gladly watch “Moonstruck” over and over, although it’s more to relish Olympia Dukakis’s role than the Cher-Nicolas Cage pairing. (The casting of Cage still feels like the film’s one flaw.) “Silver Linings Playbook,” while to some degree a brilliant ensemble flick, has a romance at its core.  Lesser works like “Sleepless in Seattle,” “Only You” (with Marisa Tomei) and “Pretty in Pink” remain Saturday-afternoon-channel-flipping worthy (if I still channel flipped). I liked the genre and the movies offered hope. Yeah, that’s what I want (…but not with Nicolas Cage). 

 

The prospect of me finding love has gone from “Please” to “Perhaps” to, well, something just short of “Poppycock.” I suppose that’s why the newer offerings in the genre now trigger eye rolls more than some warm feeling inside and a tear or two of joy. It’s better to be cold-hearted than to wallow in “Why not me?” for thirty minutes or three weeks following the credits. Set a romantic comedy in the Christmas season and I go full-on humbug. (I won’t elaborate here. Go ahead and enjoy your candy canes—are you really going to eat them?—and your fruitcake while listening to that version of “Jingle Bells” with dogs barking. Joy.)

 

Last year, I watched a couple of seasonal romance movies due to the relative novelty of the lead characters being gay. Maybe I’d find something more relatable. Maybe I’d feel a fleeting sense of hope again. Or maybe I’d just while away ninety minutes staring at eye candy and wishing, if nothing else, that I could be in the snow. That’s what I got: eye candy and snow envy.

 

And now, on to “Single All the Way”

Last night, I gave it another try. December 2^nd is freaking early for me to let a little Christmas in, but “Single All the Way” was the primary image that popped up on my Netflix menu and it was an easy click instead of spending twenty-five minutes scrolling through options Netflix thinks I’ll like. (How is “Hustlers” a 95% match for me and why is “Trail Park Boys” even a 69% match? Seriously? YouTube knows me so much better.) The stickler in me may have even been drawn by the title. Yes, let’s have the main character be single at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Truth in advertising: single at all stages. Let that be okay. 

 

But that’s not allowed. Even I know that.

 

Truth is, I liked the movie. I liked it more than the holiday gay romance films from last year and it’s not as though I’m any less Grinchy. Perhaps the humbug hasn’t fully kicked in yet or maybe last year’s fare helped me see that dressing up Christmas romance movies in gay apparel didn’t elevate the genre. Really though, I think it came down to a better cast and script.

 

The movie started off standard. Michael Urie, whom I loved back in the day when he was snarky Marc St. James on “Ugly Betty,” plays Peter, a character who isn’t so much chronically single—let’s not make him too sad, after all—as a short-term dater. It’s not even that he’s some cad who loves ’em and leaves ’em. No, they leave him. He picks the wrong guys. But he’s got his plants to console him. He may have a shallow job as a social media publicist but he’s passionate about plants…and not in a Seth Rogen kind of way. He also has his bestie roomie whom he’s known for nine years, the handsome but unassuming Nick, played by Philemon Chambers. Yes, Nick’s great but gays aren’t like rabbits—at least, not in their own warren. Borrowing from “When Harry Met Sally,” Peter and Nick are proff that gay men can be great friends without sex ever getting in the mix. 

 

Peter’s in a new, perfect relationship with a cardiologist blessed with a model’s looks and Nick’s just happy to do on-demand odd jobs (like a Door Dash handyman) while trying to come up with a sequel to an immensely successful picture book about his dog. 

 

[MILD SPOILER ALERT: I was quite concerned in the early going of the movie since I figured this was going to be a “Pretty in Pink” storyline where Peter has to choose between his best friend (à la Duckie) or the supposedly more obvious choice (à la Andrew McCarthy’s blander, blue-eyed Blane). The cardiologist character was blander than bland. (Can’t even recall the color of his eyes so there you go.) Thankfully this who-will-he-choose romance doesn’t ultimately include the doctor. The story mercifully abandons the L.A. setting with its unlikable supporting characters and heads to New Hampshire where Peter goes to spend two weeks with his family for the holidays.]

 

I’ve learned that romances have certain familiar themes—tropes—that romance lovers yearn for. “Single All the Way” not only has the who-will-he-choose triangle but hauls out the pretend-we’re-a-couple premise. In older gay movies, it may have been the gay man needed a woman to play the role of girlfriend to quell his family’s questions about why he isn’t dating. In this story, Peter convinces Nick to fly to New Hampshire with him with the same objective: to quell the Qs about why Peter’s still single. (They know he’s gay and fully accept him. But he’s got to find someone, right?) It’s supposed to be that insufferable when Peter goes home alone. Without Nick as a fake boyfriend, the entire visit will have everyone focused on Peter’s troubled dating life. Apparently, Santa and eggnog are slated as also-rans.

 

Okay, so Peter may be a bit of a drama queen and Nick may be a bit of an enabler/sucker but, hey, New Hampshire (or whatever passes for it as a filming location) looks nice in the snow. And snow allows the introduction of a hunky ski instructor/gym trainer whom Peter’s mother, played by Kathy Najimy, sets him up with, not knowing about this Peter-Nick ruse which Nick immediately bows out of so Peter can go on this blind date with James, played by Canadian actor Luke Mcfarlane who was Kevin Walker’s adorable gay boyfriend Scotty on “Brothers & Sisters.” Yes, I’ve had a crush on Mcfarlane since then, but I have to admit that his current, beefed-up body looks a tad overdone. (Gimme the old Scotty.) It was also disconcerting that this version of Mcfarlane looks startlingly like I guy I really fell for seven years ago who dragged me along for an entire summer—most of it while we were in different countries—and then dumped me with a line I swear guys should never use: “I don’t know if I’m attracted to you.” Sadly, I’ve heard that a few times. Please, stick with “It’s not you, it’s me.” It’s lame but the sting isn’t so much less.

 

Okay, so nice to see Mcfarlane in the role of Peter’s other possible love interest. Will it be longtime roomie Nick (who has a very nice body too with perhaps less bulk) or hunky jock James (whom we never get to see shirtless in what should’ve been an obligatory après-ski hot tub scene)? 

 

What I loved

In the opening L.A. scenes, Urie comes off as playing the same snarky character from “Ugly Betty” which works better for a supporting character. Thankfully the script and the change of setting soften the role and make him a likable lead. Some may consider it a problem though that the women characters are more engaging, due to the stellar casting of Najimy as the mom, Jennifer Robertson (who played Jocelyn on “Schitt’s Creek”) as a sister and Jennifer Coolidge as an aunt. None of them venture much beyond what we’ve come to expect from them, but I would happily watch a sequel to see these three actresses continue their roles. Heck, Netflix, how about a series? With this shining trio, it must have been a challenge in the script and the filming to offer anything to the other supporting roles. Barry Bostwick as the father starts strongly in a quick phone appearance but then is reduced to being a passive, wise, calmer presence as a counterbalance to the women. The other characters—Peter’s two brothers-in-law and another sister—have nothing to do and little to say. They only exist to explain where Peter’s two young nephews and two adolescent nieces came from, each of whom have more lines than their parents (other than Robertson’s role).

 

Often when I watch a rom-com, especially when it’s a Netflix-original, the emphasis is on the rom, with the com basically a no-show. At some point after the first third of this movie, I laughed out loud and I had reason to ho ho several more times thereafter. When the sister played by Robertson seems to place herself on Team Nick, she says, “Nick’s a ten and Peter is a ten in New Hampshire.” It’s such a sisterly thing to say. There’s also a tiny monologue by Coolidge that perhaps befits the actress more than the character. (I’m putting it in a footnote[1] which you’re welcome to skip reading if you’re planning to watch the movie.)

 

Coolidge’s Aunt Sandy runs rehearsals for a children’s Christmas pageant which she calls “Jesus H. Christ” which just seemed amusing to me as I imagined possible middle names. I’d never heard it before but apparently it’s been around since the nineteenth century, sometimes considered as profane, other times humorous. There’s a Madonna reference I won’t spoil but it’s quite clever (and oh so gay). Perhaps my favorite WTF moment was Coolidge’s appearance in the Christmas pageant, dressed as Glinda the Good Witch from “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s just a visual gag but it had me freezing the screen and quickly verifying my hunch on Google Images. Bang on. Bravo!

 

My biggest quibble:

When I blogged about the two gay Christmas rom-coms last year, I griped about the lack of diversity. Yes, they made the season gay but things looked like an awfully white Christmas, with or without snow. In “Single All the Way,” Nick is Black. There’s the added diversity. I suppose these things take time, but I don’t recall anything mentioned about his race. I’m sure the intent is to show that Peter and his family totally accept Nick to such a degree that no mention is necessary. (By contrast though, the gay thing comes up a lot.) Other than a kid in the pageant who has a line or two, there are no other Black characters. No Black friends. No one from Nick’s family. (There’s reference to the fact his mother died not so long ago.) I don’t even know if Nick was written as a Black character in the original script. Given the role as filmed, Nick could have been played by someone who is Asian, white or First Nations. Part of the problem may be that the character of Nick is underdeveloped in the first place. He smiles a lot in a guarded way, often from just behind Peter’s back. He supports Peter. He’s Mr. Nice Guy who, pardon the expression, comes off as white bread. No wonder Peter’s overlooked him for nine years. I wanted more Nick for Nick instead of just Nick for Peter, if that makes sense.

 

In a Nutshell

No regrets watching “Single All the Way.” It exceeded my expectations which were, admittedly, low. Thumbs up and I really mean it when I say I’d watch a sequel or follow these characters in a series. That’s a jolly endorsement from a begrudging Grinch.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] “The gays just know how to do stuff. They’re survivors. And for some reason, they’re always obsessed with me. I don’t know why, but I like it.”