The Daily Gamecock

'How to be Single' entertains with fresh take

You may have seen advertisements for this February flick while swiping on Tinder, or cleverly placed between segments of ABC’s "The Bachelor." Well, it finally snuck its way into theaters Friday, making sure to remind you of your unattached relationship status, or to perhaps give you some last minute advice on what not to do around your special someone, before the dreaded Feb. 14.

Rebel Wilson ("Pitch Perfect") and Dakota Johnson ("Fifty Shades of Grey") fall into the familiar roles of the confident party girl and the not-so-confident romantic. Additionally, the movie follows the characters portrayed by Alison Brie ("Community"), the classic overbearing girlfriend, and Leslie Mann ("This Is 40," "Knocked Up"), a workaholic who has a date with the sperm bank in hopes to raise a child on her own.

Despite the fairly common archetypes, the film delivers a fresh twist on the lives of singles. Going into the movie, one would expect a lighthearted journey through awkward social interactions and constant gushing over the opposite sex. However, the characters instead experience a great deal of personal growth. Some learn to not depend so heavily on a man, while others open their hearts to new experiences and romantic opportunities. So rather than fostering wallowing in singleness, the film inspires individual empowerment.

While not the comedy of the century, audience members are sure to let out frequent laughs, and even those who did not jump on the "Pitch Perfect" train will fall in love with Wilson’s quick wit. Although other characters can’t deliver the same one-liners as Wilson, who effortlessly combines her humorous persona with her spunky Australian accent, they are truly relatable in their attempts to understand the dating scene and find the answers to critical questions like "Should I or should I not include an emoji in this text?" and “Is it too early in the relationship to make us a couple’s photo album?"

For those of you perplexed by your single status, here are a few tidbits of insight taken from the film:

That couple’s photo album after several weeks of dating is, in fact, not okay. Unless you hope to speed up the ending of a relationship, a more casual Christmas gift of socks — or, if you feel like spicing things up, an ornament — is recommended. For the record, emojis are not acceptable either.

That decision you made to cut off your sink’s water in hopes of ridding your apartment of unwanted guests might come back to bite you.

If your girlfriend starts to look as though she’s pregnant, you might want to ask her before you find out coincidentally while she’s shopping for baby products. Though perhaps this was not the lesson to be learned.

But whether or not you feel enlightened when walking out of the theater, you are sure to have enjoyed more than a few laughs and whispers between you and your fellow single comrade over how the film so accurately depicts your daily strife.


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