How to Be Single – movie review



Millennials have it tough in the dating the world.  Things used to be easy…  Most people grew up in a town and married their high school sweethearts or someone that lived within a 50 mile radius.  Then, as more and more people started going to college, people would marry their college sweethearts or someone they met while out in the professional workforce.  Now with the advent of dating Apps and people glued to their smartphones texting away, the options of dating people over social media from all around the world are at everyone’s fingertips, just one tap away.

This all comes to life in the character of Alice played by Dakota Johnson, a cute brunette living in New York and starting her career as a paralegal.  Her co-worker, Robin, played by the delightfully funny Rebel Wilson quickly takes her under her wing so that Alice can truly experience single life in New York.  Marked by her funny vulgar humor, Robin plays a sharp contrast to Alice’s mousy and conservative ways.  Never having been out of a relationship, Alice decides to take a break from her boyfriend for two weeks.  At the end of the experiment, she is in for the shock of her life when her boyfriend finds a new girl and breaks-up with her.  Newly single, Robin teaches Alice the ins-and-out of the New York Millennial dating scene.

The beautiful Leslie Mann who plays Meg and Alice’s sister presents a sharp contrast to Alice in that she is an older career woman who has never had a child and ironically delivers babies for a living as a doctor.  Unable to push aside her biological clock and motherly feelings, Meg decides to have a child on her own.  The character of Meg present the old Generation X of putting career ahead of family and love while Alice representing Millennials is more in search of what makes her happy and looking for the best relationship for her.

In the end like any adult, Millennials have to live with the decisions they make and connections with real people in the real world seem to work much better than keeping up with the latest dating App.  The human experience is one to be shared with loved ones, not technology and material things.

Anyone watching this movie will enjoy the hijinx antics of Rebel Wilson contrasted by mousy Dakota Johnson while exploring real world relationship trials and tribulations of today’s Millennials.


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