"Single All the Way": Small Town Loving Family or Glittering A-Gay West Hollywood? At Christmas.

 

A standard holiday romcom plot involves parents pressuring their daughter get a boyfriend, so she hires someone to play the part, and end up falling in love with him.  The Netflix movie Single All the Way has the same plot, just with a boy being pressured instead of a girl.

The boy is Peter (Michael Urie, best known as the snarky assistant to fashion diva Wilhemina Slater on Ugly Betty).  Here he lives in a Fairytale West Hollywood: he has a high-prestige job as an agent for hunky male models; a house full of plants that he treats like romantic partners (so disturbing that I almost turned off the movie right there); an infinitely accepting family back home in Small Town New Hampshire; a roommate of nine years, the down to earth Nick, who writes books about dogs and has a handyman app (Philemon Chambers in his first feature film); and glittering parties full of A-Gays who are all his dear friends (and swish exuberantly -- not a leatherman or bear in sight)  

I won't point out all of the near-impossibilities in Peter's story.  Let's just look at the median home price in West Hollywood -- $1.1 million?  This is definitely a fairy tale!  But I guess it's no different from the lavish Big City life of romcom ladies before they are seduced by the simple pleasures of the Small Town.

To top it off, after years of three-day stands, Peter has a permanent partner, a hot, rich cardiologist. He can finally bring a boyfriend home for Christmas, so he won't be judged as a "single loser."  Wait -- if his family is so accepting, shouldn't they be ok with him being single?  Not everyone wants a partner.

But then the rich cardiologist dumps him, right before Christmas.  Peter can't stand the thought of two weeks of judgmental sniping, so he talks roommate Nick into flying back to the Small Town with him and pretending to be the boyfriend.  

But before they can announce the ruse, Mom (Kathy Najimy) announces that she's set up Peter on a blind date with her pilates instructor!

Wait -- he can't start a relationship with someone from the Small Town.  How is he supposed to find a job as a hunky male model agent, or be invited to glittering A-Gay parties?   

He suspects that Mom has just set up the date so the relationship will fail, and she and the family can continue to make snarky digs about what a pathetic loser he is. (The family, by the  way, consists of endless numbers of hugging, "it's so great to see you!" blond women, with Steve Lund playing one of their husbands).

But when Peter sees that the date is with hot super-muscular personal trainer James (Luke McFarlane, top photo) -- well, coffee and a blow job wouldn't hurt.

In movies of this genre, you always fall in love with fake boyfriend.  But you also pick the Small Town over the Big City.  So I knew from the start that Peter would end up with the Nick the Roommate (neither could ever explain why they weren't together already).  The only question was, would they stay in the Small Town, or go back to the glittering A-Gay world of West Hollywood?

It's a Christmas romcom.  What do you think will happen?