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Saturday, August 20, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
One Day
Revisiting July 15, Like Lovelorn Groundhogs
Jim Sturgess as Dexter and Anne Hathaway as Emma in Lone Scherfig's romance
drama "One Day".
Focus Features
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Saturday,
August 20, 2011
A man and a woman graduate from college on July 15, 1988 and for the next 24
years they will be glimpsed on the same date. There's potential for them
to be more than good friends. This is the brief outline of Lone Scherfig's
romantic drama "One Day", based on David Nicholls' best-selling novel, which
opened yesterday across the U.S. and Canada, a film that disrupts what could
have been a great love story.
Set in London and elsewhere, "One Day" features Emma (Anne Hathaway), who is
working class English. Dexter (Jim Sturgess), an upper-class, roguish
Brit, is getting married. Tension percolates between them over a score of
years. Dexter is a cynical, charming soul.
Emma is a Cinderella whose metaphorical glass slipper doesn't fit, perpetually
broken in relationships. She toils away at a restaurant job. Emma
cares about the world. Dexter? Not so much.
Ms. Scherfig ("An
Education") shows us two people eminently good for each other but
whose potential fit is perpetually challenged. "One Day" suggests that the
stars will align and put these two people where they belong, and with whom they
belong, obstacles be damned. (At least on the surface, some themes in
"One Day" are similar to "Same Time Next Year", in which a couple, both
separately married, meet on a weekend every year.)
The film has potential to develop into a story with weight but the problem is
that "One Day" marries Emma and Dexter's bad timing with stylistic overkill,
which almost obscures the screenplay Mr. Nicholls adapts from his novel.
Every time the July 15 date of a subsequent year emerges, the film's title
graphics move and jump as if they're having a party. It's a gimmick that's
increasingly distracting and tiresome. When the July 15th subtitles
themselves become a character -- an annoying one -- that's not a good
sign for a film, even if its recurring date is a central theme.
Emma and Dexter's friendship unfolds with some sweet if predictable moments but
the film lines many of their interactions with smaller characters who dawdle as
stock figures. We know where these extras and extra-curricular moments
will lead us, whether or not we've read Mr. Nicholls' book. "One Day" has
musical numbers (from Dead Or Alive, New Order and others) that fans of the 1980
music era will appreciate.
The chemistry between Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Sturgess is as shaky as Ms.
Hathaway's wavering English accent, which takes on London flavors, Birmingham
brogue and Manchester mutterings. Both actors are tentative at times, and
while the sunny and sometimes opportunistic atmosphere they play in is fine in
several scenes, it's as if both are holding back. Perhaps that's intended.
The usually charming, smart and energetic Ms. Hathaway looks frozen and faded,
almost wan here as Emma, even if Emma is supposed to be a character who is
uncertain and lacking in confidence. Ms. Scherfig's film gets the
ingredients of love and possibility right but the dialogue, direction and
performances just don't punctuate them enough on a cinematic level.
After the first few meetings between "Emms" and "Dex" the tensions, flirtations
and romantic dalliances become stale, as does the banter. As played by Mr.
Sturgess, the arguably less sympathetic Dexter is a man I felt more sympathy
for. I suspect more than a few in the audience will feel the same way.
"One Day", a poor, disappointing effort fueled by the scent of melancholy and
the sugar and spice of love's ups and downs, ultimately didn't work for this
romantic.
With:
Patricia
Clarkson, Jodie Whittaker, Rafe Spall, Heida Reed, Tom Mison, Amanda
Fairbanks-Hynes, Joséphine de La Baume.
"One Day" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for sexual content, partial nudity, language, some
violence and substance abuse. The film's running time is one hour and
48 minutes.
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