How To Be Single

The recipe is simple: Buy the rights to a book from a known author with credentials, add in popular actresses, and poof! You have a fail-proof chick flick!

As history has proven, though, it is never that easy. All the ingredients for a film have to come together just right to make the film work. On paper, "How To Be Single" has all of the requirements, but the end product is a little water logged.

Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Liz Tuccillo (co-author of "He's Just Not That Into You"), "How To Be Single" takes four women in different stages of their lives and follows them on their journey through dating. Alice (Dakota Johnson) is a recent college graduate who has never been on her own. Rather than continuing in the comfort of her long-term relationship, she believes a break is in order as she heads off to be a paralegal in New York. To guide her on this journey are her workaholic sister, Meg (Leslie Mann), and party girl co-worker Robin (Rebel Wilson). Also trying to figure things out in the big city is Lucy (Alison Brie), who has created an algorithm to help her land the man of her dreams.

With a handful of screenwriters, "How To Be Single" is one of those franken-movies that seems to have been scientifically created based on statistics of what audiences want to see. It hits all the necessary emotional plot points to become the next classic chick flick, but also has just enough laughs to get away with calling itself a comedy. Don't let the commercials fool you, though; it never intended to be a laugh-a-minute, pratfall-type comedy.

As a result of trying to include everything possible, the film ends up being overstocked with supporting characters that just won't go away. Characters that should only be seen for two scenes end up getting their own arc. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, except that it feels more like the writers are trying to distract you from the fact that there isn't a solid central narrative in place. In trying to give more screen time to the lesser characters, it also creates gaps for the main structure. None of this is more visible than the fact that Brie's character Lucy never syncs up with the other girls. Despite frequenting the same bar and a loose connection where she is discussed with Johnson's character, she and her entire storyline could be lifted out completely without upsetting the movie's flow.

It's a shame that the script didn't get one last edit to clean out the extraneous pieces, because there is plenty of potential to be found. Getting buried underneath the weight of this additional material is a funny, touching film about four women trying to deal with relationship pressures in New York City. The final product, however, is only part of the way there in achieving that potential.

Among the four main actresses, it is Wilson and Mann who are the film's most valuable players. Johnson is serviceable in her role, and Brie does her best with the limited material she has, but these two steal the film. Wilson does her usual schtick, which has as many fans as it does haters, but it something needed to lighten the film up at times. Mann, on the other hand, brings both laughs and poignancy as she decides to have a baby on her own, just as a man half her age comes knocking. Jake Lacy, playing Meg's younger suitor, is the only one of the male characters who makes much of an impression, despite a stacked bench of comedians to play them.

"How To Be Single" has been made with a specific audience in mind and cater to those viewers, hitting all of the necessary plot points and being relatable enough that audience members will see themselves in the characters. On the surface this is okay for a piece of brain candy, but it's not something that can hold up if you begin questioning any of events that unfold. For analytic viewers, the name of the film might as well be "How to Walk Away Frustrated from A Movie."