One Day

[lety]

Em (played by Anne Hathaway) is shy, Dex (played by Jim Sturgess) is outgoing. Em is not sexually active while Dex has a different girl in his bed every night. Dex's time in college was spent partying while Em spent her time with her nose in the books (this is obvious because she wears glasses and must, therefore, be both smart and studious). Still, on their last night before leaving college for good, the two somehow wind up together. From there sprouts a friendship which lasts for decades, even though they only see each other once a year on July 15th. They grow up, grow apart, grow together, hate each other, love each other, and generally make each other alternately miserable and happy, until finally we reach the end of the film after what feels like an eternity of July 15ths that all meld together into one blobby mess.

Jim Sturgess, on the other hand, is right for Dex. Had Nicholls' script done justice to his book, Sturgess as Dex would have been absolutely the right choice. There are moments - albeit brief in duration - in which Sturgess nails Dex. If the script had had more depth, those moments provide us with a glimpse at how good Sturgess could have been in the role.

Much of what made the book such an entertaining read had to do with the letters exchanged between Dex and Em over the years. They poured their hearts out to each other, revealing their weaknesses and admitting their flaws. Basically, through those letters Dex and Em became real. The film has barely a mention of the letters, which would be okay if there was anything substituted in to fill out the backstory, to make these two beautifully written characters spring to life on the big screen. But there's not, and because of that nothing about their friendship throughout the years as adults means anything to the audience. We don't know these people and worse, we are never given any reason to care about their relationship or to understand their motivations (other than on the most superficial level). Instead, all I could think of during the screening was, "Get together, don't get together, I don't care. Just get it over with." And that's not the book I know and love.

GRADE: D

[johnstyle]

Movie directed by lone Scherfig, music composed by Rachel Portman. It was adapted by David Nicholls from his novel of same name.