Single All the Way
A gay man's family decides it's time he found a partner, so they set up a blind date - with comical results.
Make the Yuletide gay: Michael Urie and Jennifer Coolidge
Families? Aren't you sick of them? Why can they not leave you alone to enjoy your own sex life, even if you are not part of a long-term relationship and are bad at keeping gay partners for longer than a first date? This is Peter's dilemma and he wants to visit his parents at Christmas but, if he cannot take a boyfriend with him, the family will never forgive him. His latest squeeze seems ideal – he's handsome, manly and just the sort of guy his family would adore. However, just before Christmas, Peter discovers that this latest boyfriend of just three months is actually married with children. So, another would-have-been relationship bites the dust.
In order to please his family, Peter asks his flatmate and best friend Nick to pretend to be in a partnership and spend Christmas with him and his folks in New Hampshire, just to get them off his case. On arrival Peter, much to his alarm, learns that his mother, Carole, has set him up with James, a blind date. Nick doesn't seem to mind, although Peter is just embarrassed but, when he goes on the first date with James, who is the essence of charming manhood, Peter actually enjoys himself. It looks as if he has eventually found Mr Right after all. Of course, as in life, it just ain't that simple and Peter begins to worry about leaving his best pal of nine years standing, so the plot takes off in another direction which, although quite a cute move, is fairly predictable as the two platonic friends start to rethink their relationship.
Typically for an American Christmas movie, everyone is so well-off and squeaky clean, although it is hard to take that Peter's parents would be that understanding in going to the lengths of pimping a new boyfriend for him. Or maybe that's the current zeitgeist where anything and everything, gay or straight, is permissible. To flesh out the situation and emphasise that it is the season of goodwill, there is a subplot about Peter's monstrous, man-eating Aunt Sandy trying to stage a Nativity play which threatens to bomb until Peter and Nick get their expert gay hands on it.
The two leads, Michael Urie as Peter and Philemon Chambers as Nick, give sensitive performances that wouldn't embarrass a fly, while Kathy Najimy as Carole seems almost too passionate in getting Peter paired off with the help of Barry Bostwick as hubby Harold. Luke Macfarlane as blind date James does his best to win Peter over to his side before realising it's a lost cause, while Jennifer Coolidge does a hilarious turn as Aunt Sandy. As a seasonal romcom, Single All the Way is delightful enough but, unlike puppies and kittens, remember that Yuletide movies are just for Christmas.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Cast: Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, Kathy Najimy, Luke Macfarlane, Barry Bostwick, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Beaton, Adam Capriolo.
Dir Michael Mayer, Pro Joel S. Rice, Screenplay Chad Hodge, Ph Eric Cayle, Pro Des Guy Lalande, Ed Adrian van Zyl, Music Anton Sanko, Costumes Veronique Marchessault.
Muse Entertainment-Netflix.
99 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 2 December 2021. Available on Netflix. Cert PG .