The Netflix Holiday Industrial Complex chugs along powerfully. Every year, Netflix releases a handful of Christmas originals of… deeply varying quality. And while the Christmas Prince films were, at best, enjoyed ironically, some of their films have been improving a bit in quality. The stars have more chemistry. Sets look like places. There are actual supporting casts. It’s still a crapshoot, but there’s a chance of winning now. And, unexpectedly, Single All the Way is one of those winners.
“I think you should come home with me.”
Peter (Michael Urie) is living it up as a gay man in Los Angeles. A social media manager, he’s surrounded by hot guys and invited to all the best parties. But now he thinks he’s found Mr. Right. He invites his new boyfriend home for Christmas with him, to meet his family — only to have his heart broken when his roommate and best friend Nick (Philemon Chambers) sees Mr. Right with his wife. Desperate not to look pathetic in front of his family, Peter asks Nick to come home with him and pretend to be his boyfriend.
But when the pair get back to Peter’s New Hampshire home, they learn that Peter’s mother has set him up on a blind date with a handsome local spin instructor, James (Luke Macfarlane). As Nick bonds with Peter’s family, Peter wrestles with his desire to move back to New Hampshire. But does he want to be with the handsome ski instructor? Or are his feelings for his best friend finally bubbling to the surface?
“We can pretend we fell in love after all these years.”
There is one deeply strange element to Single All the Way: The TaskRabbit product placement. Like, sure, it’s weird that it exists at all. But Single All the Way goes so much further than that. TaskRabbit is mentioned all the time, and only in the most glowing terms. Which is weird, because… Nick does dangerous jobs he’s not qualified for. He has works on Christmas day. Objectively, it’s a shitty job. But the product placement is so thoroughly baked into the story that TaskRabbit jobs are responsible for not one but two of the major plot points of the film.
That’s weird, right? And this isn’t the only Netflix Christmas movie that does this. On a recent episode of How Did This Get Made, the hosts discussed how vital Alexa was to the plot of The Knight Before Christmas. Is this how Netflix is funding these? Union-busting tech companies finance feel-good Christmas films?
Product placement is a normal and accepted part of our entertainment ecosystem now. Unfortunately. But at times, Single All the Way hearkens back to Mac & Me in its shamelessness. It’s not just that TaskRabbit is a bad company (it is) doing terrible things to our economy (it does). It’s — You know how most blockbusters, from the MCU to Top Gun, let the American military have some say in script development in exchange for letting them use certain assets? This is the shoddy, low-rent version of that devil’s bargain.
Even if they made a deal with an imp instead of the Beast itself, the movie distorts itself around this deal. For instance, you know how a lot of romantic comedies have that moment near the end? The one where the protagonist realized who they’re meant to be with, only to find that the person has lost. So they have to go somewhere — an airport is traditional; a public place, and a point of departure — and say what they realized and then we can all kiss and feel good? Single All the Way has that scene, except Nick never even gets to the airport. He gets a TaskRabbit notification to paint a cute main-street storefront. On Christmas. Whew, it’s a good thing TaskRabbit kept Nick in town so true love could bloom!
Is the scene as exciting or dramatic as a counterpart that might have been public? Of course not. It’s fine. It’s pleasant, even. But an empty storefront doesn’t exactly conjure passionate feelings, does it?
“My family already asks why we’re not just together.”
So, why did I call Single All the Way charming, despite all that? Because… well, this is a movie that gets the fundamentals. A romantic comedy needs chemistry, needs to give its leads chances to stare at one another, to laugh, to build a relationship. Single All the Way crushes those elements. Chad Urie and Philemon Chambers have surprisingly solid chemistry, and the ‘roadblock’ love interest, played by Luke Macfarlane, is a charming, sweet-natured guy rather than a cad. This is as low-stakes as you can imagine, without the heartfelt drama of last year’s Happiest Season. But, as a trade-off, it also doesn’t have the weighty emotionality of Happiest Season. This is a comforting breeze of a film.
Single All the Way is, for better and worse, a child of Gilmore Girls. Its quirky New England town busts at the seams with capital-c Characters. And they’re weird enough and distinctive enough — and well cast enough! — that it works. Jennifer Coolidge crushes it as the deeply weird theater aunt trying to put on a Christmas pageant. Jennifer Robertson (Schitt’s Creek) brings a delightfully manic energy to her roll as Peter’s sister. Hell, Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show) is here as the family patriarch, a cluelessly loving guy trying to help his son.
I don’t think this is going to become a Christmas classic for anyone. But Single All the Way is nevertheless a delightful queer romantic comedy that aptly captures both the caring and the cringe of Christmas. It charmed me pretty effortlessly. If you’re in a holiday mood, I suspect it will work its magic on you too.