The latest big budget comedy with female leads to hit our screens is How To Be Single.  Directed by Christian Ditter (Love, Rosie) and with a screenplay written by Abby Koh, Dana Fox and Marc Silverstein (The Vow, Valentines Day, He’s Just Not That Into You).Alice (Dakota Johnson) and Josh (Nicholas Braun) have been together since college. Life appears idyllic until Alice decides she needs “a break” (all a bit Ross and Rachel from Friends)  from her relationship to explore being single in the city of New York.  She heads off to live with her older sister Meg (Leslie Mann) and begin her new life. At the same time Lucy (Alison Brie) who is on a quest to find Mr. Right is hanging out at the bar below her apartment with Tom (Anders Holm) the barman who is all about one night stands.

Anders Holm & Alison Brie

What follows is a series of singletons navigating the competitive New York dating scene trying to figure out how to be singe, while somehow still trying to find ‘the one’. Without doubt Alice’s new co-worker Robin (Rebel Wilson) is the comedic star of the show. Foul mouthed, quick-witted and full on party girl, Robin is the exact opposite of the prissy good girl Alice.

While Alice struggles to find out who she is without Josh, she inevitably ends up hooking up with Tom the local barman and David a business man she meets at an alumni event. All the while Robin is enjoying single life to the max while Alice’s sister Meg has decided to become a mother via a sperm donor. Lucy continues her search for Mr. Right and Tom starts to believe that perhaps a life of one night stands is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Dakota Johnson as Alice is like the drip that never dropped, a bit insipid and you kind of want to smack her. Rebel Wilson as Robin provides the laughs but I can’t help but feel she has been playing the same character in every film she has been in. For me the chemistry between Lucy and Tom is far more noteworthy and perhaps there is a better movie in that relationship.

Dakota Johnson & Rebel Wilson

So whats the verdict on it?.   I’m giving it 2.5 out of 5.  It does have a few laughs but it feels a bit done before and a kind of a mix of Sex in the City, Trainwreck and Sisters all rolled into one. Check out the trailer below.