Rom-com more like a bad date
Unlike her onscreen portrayals, Dakota Johnson relishes her solitude
In the Sex and the City-esque pseudo-profound opening narration — a habit that definitely hasn’t become annoying and lazy — Alice (Dakota Johnson), wonders why it is we always tell our stories through relationships. Her point is that we should really be embracing our true, single selves. Which is fair enough, if also the kind of thing you should be able to put together when you’re 15 years old.
But it seems screenwriting triumvirate Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein (they of Valentine’s Day/He’s Just Not That Into You infamy), and Dana Fox took that opening observation a little too seriously. There is, maybe, one relationship in this entire film that doesn’t feel like everyone would be better off if the people involved just left each other alone forever.
Unfortunately, the good one is not the main one, the friendship between Alice and her paralegal co-worker Robin (Rebel Wilson). With Johnson settling in to her emerging cinematic persona as reasonably charming blank-space-audience-surrogate, while flitting through a gaggle of guys who don’t quite work out, Wilson expands to fill two roles’ worth of wacky rom-com shenanigans. The result — she is little more than a series of self-satisfied outrageous quirks, from her five-step, hangover-cure routine, to her riff on Alice’s unBrazilianed bikini zone.
Wilson views comic relief as a challenge, and the degree to which you can stomach How To Be Single mostly hinges on whether you find her zaniness to be a blast of fresh Arctic air or as desperately clingy as gum stuck on the underside of the table.
Ultimately, in How to Be Single, we get what is essentially a series of vignettes of singles trying to make it in New York. These range in quality from reasonably charming to probably should have been mercilessly excised to keep this film from dragging on like a bad date. The worst of the latter is Alison Brie as an algorithm-obsessed online dater desperate to meet the one. You’ll never guess the twist that comes, but in the meantime she runs the gamut of every horrible stereotype associated with uptight husband-hound. It gets so pointless you will probably forget she is in the movie.
She is being lightly pursued by bartender Tom (Anders Holm), whose otherwise only purpose in the movie is to take part in those cloying “these are the rules of (insert situation),” scenes. Believe it or not, he is a guy not looking for commitment, and he has some very practised opinions about how to keep that up.
Our moments of light come with Leslie Mann, who plays Alice’s workaholic older sister. When an OB/GYN finally gives in to her desire to have a baby by seeking out a sperm donor, she unexpectedly meets a younger dude (Jake Lacy from Obvious Child and Girls), a month in.
Like the rest of the potential matches here, everything is skimmed over so quickly there’s not much chance for an actual emotional connection, but the two actors are at least charming together: Mann is a manic neurotic constantly trying to talk herself out of happiness, while Lacy, who is essentially a sweetly upstanding romantic partner-for-hire at this point, really nails a speech about how much he wants to be a stay-athome dad. Outside of that, most of the comic or romantic moments feel too manufactured to really land, although contrivance has never been much of an issue when it comes to this particular genre.
It should be said as well that, to its immense credit, the film does actually follow through on its upfront belief that we all need to be single for a while — a pretty hard message to sustain when everything else you’re doing is so formulaic.
Dakota Johnson seems to have her heart set on locking up Valentine’s Day for the release of her movies.
Last year, Johnson’s erotic Fifty Shades of Grey revealed itself around Cupid’s celebration. Next year, the sequel Fifty Shades Darker is aiming for the same release date. So is the third film, Fifty Shades Freed, in 2018. More immediately, Johnson fans will have to satisfy themselves with the between-the-sheets dating comedy How to Be Single, which features her as part of an ensemble cast.
“I should start getting paid for Valentine’s Day,” says a smiling Johnson. “Who do I talk to about that? Hallmark?”
So the inevitable question, excluding the Valentine’s Day coincidence, is apparent to the actress, the daughter of actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.
“Do I only like to do movies about sex? Am I a raging pervert?” says the 26-year-old. “Yes, if it doesn’t have sex scenes in it, I won’t do it.”
She’s joking, of course. More seriously, she’s thrilled about the Single story. In the movie, Johnson plays Alice, who breaks up with her longtime boyfriend to experience dating life in New York. Helping her navigate the complications of one-night stands is Robin (Rebel Wilson), a paralegal co-worker and party girl who serves as her guide.
Co-starring are Leslie Mann, Alison Brie, Anders Holm, Jake Lacy and Damon Wayans Jr.
They all orbit Alice’s social-studies journey.
“I was attracted to the positive outlook on women, especially, exploring relationships with different people and being confident, and comfortable and strong,” Johnson says.
The detailed narrative “is real and honest, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of, because that’s what single women do.”
It also features some strong comedy interplay between Johnson’s laid-back Alice and Wilson’s ribald Robin. Some of the action and bits of dialogue were improvised.
For instance, there’s a scene in which Wilson and Johnson exit an elevator. They did it once, recalls Johnson, and Wilson asked director Christian Ditter if they could do it again with an extra walking by.
Next time around, Wilson as the wild Robin, slaps the guy on the butt as they stroll by him. The sequence worked so well, the studio uses it as one of the How to Be Single trailers.
“Yeah, Rebel’s pretty brilliant,” Johnson says. “She can take her mind to some places that are pretty extraordinary.”
Significantly, Johnson kept up with the talented improviser.
“Dakota was with me every time,” Wilson says.
Meanwhile, Johnson is single and lives in New York, but she’s not necessarily learning about herself the way Alice is.
“I love that I’m alone all the time,” says Johnson of her current status. “I love sleeping next to no one. I really don’t want to be cuddled. I love to have dinner by myself.”
In other words, she’s a practis- ing introvert. “I cherish my time alone, and I like solitude. But then being single also sucks sometimes because, y’know, you’re single.”
However, Johnson has always been sure about her career path.
“I was nine when I did my first job,” she says. “I played my mother’s daughter in a movie called Crazy in Alabama. I had a dialect coach, and I had this southern accent and I was really good at it.”
Griffith had other ideas about how her daughter would spend her childhood and adolescence.
“I became obsessed with (acting), but my (parents), wouldn’t let me until I graduated high school,” Johnson says. “I’m grateful that they made me stay in school.”
She resurfaced with a brief but memorable role opposite Justin Timberlake in 2010’s The Social Network, followed by co-starring parts in Beastly, 21 Jump Street and Need For Speed.
Certainly, the controversial role of Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey is a game changer.
“Well, yeah, things have changed a lot in my life since that movie,” she admits.
For one thing, she’s being inundated with offers rather than pursuing opportunities.
bthompson@postmedia.com