How to be Single - Blu-ray

Content: When Alice (Dakota Johnson) realizes at the end of her studies that she's never really been alone, she makes a radical decision: she temporarily separates from her college boyfriend Josh (Nicholas Braun) and moves to New York to live with her sister Meg (Leslie Mann). Here she wants to focus entirely on her job at a law firm and find out who she really is. But this plan fails because of her new colleague Robin (Rebel Wilson), who takes her on her very first night on a drunken bar crawl, which ends in the bed of bar owner Tom (Anders Holm). This finally throws Alice into an emotional chaos that threatens to finally escalate some time later when Josh informs her that he has found a new love. Now she is actually single and can handle the situation very badly. While her sister is struggling to have a baby, womanizer Tom is developing real feelings for Lucy (Alison Brie), who is on a desperate search for Mr. Perfect, and there seems to be nothing but parties for Robin, Alice feels more and more lost - until she meets smart businessman David (Damon Wayans Jr.)....

With How to be Single, German director Christian Ditter presents his second English-language feature film after Love, Rosie. With a prominent cast and some successful gags, Ditter's comedy also made it straight to the top of the German cinema charts. With over 1 million viewers, How to be Single was one of the surprise hits of the 2016 spring cinema season. The story told by the film is very conventional and uses a number of clichés. Anyone hoping for big surprises is out of place here. In addition, a soft spot for humor of the somewhat coarser kind should exist. Especially Rebel Wilson, who once again plays exactly the character she has embodied in each of her films so far, almost always aims below the belt with her sayings. This has become too worn out to work anymore. Some of her performances are still quite funny, but you do wish she would show another facet - if any - of her skills for once.

But the film doesn't just tell Robin's story. There are also Alice, Meg, Lucy and Tom. And they provide plenty of variety. There are some really warm-hearted moments, delightfully romantic scenes and witty dialogue. And especially in the plotline around Tom and Lucy, Ditter actually manages to go a little bit against the audience's expectations. This gives the whole thing a refreshing touch, which is underlined by the likeable acting of most of the actors. Especially Leslie Mann and Alison Brie, despite their obvious quirks, quickly have the audience's sympathies on their side. Dakota Johnson also plays well, but her character is just too one-dimensional to be really interesting for the viewer.

How to be Single is admittedly not quite a big hit. Nice entertainment for fans of Bride Alarm or Sex and the City offers the comedy but all. Christian Ditter has made an amusing film about big city singles with a good sense of timing and appealing images, in which not only, but especially women can have fun. If you like light US comedies with a slightly raunchy sense of humour and a lot of heart, you can safely buy this charming New York romance. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The Blu-ray's picture and sound quality are exactly what can be expected from a recent theatrical production. The picture is absolutely clean, the color scheme is cohesive, and the contrasts are also on a good level. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix available sound ignites, as usual for the comedy genre, no big surround fireworks. Dialogue and music tend to play out in the foreground. But there is also audible movement in the multichannel area every now and then, which makes for a very positive overall impression. Good.

Extras: Bonus features on the Blu-ray include a short making of featurette about the pros and cons of single life (approx. 5:10 min.), as well as other short documentaries about Rebel Wilson (approx. 4:07 min.) and about the film's humor (approx. 6:05 min.). There are also five cut scenes (approx. 8:05 min.) and spoiled scenes (approx. 1:55 min.), as well as more outtakes of Rebel Wilson (approx. 7:37 min.).

Conclusion: How to be Single is an entertaining comedy that scores with some Sex and the City flair, crude gags, and a heavy dose of romance. At times, the humor falls a bit flat and some of the numerous plot lines more or less peter out. But overall, the film offers good entertainment for all viewers who like light US comedies with a crude undertone. The Blu-ray presents the hit movie in good picture and sound quality and also has a few nice extras on board. For this there is a clear: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp