Film File - One Day

Proving that good love stories will always be worldwide hits regardless of recessions or revolutions, 'One Day' hit the spot with millions of readers around the world. And, like 'The Bridges Of Madison County' years ago, its multitude of fans wondered if it was possible to adapt into film a piece of work so perfect on the printed page. After a single day together on 15th July 1988 - their college graduation - Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is an ambitious working-class girl who dreams of making the world a better place, while he is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two decades, key moments of their relationship are experienced over several 15th Julys in their lives. Together and apart, we see the pair through their friendships, hopes and dreams - up to the point along their journey when they realise that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along. A bit like many of us who constantly regard the far horizon, while the object of our affections might just be much closer than we think….. By the time the movie began filming last year, the novel was already a bestseller around the world. It had been sold for publication in 31 different languages - a rarely reached benchmark for a book these days - and would go to number one on the bestseller lists in the UK, Italy and Sweden; number two in Germany and three in Russia. When the book was first published in June 2009 in the UK, David Nicholls' novel was heartily embraced by reviewers and the public, becoming a must-read first on the hardcover and later on the paperback Sunday Times bestseller charts. When it was published in the US in June 2010, word of mouth had already spread across the pond, and the novel commenced a 12-week stint on The New York Times bestseller list, rising to fourth position. The paper's reviewer, Janet Maslin, noted that the book had become the "no-Sweden, no-vampire fiction hit of the summer". It was listed amongst the 100 Notable Books of 2010 as "a luscious, beautiful and ultimately devastating portrait of two soul mates". Many readers confessed to having read the book in, appropriately enough, one day. Nicholls said that it was not autobiographical, and that he wanted to convey the intimacy of leafing through a photo album and the emotions that each snapshot calls forth. Having begun this two decade-long relationship by almost, but not quite, sleeping together on their graduation night, Dex and Em return and revisit the key moments of their lives through this one day encounter every 15th July, presenting an ultimate 'cute meet' situation, in Hollywood parlance. As each winds their way into adulthood and maturity with lovers good and bad, careers of varying mediocrity, mad days with mates and the accidental joys of life, Em and Dex continue to throb for each other occasionally, but always interrupted by the possible view just ahead from the next horizon. Each gets into a wrong relationship - her with one man, him with a multiple strand - and returning time and again to that nagging realisation that the Right One might be right there at the end of the phone. Hathaway's English accent, which seems to have excited the ire of most reviewers, actually ain't that bad - certainly not in the Julia Roberts doing a Kitty Kiernan in 'Michael Collins' mould. With that remarkable ability to move from mousey to marvellous with seemingly a flick of her hair and bat of her eyelashes, the passage of time on her features is well shaped. Sturgess, still young enough to make stubble and tousled hair look agreeable, is well cast as the indulgent, self-absorbed jack-the-lad every 20something male secretly desires to be. Rafe Spall plays Emma's boyfriend, Ian, while other cameos are taken by Patricia Clarkson, Ken Stott and Jodie Whittaker. But while the co-stars play their parts well, this film is only ever about the two leads. On a scale of one to 10, the film gets a close seven - and could have been much better were it not, ironically, for a script that is at times ponderous and a tad too self-involved. Given that the author himself, Nicholls, also did the screenplay, it was maybe a wrong choice - being too close to the original perhaps. Director Lone Scherfig, whose masterful handling of 'An Education' made it a hit, does bring some dazzling brushstrokes to the canvas, and presents a few moments that linger long after the credits have rolled. As a movie, 'One Day' more or less lives up to expectations especially if, like this reviewer, you haven't read the book. If you have read it and really loved it, try to leave your expectations at the door.