The new romantic comedy “One Night Only” is what you get when you combine two immensely talented young stars with an utterly ridiculous premise. You’re drawn in by the appeal of seeing two charming and charismatic performances. But once in you’re constantly being pushed away by the sheer absurdity of the story being told. That insurmountable clash is what makes “One Night Only” far more frustrating than romantic or funny.

Director Will Gluck of “Easy A” fame teams with screenwriter Travis Braun to tell a story set in a hokey pseudo-fascist America where a congressional mandate has made it illegal to have sex outside of marriage. For reasons that never make much sense, the government has designated one night of the year where singles are legally allowed to hook up. It’s when seemingly normal people turn into rabid horn-dogs for twelve hours just because this ridiculous premise needs them to.

The story kicks off as ‘singles night’ is about to begin. Callum Turner plays Owen, the owner of a Manhattan pizza shop who has big plans for the evening. He’s all set to propose to his girlfriend, Malika (Maya Hawke). But before he can, she randomly informs him that she’s going to sleep with someone else that night. She offers no meaningful explanation other than it being an “abnormal circumstance”. That leaves Owen on his own to find someone he can share the night with.

Elsewhere, Allie (Monica Barbaro) is an aspiring vocalist who has settled on singing jingles for medication advertisements. Her plans for the evening are shattered after her flaky best friend Jacinta (King Princess) ditches her at a bar for the first guy she meets. Suddenly Allie too is on her own which sets up the first of several meet-cutes with Owen. Things don’t go well at first, as the two deny their obvious mutual attraction and look to hook up elsewhere. But after each failed attempt, Allie and Owen bump into each other again. And as you can probably guess, each time they meet the romantic spark gets a little hotter.

The goofy premise alone immediately puts “One Night Only” behind the 8 ball. But the issues don’t stop there. The movie doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Much of it plays like a dime-a-dozen romcom that’s made watchable by two likable leads. But then you have the lazy attempts at being a raunchy sex comedy which is where the movie spectacularly falls on its face. Whether it’s the forced vulgarity-for-laughs from a 12-year-old kid or an embarrassingly bad scene for Molly Ringwald and LeVar Burton – these off-putting and glaringly unfunny choices knock the movie completely off the rails.

It also doesn’t help that the “One Night Only” has nothing of value to say about anything. It’s only at the very end that we get something resembling a point. But by then I had already spent all of my goodwill and was ready for the credits to roll. It’s a shame because Barbaro and Turner give it their all and have some pretty decent chemistry. But they’re in desperate need of better material. And no matter how hard they try, there’s just too much for them to overcome.

VERDICT – 2 STARS