Courtesy - The Sunday Leader By Sumaya Samarasinghe
Emma and Dex graduate from the University of Edinburgh in 1988.The bespectacled Emma is the serious one with a double degree and great dreams of becoming a writer.
Dex on the other hand who comes from a rich and united home is a handsome happy go lucky young man completely directionless and hoping for a one night stand with Emma after some wild graduation parties. While both head to her place with the same idea in mind, something happens and they end up falling asleep together.And then begins One Day the most long drawn twenty year love story/ friendship between two very unlikely beings.They promise to meet every year or at least to talk to each other on the anniversary date of their first meeting. Their way of sustaining their friendship and love is by keeping it platonic (for as long as possible) and both seem content with that solution.
Emma attempts to become a successful playwright but ends up being a waitress at a Tex Mex restaurant until she finally finds a way out of a life she hates and Dex begins to abuse drinks and drugs while becoming a very successful television presenter of terribly shallow programmes. Of course it is quite obvious that the two protagonists are made to be together and who wouldn’t want to see Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess hook up in a movie?
One day’s plot is very much of a dark love story and the film poster is completely misleading.
Emma and Dex, go their separate ways and deal with death, divorce, wrong partners, job loss and the many other tragedies that one has to face in life. But when they are together, Dex especially seems overcome by a sense of peace which they do not want to break by bringing in personal issues into their lives.
But of course they are both human and the camera manages to beautifully capture Sturgess and Hathaway’s facial expressions when one or the other accidentally displays an emotion which would reveal his or her true feelings for the other.
They flirt a little, fight a little and cling onto each other during tough times.
Why does it take most of the film for them to finally get together? Because such is life and timing is an uncontrollable factor.
Hathaway’s character is a little more obvious in her displays of emotions.Her big eyes and beautiful face are so expressive that any viewer will have trouble not looking at her.
Unfortunately her accent feels and sounds fake and after a while, you wish she would stop talking or play the part of an American living in England!
Jim Sturgess on the other hand is perfect as the troubled Dex who does not seem to get a break in life.His behaviour which is often rude and disrespectful makes people drift away from him and even Emma decides to “break” their friendship because eventhough “She loves him very much, she isn’t sure if she likes him anymore” after being disrespectfully treated by Dex at a restaurant. Sturgess is magic in his more peaceful moments like he is playing with his daughter or carrying his sick mother up the staircase.In many ways, his acting style reminded me of a young Brando.
From their very first meeting, we know that the two just “get each other” and every time one seems to drift towards another person, the viewers cannot help but be utterly disappointed!
One Day is a film directed by Lone Scherfig who was previously behind the brilliant “ An Education”. The film was adapted by David Nicholls from his 2009 novel of the same name.
Though most people who have viewed this film seem utterly thrilled with the story, it is obvious that some aspects need some polishing and one of the main issues here was Anne Hathaway’s accent. Apart from that, One Day is a very decent film which does not look at love and life like it were a fairy tale.
Probably more suitable for a mature audience.
