Review: "Single All the Way"

This rom-com is pleasant, sweet, and wholesome, but also pretty immediately forgettable. Handsome, charismatic stars Michael Urie and Philemon Chambers play gay besties and housemates who discover they are actually in love in Single All the Way.

There's a bit of funny snark at the film's opening, and some topical humor about the Homosexual Gay TV network (HGTV -- a "kind of" porn), or being an "Insta-gay," "guncle," and "FOMO-sexual."

But once the men leave LA for small-town New Hampshire and Christmas holidays with their affluent and loving extended family, the film flattens out into formulaic blandness. It's like a Christmas cookie without the frosting.

Single All the Way looks and feels like other Netflix rom-coms you've probably already seen, and the movie's poster is an unabashed copy of Love Actually's.

It's probably a great sign that a gay rom-com feels so conventional or familiar, and this one is decidedly targeted at a mainstream audience, but it could have been more. The ensemble cast has no shortage of gifted actors, led by Kathy Najimy as mom, Schitt's Creek alum Jennifer Robertson as big sis, Barry Bostwick as solid dad, and Jennifer Coolidge as the flamboyant "gays-love-me" aunt. Watch for a cameo by Najimy's hilarious singer-husband Dan Finnerty as well.

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Read the full review at Common Sense Media.