"A married woman (Karrueche Tran) with a perfect life deals with betrayal when her sister drugs her husband and sleeps with him."
Netflix has really dropped the ball with this one. Only For One Night (or Only 4 One Night according to the movie poster) is a 2016 film that is back on Netflix's roster for reasons unknown, and this was one of the slowest, most unoriginal thrillers I've ever seen.
If you have ever seen the 1987 film Fatal Attraction, starring Glen Close and Michael Douglas, or the 2009 film Obsessed, starring Idris Elba and Beyoncé, then you need not bother with Only For One Night. Practically, a toned down version of the former, and a poorly acted carbon-copy of the latter, there are no redeeming factors to this film, beyond having some eye-candy what whatever gender you are into.
The characters lives are too perfect. There is no level of conflict at all between the protagonist (played by Brian White) and his wife (played by Karrueche Tran). It feels like they have been going out for maybe a few days and still deep in the honeymoon phase. It doesn't feel like a relationship that has lasted years. In fact, their in-your-face, over-the-top displays of affection are so irritating that you find yourself hoping that something happens to them because it's just not real. It was like watching two kids saying "no you hang up" on the phone to each other over and over for half an hour despite standing only a metre apart.
The main characters were entirely unlikeable. Initially, you feel for White's character but his actions the next day negate this and you just feel like everyone deserves what they get. The only characters that you feel any empathy for are the wife (who has some shocking line delivery, so luckily her role was minimal) and the son (played by Jarell Houston Jr.), who was probably actually one of the best parts of the film; the opening scene with the juice and cereal was the most endearing and authentic parts of the whole film.
Credit to the sister-in-law (portrayed by Angelique Pereira) as she did a reasonable job at expressing that unhinged, menacing look of obsession, creating a feeling of unease. But she could not fix a poorly written script.
The film lacks so many things. It lacks likeable characters. It lacks good actors. It lacks convincing dialogue. It lacks any form of tension outside of the last 10 minutes of the film. So Only For One Night ends up more of a drama than a thriller, and it failed to keep my attention. As far as a film available to stream on-demand, I found myself pausing on multiple occasions to go do something else because there was nothing gripping me. I had nothing invested with these characters. Not something I would waste time on. Just watch Fatal Attraction. Or if the ethnicity of the characters matters at all, then watch Obsessed.