The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
One Night Only
Comedy · Romance · 2026
Two love-starved strangers crash into each other on the one night of the year when single people are allowed to have sex.
Movie details
One Night Only
“12 hours can change everything.”
2026 Comedy · Romance 1h 42m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.4 / 10
1.3K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
43 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
43 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
7.0 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
Two love-starved strangers crash into each other on the one night of the year when single people are allowed to have sex.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over One Night Only?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Long Weekend
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My Sassy Girl
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A guy has his life planned out until he is wooed, groomed and then dumped by an elusive woman.
Sex Appeal
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Avery, a teenager with a tendency towards perfectionism, enlists her friend Larson to help her prepare for her first time with her long-distance boyfriend.
Starting Over
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After divorcing his ambitious singer wife, a middle-aged man begins a new relationship with a teacher.
No Hard Feelings
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On the brink of losing her childhood home, Maddie discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy, before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing.
Dinner in America
Romance · 2020
An on-the-lam punk rocker and a young woman obsessed with a local band go on an unexpected and epic journey together through the decaying suburbs of the American Midwest.
Someone Great
Comedy · 2019
An aspiring music journalist lands her dream job and is about to move to San Francisco when her boyfriend of nine years decides to call it quits. To nurse her broken heart, she and her two best friends spend one outrageous last adventure in New York City.
Two Night Stand
Romance · 2014
After an extremely regrettable one night stand, two strangers wake up to find themselves snowed in after sleeping through a blizzard that put all of Manhattan on ice. They're now trapped together in a tiny apartment, forced to get to know each other way more than any one night stand should.
The Lonely Guy
Comedy · 1984
A writer for a greeting card company learns the true meaning of loneliness when he comes home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Will Gluck
Written by
Travis Braun
Monica Barbaro
Allie
Callum Turner
Owen
Maya Hawke
Malika
King Princess
Jacinta
Molly Ringwald
Linda
LeVar Burton
Rick
Charlie Gillespie
Ezra Stone
Court is in session
Put One Night Only on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.