"Single All the Way" a Christmas romantic-comedy that's gay and gaily welcome

Single All the Way (2021)

As bragging rights are concerned, both the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime offered their inclusivity olive branch just last year by premiering their first Christmas movies that normalized same-sex relationships, and good on them! This year, Netflix makes the Yuletide gay with “Single All the Way,” a gaily welcome holiday romantic-comedy that gives LGBTQ viewers exactly what they deserve, especially those who are a soft touch around the most wonderful time of the year. Even when it’s not always laugh-out-loud funny, “Single All the Way” is always invitingly festive and as warmly pleasant as a wool sweater. 

Rupert-Everett-from-the-‘90s lookalike Michael Urie (TV’s “Ugly Betty”) plays Peter, a gay Los Angeles social-media manager who’s notorious for being single, especially around the holidays. When he’s finally landed a handsome cardiologist and going steady for three months and twenty-two days (not that he’s counting or anything), Peter tells his family that he’s actually bringing someone home for Christmas. Right at the last minute, Peter’s roommate and best friend for nine years, TaskRabbit handyman and children’s book author Nick (Philemon Chambers), has to be the bearer of bad news: Peter’s beau has been cheating on him…with his wife. In a pinch, Peter begs Nick to help soften the blow and be his plus-one for Christmas in front of his meddlesome family in New Hampshire. 

Upon their arrival, cheerfully pushy mother Carole (Kathy Najimy), who’s going by “Christmas Carole” for the season, has already set her son up on a blind date with her single fitness trainer, James (Luke Macfarlane). Peter’s family meddles, but rather than come across as out-of-touch psychopaths (like a lot of mothers in romantic comedies pestering their daughters to find a man and put a ring on it), they just want to see Peter happy. In a change of pace, James turns out to be a hunk—and quite a catch—but Peter’s family loves Nick and thinks they belong together, especially Peter’s two teenage nieces (Madison Bridges, Alexandra Beaton). Peter, of course, is the last one to realize that the love of his life has been right there all along, and he starts to feel like he should move back to New Hampshire. Are Peter and James actually a perfect match, or if Peter does actually love Nick, what if they don’t work out and they lose each other as friends as well? 

Grandfathered in to be a reliable formula (even if it’s about time two men get to kiss in the snow), "Single All the Way" is naturally as predictable as a box of chocolates. But when we care enough about the two characters getting together in the end, and there are just enough chuckles along the way, all is right with this charmingly gay movie world. Although Peter’s actions are often frustrating, Michael Urie finds just the right balance of acerbic humor and hopeless-romantic cluelessness in Peter, and he and Philemon Chambers, who’s an adorable charmer on his own in his first feature film, have a lovely way with each other like great-friends-and-maybe-more would. The characters are also written with respect, including Luke Macfarlane’s James, who’s handsome without being vilified and actually a nice, sweet guy that doesn’t deserve to be led on by Peter if there’s nothing between them. Kathy Najimy and Barry Bostwick are more grounded than sitcom-wacky as Peter’s proud parents, and their self-awareness about straight people having misconceptions about gay dating is amusingly accurate and smartly handled. Among Peter’s siblings, Jennifer Robertson (TV’s “Schitt’s Creek”) is a standout, consistently amusing and understatedly daffy as Peter’s pub-owning sister Lisa. 

If all you want for Christmas are the following, director Michael Mayer (2018’s “The Seagull”) and writer Chad Hodge (2018’s “The Darkest Minds”) have got you covered. Nice chemistry among the entire cast? Check. Even as a shorthand to show Peter’s history and close relationship with his nieces, a choreographed dance to Britney Spears’ “My Only Wish (This Year)” is also a lot of infectious fun. Seasonal decorations and comfy Christmas sweaters, and a few plot details that go against the grain? Triple check. Queen Jennifer Coolidge all dolled-up for the holidays as a fruit-fly aunt? We will definitely take it. Coolidge has fun with the part of former Off-Broadway understudy Aunt Sandy, but the material involving her annual holiday pageant “Jesus H. Christ” is simply not as funny as it sounds until one sees her on opening night, dressed up as Glinda the Good Witch, narrating and putting an emphasis on “Mary.” It’s not that Coolidge doesn’t manage to still be a delight with her irresistibly slowed-down energy—her drunkenly slurred line delivery about how the gays love her (and she doesn’t know why) earns a laugh—but Aunt Sandy is a role she could probably perform in her sleep at this point. 

“Single All the Way” stands somewhere between the starriest holiday dramedies—like last year’s “Happiest Season,” a wonderfully revolutionary gift out of 2020 that also co-starred a “Schitt’s Creek” cast member—and any painfully insipid, inoffensively edge-free Hallmark Christmas movie. The production does look a bit bland and slapdash, but rather than just grading it on a curve, this one actually wins you over on its own cute, light terms. Since it wants to appeal to all four quadrants, “Single All the Way” is the kind of gay Christmastime fruitcake that you could even show your straight parents around the holidays. It’ll be hard for anyone not to smile all the way through.

Grade: B -

Netflix is releasing “Single All the Way” (99 min.) to stream on December 2, 2021.