|
One Day
| Released |
24 August 2011 |
| Director |
Lone Scherfig |
Starring
|
Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson, Ken Stott, Romola Garai, Rafe Spall, Jodie Whittaker |
| Writer(s) |
David Nicholls |
| Producer(s) |
Nina Jacobson, |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
108 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama, romance |
| Rating |
12A |
|
|
Wistful waste.
Fresh from her adaptation of Lynn Barber's An Education, Danish director Lone Scherfig tackles yet another much-loved British book. One Day relays the story of Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess), two friends whose lives and loves we glimpse on one day, July 15, over a period of twenty years.
After spending their college graduation night together, "Em", an awkward working class lass, and "Dex", a privileged charmer, begin an unlikely friendship which braves a multitude of extraneous factors to emerge intact after almost twenty years. The unlikeliness of their relationship is established from the off. While Emma is a principled budding novelist, Dexter is a rich toff whose nights are spent in a drunken stupor with a myriad of blondes. The latter however eventually loses sight of himself, becoming rudderless in the murky waters of the ‘90s. Only his cancer-stricken mother (an excellent Patricia Clarkson) and beloved friend Emma, offer some sort of moral compass but immature and selfish, Dexter casts both aside to continue his path of self-destruction. Emma in turn finds comfort in the pasty arms of Ian (Rafe Spall), a stand-up comedian who only ever makes her really laugh when he unintentionally falls down stairways. Frustrated and world weary, it takes Emma and Dexter years to finally realise that what they were both searching for was right in front of them the whole time.
Lone Scherfig has a gift for capturing the zeitgeist of an era without romanticising it. Sixties London as seen in An Education was recreated perfectly-both illuminating on the one hand and on the other, mundane. Women wandered the streets of suburban London with their roped grocery bags, shuffling down to the corner shop in their housecoat and slippers. Scherfig translated the period incredibly well through the medium of film and the same can certainly be said for One Day. From the dreariness and peculiarity of the rain soaked ashlar blocks of Edinburgh in the late ‘80s to the pulsating vibrancy of ‘90s London, the attention paid to detail is obvious. Sturgess, in his most 'Hollywood' role to date has the hard task of playing a character that it's quite hard to like but he does it adequately and at certain times, very well. While his 'cad' routine gets old quickly it's the times when Dexter is stripped bare and emotionally vulnerable that Sturgess shows his acting prowess. Despite being an unpopular choice for the role of Emma for ironically being 'too pretty', Anne Hathaway brings her innate awkwardness and sensitivity to One Day. Although her accent at times varies wildly from the post-industrial lowlands of Lancashire to the plummy depths of the South, Hathaway is likeable enough as the leading lady. The main problem with One Day though, is that the constant fluctuations, the very ebb-and-flow nature of Emma and Dexter's relationship is just a tad too much. At several points, I had the overwhelming urge to grab the lapels of Emma's stonewashed denim jacket and yell 'Move On! He's not worth it!' but alas, this wouldn't be touted as the 'Romcom of the Year' if things didn't work out. So watch it and weep, but don't be fooled-One Day isn't the movie it promised to be.
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Louisa McElwee |
