Nine years ago I bought David Nicholls's One Day only to stop reading it after a hundred pages because I didn't like it. Years later, when I learnt that it had been adapted into a movie starring Anne Hathaway, I decided to watch the movie instead to know how the story ended. And I did not like it. Earlier this month I gave the book another chance and I liked it enough to consider giving the film another shot. Unfortunately, unlike the book, the second time was not a charm.
The story follows the lives of Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess), starting with an almost one-night stand on their graduation night, on July 15, 1988. They decide to stay in touch but, over the course of eighteen years, they grow apart as they choose different paths and we are shown what they are up to on the same day, July 15, every year.
Despite the fact that it's relatively faithful to the source material —there are so many pointless changes though, like Emma and Dexter not having sex on graduation night, and Dexter teaching in Paris instead of Rome—, Lone Scherfig's One Day is a lacklustre adaptation as the plot is never compelling; on the contrary, it's rather dull and often feels dragged, and the year-skipping is handled so terribly, it feels as if a drunk, maybe Dexter himself, made the film.
No matter how uninteresting and unengaging the story ended up being on screen, the worst aspect of the screenplay easily is the characters. The persona of Emma Morley has been simplified so much that she comes off as some annoying, bitchy damsel (in distress) waiting for Prince Charming instead of the smart, independent, successful woman she is in the novel, and her witty sense of humour is nowhere to be found. As for Dexter, he is just a wasted, selfish alcoholic with no depth whatsoever. Where's the dreamy, charming man from the book? The one Emma falls in love with? The one the reader/the audience falls in love with? In addition, the thoughts of the characters are completely left out. I get that it was not that easy to translate them on screen, but how are we supposed to care about them and be emotionally invested if we don't know anything about them? I'm not a fan of voice-overs but in this case, it could have helped. The supporting characters are so flat, shallow and bland, they are not even worth mentioning.
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| Focus Features |
With such a poor script and probably even poorer direction, there's nothing the actors can do to elevate the film. The problem is that they don't even try. Anne Hathaway gives yet another boring performance and her Yorkshire accent is atrocious, Jim Sturgess gives such a cheesy performance, and the chemistry between them is just off. As for the supporting cast, One Day does a wonderful job at wasting such a talented actress as Patricia Clarkson.
Despite all the flaw, One Day isn't a complete waste of time. While it certainly isn't the most absorbing and involving stories on screen, some parts of the story are quite interesting, the cinematography is quite beautiful, the scenery is gorgeous and the soundtrack, although some song choices are beyond cheesy, is pretty good.
