How to Be Single

A young woman (Dakota Johnson) dumps her boyfriend (Nicholas Braun) in favor of the single life she feels she’s missing out on—only to learn that being single is more complicated than she thought. The script by Abby Kohn, Marc Silverstein and Dana Fox (remotely suggested by Liz Tucillo’s novel) is an excruciating parade of cast-off chick-flick clichés, and it shows signs of desperate (and futile) doctoring, but to no avail. It remains a puny little amateur-night rip-off of Sex and the City, without the saucy wit or sharply-drawn personalities. Maybe without the talent in the cast as well, though the characters are so shallow and interchangeable it’s hard to blame the actors (always excepting the inescapable and insufferable Rebel Wilson as Johnson’s BFF). Directed (sort of) by Christian Ditter. J.L.