JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Emma and Dexter, 1988

One Day is based on the bestselling novel by David Nicholls, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess as Emma and Dexter who hook up on graduation day in 1988, end up sleeping together literally, and decide to stay platonic friends. The movie looks in on them every year on the same day, 15 July, for two decades.

We have not read the novel, but its readers assure us that it is more than a gooey tale of two dolts who take 15 years to get together when they know and everyone within a ten-kilometer radius knows that they belong together. It’s been described as “one of the most perceptive books of our age“, “the chronicle of wasted youth, rich in emotional nuance and period detail”.

Unfortunately the movie seems content to stay a gooey tale of two dolts who take 15 years to get together when they know and everyone within a ten-kilometer radius knows that they belong together. Not “What they’ve lost”, but “Will they end up with each other? Will they? Will they?” The novelist adapted his own book, so we can assume no disrespect was intended towards the material. No, the disrespect is directed at the viewers, who are presumed to be the kind of saps who would enjoy this (According to the grosses, they didn’t).

Director Lone Scherfig’s previous film An Education soared on true wit and a star performance by Carey Mulligan. This one aims low—its target is cuteness—and falls on its face. Are there no British actresses who could play Emma? That way the accent wouldn’t be the issue it’s become with Anne Hathaway in the role. Anne Hathaway is lovely, Jim Sturgess is lovely, both are fine actors, but they have no chemistry. No chemistry, no zing, no movie.

Without the context provided by the novel, the last 15 minutes seem like a desperate attempt to make the audience feel something. It’s not so much a resolution as a hostage-taking.

We have had it with romances in which the heroine is in love with her best friend and waits and waits for him to come to his senses. That’s not romance, that’s masochism.

Dexter and Emma circa 2003

* * * * *

In the movie they play a game called Are You There, Moriarty? This is how it works. Two players are blindfolded and seated facing each other, arms outstretched, holding hands. In the other hand they hold a rolled-up newspaper. They take turns saying, “Are you there, Moriarty?” then trying to hit their opponent on the head. The opponent tries to avoid getting hit. It is very stupid, and hysterical when you’ve had a few drinks.

* * * * *
Unrelated: Was that Paul Weller in a restaurant in Greenbelt at lunch today, or was Kermit hallucinating?