Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

How to Be Single Blu-ray Movie Review

Random Couplings

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 22, 2016

How to Be Single ("HtBS") pretends to be a raunchy sex comedy, but beneath the sniggering wisecracks about body parts and genital hygiene, it's pretty tame stuff. Made-for-cable softcore shows more skin, and most of the sex happens offscreen between partners who are too drunk to remember what happened when they wake up the next morning (which, in the world of HtBS, is supposed to be funny). Something terrible has happened to Liz Tucillo's 2008 novel after seven years of development hell. Part of the blame goes to director Christian Ditter (Love, Rosie), who quickly loses control over the film's multiple plot lines, but the greater fault lies with screenwriters Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, who helped Gary Marshall perpetrate Valentine's Day, and with producer Dana Fox, who co-wrote the script and then remained on the set to continue making it worse. Fox's previous credits include What Happens in Vegas and Couples Retreat, with which HtBS shares the same sophomoric sensibility.

Tucillo's book charted dating rituals and romantic misadventures among thirty-something women, thereby continuing the exploration that the author started as a writer and story editor of HBO's Sex and the City. But by the time the filmed version emerged in theaters last February, most of the characters had been reimagined as twenty-somethings new to the big city and sleeping around while they try to decide what they want from life. Apparently no one noticed that HBO had beaten the re-tooled HtBS to the punch with its succès de scandale, Girls. Whatever the shortcomings of that former "it" series, now limping toward its sixth and final season, Girls treats sexual exploration as an undertaking fraught with risk, both physically and emotionally, and it gives its characters lives defined by more than just dating. By contrast, HtBS relies on the very rom-com cliches it pretends to be subverting, and the result plays as an extended series of smutty riffs stuck together with a muddled message about being your own woman.

HtBS dispenses with the reporter-narrator of Tucillo's novel, who travels the world researching singleton customs and thereby supplies a Carrie Bradshaw-like overview of her female friends' exploits. Lacking any such narrative anchor, the film meanders aimlessly from one subplot to another. The character who gets the most screen time is Alice (Dakota Johnson, Shades of Grey), a recent college graduate who breaks up with her boyfriend, Josh (Nicholas Braun), just before moving to Manhattan so that she can learn how to live on her own as a single woman. Alice quickly regrets embarking on this speculative experiment, but finds that she can't rewind the relationship clock.

Alice's sister, Meg (Leslie Mann), is the film's sole female character who is older with an established career, which, according to the handbook of female cliches, requires that her biological clock be ticking away. The fact that Meg is an Ob-Gyn doctor who, by her own calculation, has delivered thousands of babies, is what passes for irony in HtBS. Since she's a workaholic with no time for relationships, Meg undergoes IVF treatment with a sperm donor, but no sooner does she become pregnant than the right man appears in the form of Ken (Jake Lacy, a refugee from Girls). Still, can he really be the right man when he's so inattentive that he manages not to notice for months that his girlfriend is pregnant? (It's one of the film's many credulity-straining plot devices.)

HtBS's raging id is supplied by Robin, who is played by Rebel Wilson and is yet another variation of the comedienne's now-familiar bulldozer of impropriety, differentiated here by being a semi-functional alcoholic. A receptionist at the law firm where Alice works as a paralegal, Robin spends every night drinking, dancing and sleeping with men she can't remember. Somehow she manages to keep her job even though she's routinely hours late. Robin takes the new girl under her wing, but her guidance is limited to encouraging the emotionally fragile Alice to behave like Robin.

A fourth woman, Lucy (Alison Brie, Mad Men), is awkwardly spliced into the narrative by the device of having her rent the apartment above the bar where Robin and Alice hang out. Lucy doesn't interact with the other three women, and her story is the least developed. A string of disappointing relationships, including one with Colin Jost, SNL 's current co-anchor of Weekend Update, pushes Lucy to a meltdown at her job, which consists of reading children's books to an audience of kids. (In HtBS, this passes for sufficiently gainful employment to afford a Manhattan apartment.) Who would have guessed that having an at-work breakdown would be the key to winning the heart of your boss (Jason Mantzoukas)?

The men of HtBS are drawn in even broader and less convincing strokes than the women. Dave (Damon Wayans Jr.) is a successful real estate developer and single dad who briefly dates Alice but can't sustain a relationship because of unresolved emotional trauma. Tom (Anders Holm, The Intern), runs the bar above which Lucy lives. He is introduced as a walking hard-on (literally), thumbing through the little black book on his smartphone. Tom has developed an elaborate series of maneuvers, which he proudly demonstrates to Alice, for getting his latest conquest out the door first thing in the morning. Late in the film, however, he announces out of nowhere that he's fallen in love, and the reversal is so out-of-character that the object of his affection literally laughs in his face—as well she should. Back when romantic comedies were peopled by credible characters, Billy Crystal needed the entire running time of When Harry Met Sally . . . to achieve the emotional breakthrough that HtBS foists on Tom with the arbitrary suddenness of a heart attack.

The conclusion of HtBS is lifted directly from, of all places, Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon. Whatever one may think of that Nineties period piece (and I happen to be a fan), the spiritual profundity for which Kasdan was reaching makes no sense after two hours of sex jokes and physical comedy. It's a tacked-on ending for a tacky film.

How to Be Single Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

How to Be Single was shot on Alexa by Christian Rein, who worked with director Ditter on his previous effort, Love, Rosie. Post-processing on a digital intermediate has cast a golden glow over New York City, disguising the emotional emptiness of the proceedings with warm light and vivid colors. Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray displays the familiar clarity provided by Alexa photography, along with solid blacks and reliably accurate contrast. HtBS doesn't have much to show for its efforts, but it looks pretty. The average bitrate of 25.98 Mbps is par for the course from Warner's theatrical division, and the encoding appears to be capable.

How to Be Single Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

How to Be Single's 5.1 sound mix, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, is functional and professional, with clearly rendered dialogue and ambient effects appropriate to the film's various environments. The surrounds only come fully alive in scenes of frenetic partying with loud dance music surrounding the action and the subwoofer throbbing. The score is by Fil Eisler (Empire), but the soundtrack is dominated by a medley of pop hits ranging from "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns 'n' Roses to "Magic Man" by Heart to the Hall & Oates rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock". The Frankie Valli hit, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", is a key plot point. Coincidentally (or maybe not), the same song supplied the title and accompanied the conclusion of the recent Season Five finale of Girls, which, as noted above, accomplishes much of what HtBS aims for and misses.

How to Be Single Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Pros and Cons of How to Be Single (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:10): The cast (with the notable omission of Leslie Mann) describe their characters.



• Rebel Rabble: A Look at Rebel Wilson (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:07): Numerous improvs are included.



• The Best Idea Wins!: The Humor of How to Be Single (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:05): A look at director Christian Ditter and producer/co-writer Dana Fox.



• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.40:1; 8:05): The five scenes are not separately listed or selectable. Two involve a deleted subplot about David's date with a co-worker; one consists of Dr. Meg snoring; and two depict Alice in awkward moments.



• Gag Reel (1080p; 2.40:1; 1:55): For a production that, according to another extra, generated a massive stockpile of improvs and outtakes, this is a remarkably brief and tame assortment.



• Rebel Wilson Outtakes (1080p; 2.40:1; 7:37): Alternate takes and extended scenes, several of which feature producer/co-writer Dana Fox as a senior partner in the law firm where Alice and Robin work.



• Trailer: The film's trailer is not included. At startup, the disc plays a trailer for Me Before You and the customary Warner promo for digital copies.

How to Be Single Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Blu-ray is professionally produced, but How to Be Single is painful to sit through. Still, the film did respectable box office (for its budget), possibly because it was counter-programmed against Deadpool and rom-coms have virtually disappeared from the multiplex. Unfortunately, HtBS is neither romantic nor funny. Rent if curious.