One Day
You know you are in trouble when the highlight of the movie is the song
they are playing over the credits.
In One Day, Anne Hathaway is Emma - the dowdy gal with the tart
tongue, while Jim Sturgess is Dexter - the carefree, party boy cad with
a heart of gold. After one magical, only-in-the-movies day of romance,
we check in on these pals every July 15th over the course of 20 or so
years to see they are so clearly crushing for each other, but screwing
it up every year and driving each other further and further away.
One Day comes off as a gimmick movie where the
gimmick hurts the storytelling and possible emotions the audience might
feel. Much like Emma and Dexter are afraid of truly pursuing love and
honest feeling, director Lone Scherfig and writer David Nicholls (who
also wrote the book) seem to be content on delivering appetizers
instead of a savory, three course dinner.
By looking at the story one day at a time, the audience can't get
wrapped up in the rich details, ups and downs of life the characters
are experiencing, and all of that important stuff that happens in
between each day that gets treated like immaterial and insignificant
information, even when it is monumental enough to warrant much more
examination.
Quite to my disappointment, Hathaway's British accent wasn't as
horrible, hilariously affected and career ending as I was hoping and I
was impressed with her ability to show the character's heartbreak every
time it looks like her dreams are going to come true, but they get
dashed on the rocks as painfully as you can imagine. Kind of like when
she hosted the Oscars.
Sadly, this was the worst part of One Day. A sensical, smart
woman is wasting her life pining away for this moron. Sure, he is an
alcoholic, drug addict, sleeps with any woman willing to take off her
panties, a complete embarrassment in his chosen field and a
disappointment to his friends and family, but Emma is willing to dig
through all of that baggage because he might have a half decent heart
underneath it all. No set of six pack abs, two day stubble, and dreamy
eyes is worth this pain. Emma is not a heroine. She's pathetic, and
comes off as the worst love story cliché.
One Day misses the mark.
One Day is rated PG-13 for sexual content,
partial nudity, language, some violence and substance abuse.
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