Single Planet: Greek Adventure, also titled Planeta Singli 4: Wyspa, is the latest addition to the successful Polish romantic comedy franchise Planeta Singli. However, unlike its predecessors, the film is being released on Netflix rather than in theaters in Poland to reach a global audience. The film centers on a late-career television personality named Tomek Wilczynski, who wants to save his close friend, Marcel Galinski, from making a terrible mistake after discovering that his new lover is highly suspicious. While Single Planet: Greek Adventure attempts to raise questions about modern forms of love and their somewhat superficial nature in the digital age, most of these attempts are too weak to inspire serious reflection, and it's ideal as a fun one-off.
Single Planet: Greek Adventure begins with Tomek Wilczynski arriving at a luxurious island hotel in Greece with his wife, Ania, for a long-awaited getaway with friends. Tomek continues to star in a few infrequent online talk shows, years after his last television appearance as a reality show host. At one point in his career, he was quite well-known as a talk and reality show host, but he's clearly reached the end of his professional career. Although Tomek plans to return as a host of a new show, Ania wants him to focus more on his personal life, as they've been trying to have children for a long time.
Directors: Sam Akina, Michal Chacinski
Stars: Mateusz Dymidziuk, Piotr Glowacki, Tomasz Karolak
As the couple attempts another sex session in their hotel room, they are interrupted by another couple, Bogdan and his wife Ola, friends of theirs. They had been planning this vacation for a long time, and are joined by a third friend, Marcel Galinski, who, in fact, had invited them all. First, Marcel introduces his friends to a young man named Miguel, his new boyfriend, but Tomek isn't too happy about the relationship. Being his best friend, Tomek is concerned for Marcel's well-being and believes that the much younger Miguel is trying to flirt with him only for money.
Marcel also announces that there's a very special reason for inviting his friends to the island: together with Miguel, he recently bought the hotel where they're staying and plans to film a new reality show there, as he's a creative producer by profession. Although Marcel is convinced that his idea of creating a reality show where a group of young people who met online will meet in person for the first time on this island is a solid plan, Tomek isn't. He's surprised to learn that his friend has sold all his properties in Warsaw to pay for the hotel and is even more convinced that Miguel is trying to scam him. Together with Bogdan, who has a habit of believing any absurd conspiracy theory, Tomek begins to investigate Miguel's background and uncovers dirt on him.
First and foremost, Tomek struggles to accept that his close friend, Marcel, would trust a younger man, whom he's known for barely six months, so much that he'd allow him to make decisions in his life. In short, Tomek doesn't like that Marcel takes his relationship with Miguel so seriously, considering that six months is too short a time to learn someone's true intentions, let alone a younger man from a lower economic background. To make things even more suspicious, Tomek sees Miguel with another man in another room at the hotel, and since it's unclear whether they're in a romantic or physical relationship, he decides to investigate. Bogdan, who has nothing to do but watch conspiracy theory videos and preach about the terrible harmful effects of 5G towers, gladly joins his efforts. It's Bogdan, a reality TV fan, who introduces Tomek to the theory, or the possibility, that Miguel is a real-life con man known as the Planet Bandit, famous for having swindled thousands of women by promising them marriage before disappearing from their lives completely. Planet Bandit is the film's version of the real-life Tinder scammer, and Bogdan mentions there's also a Netflix documentary about him, which Tomek watches in one night, and he, too, is convinced that Miguel is the notorious criminal. Planet Bandit, named after its first appearance in one of the seasons of Planet, a romantic reality TV franchise within the film's universe, is known for operating out of Malta. As it happens, Marcel met Miguel and fell in love with him in Malta, which is the main reason for Tomek's suspicions.
Therefore, he follows Miguel and tries to take photos of him with another man in the hotel room, especially when Miguel pays him something. He overhears Miguel talking on the phone with someone and mentioning that they should keep certain things secret from Marcel on several occasions. Finally, when Tomek and Bogdan sneak into the hotel suite and check Miguel's phone, they find a text message from an unsaved number, inviting Miguel to meet at the local spa at a certain time. Tomek also texts this person, telling them that from now on they should send messages to another number, and he includes his personal number, just to see what kind of communication Miguel has with this person.
Based on all these findings, Tomek organizes a sort of intervention for his friend, asking Ania to take Marcel and Ola to the place where Miguel is supposed to meet the man with whom he is supposedly having an affair. However, the plan backfires, as it turns out Miguel was communicating with a musician and a photographer, who were helping him prepare the staging of Marcel's reality show. The investor interested in producing the show, Aleksander Ostrowski, comes to the island to meet with Marcel, so Miguel has been secretly trying to help his boyfriend, intending to propose to him soon. After this embarrassing misunderstanding, Tomek and Bogdan go to Miguel to apologize, but then things take an unexpected turn: the secret messenger Miguel had been talking to sends him a threatening message, stating that they will reveal his secret to the world if he doesn't leave the island as soon as possible.
Tomek changes his mind about Miguel because of this sudden message and confronts him again. It is then that Miguel admits to being the Planet Bandit. However, there is more to the story, revealed later when the characters discover that a woman named Maria is also involved. Maria first appears in the film when Ania meets her on the beach, and the two become very good friends. Although Ola was initially jealous of Maria's presence, she wanted to spend time with Ania, and soon joined the newly formed group spending time together on the island. Eventually, Maria expresses her desire to pursue a romantic relationship with a man, so Ania and Ola help her create an online dating profile and are thrilled when she finds a partner with Aleksander Ostrowski. Despite being Aleksander's ex, Ania is willing to put the past behind her and help Maria impress the businessman.
Their plan also works, but it all ends badly when it is revealed that Maria has also been scamming countless men and women out of their money. Maria and Miguel are actually siblings, and it was they who devised the plan to deceive wealthy men and women desperate for love. Since only the deceived women had filed complaints, everyone believed the Planet Bandit was a single individual, likely a man, when in fact, it was a team consisting of a man and a woman. Although Miguel had started dating Marcel with the intention of stealing his money, he began to change his mind when he truly fell in love. Soon, Miguel decided to leave his life as a con man behind and settle with Marcel, so his current intentions are quite genuine.
However, Maria wasn't pleased with her brother's sudden decision to abandon her, especially because he wanted to continue deceiving men for their money. Precisely for this reason, Maria threatened to reveal Miguel's secret to the world and cause him harm, as she wanted him to return to his old ways. When Miguel tries to sabotage Maria's date with Aleksander at the restaurant, he's actually trying to prevent his sister from cheating on another victim, thereby attempting to ruin the situation. However, the situation turns out to be completely opposite: Aleksander begins to see Maria as his heroic savior, as she saves him from suffocating, and he falls madly in love with her.
When the truth is finally revealed to all the characters, Marcel realizes that Miguel had been sincerely trying to fight his sister's will and even prevent her from committing further fraudulent acts so that the two could be together. If María had managed to convince Miguel to become a con man once more, her relationship with Marcel would have ended forever, so she continued trying to avoid that situation. Thus, Marcel realizes that Miguel truly loves him and comes to his beloved's rescue, saving him from committing suicide, and in the end, they continue together.
As for Marcel's professional plans, he faces a major setback when Aleksander refuses to produce his reality show. Aleksander was already unconvinced by Marcel's idea, finding it too boring and convoluted, and believed they should create a reality show where young men and women with stereotypically attractive bodies fought over their partners. Being an old-school romantic, Marcel hated the idea completely, and Aleksander now refuses to finance the show.
However, a woman named Magdalena comes to Marcel's rescue, revealing herself to be the financial director of the reality show company Aleksander runs. Magdalena turns out to be Aleksander's mother and overrules his decision, as she, too, wants to support true love and create a show about it. Thus, Marcel finally achieves the reality show he dreamed of and succeeds in every aspect of his life.
While Miguel confesses his past crimes to prove he's changed, María is left alone, facing the consequences of her actions. Considering the extremely serious crimes she committed in the past and is currently attempting to commit, she should technically be brought to justice. However, Aleksander is truly in love with her, and to his delight, she also admits that she has been developing very genuine feelings for him. Although she could be lying about her feelings, Planet Single: Greek Adventure doesn't suggest this and wants us to believe she's telling the truth. Thus, in the end, Aleksander claims that he sees nothing wrong with what Maria has done in her search for love and that he's simply very happy to have her in his life. The two lovers remain together and eventually leave the island together, intending to get married soon.
Despite this whole fiasco, Tomek's relationship with Ania, which had deteriorated greatly due to his professional and personal frustrations in recent years, is also rejuvenated. Both Tomek and Ania take the microphones at Marcel's show launch party and talk about the need to be patient and understanding in romantic relationships, rather than replacing them with a new one, as is common today. Through their respective speeches, Tomek and Ania confess their feelings for each other, which brings them even closer.
In the Planet Single: Greek Adventure finale, Tomek and Ania are seen making love again, hoping to finally conceive. However, when discussing the matter the next day, they both admit that their love will not change, regardless of whether they become parents or not. The pressure and desire to become parents had been undermining their love for each other, as they both began to frustrate each other, but the couple mended their relationship and became united again. Ultimately, Tomek and Ania don't care if they can become parents right away, as it frees them from the pressure and rush that had unfortunately come with their endeavors.
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