Anne Hathaway may not be able to rap. Her teeth may be irritatingly white, and her cuteness may be down-right annoying, but I will never again call her a shit actress. Because she isn't.
Prior to entering the Odeon in Leicester Square to watch One Day, I had no idea what to expect from the film. I knew it was a book people were quite passionate (and precious) about, but other than that, it just looked like a quirky British RomCom that would be light, maybe a bit soppy at times, and would leave me with that overall good feeling when I left the cinema. Instead, I left with my liquid eyeliner all over my face, but we'll come back to that.
The biggest amount of buzz I had heard about this film was the fact that Anne Hathaway's Yorkshire accent came and went, and gosh were people mad about it. People think she is "too pretty" to play the role of Emma Morley, and that her accent was too inconsistent. She's received so much criticism for it that Anne had to defend herself, saying that her accent is inconsistent because people from Yorkshire who move to London usually lose their accent.
"One of the things I was struck by was that so often when people leave Yorkshire they don't hang on to the accent. The accent evens out and starts to mimic some new sounds from where they're from, so you can have 10 people from Yorkshire and they have 10 completely utterly different accents. But I worked with a dialect coach and just kind of tried my best".
While her Yorkshire accent isn't the best I've ever heard, if I were to have spent the entire film tracking the consistency of Hathaway's accent, I would have missed the tenderness of this film. (I mean really, people, let's focus on the film, shall we?)
One Day tells the story of Emma and Dexter. Emma is awkward, bookish and an aspiring writer, while Dexter is a privileged, confident young lad who aspires to be...well, we're not really sure what he aspires to as he ends up being some garish TV presenter in the '90s. We meet Emma and Dexter the day they graduate from Edinburgh University in 1988, where they almost have a drunken trist, but don't. Mainly because Emma is so freaking awkward. (And really, who isn't sexually awkward at that age?)
Aside from a brief scene of Emma doing the breaststroke and riding her bike in London in 2006, the film chronologically follows Emma and Dexter on July 15, every year from 1988 up until 2011. This "one day" format leaves some questions unanswered, but generally gives a nice ebb and flow to the film.
Over the years there are marriages, babies, jobs at Mexican restaurants, cocaine, boyfriends, lovers, and quarter-life-crisises. How much One Day the film follows the events of One Day the novel, I'm unsure. But what I do know is that the film is an incredibly engaging piece of work, and despite what hardcore David Nicholls fans might say, I think the film is brilliant.
Emma is an intelligent, bright and refreshing character who's "prudeness" and innocent uptightness seem natural and realistic to her personality, rather than feeling something written in to make her seem terribly kooky or give her substance like we so often see with 20-something female characters. Emma is also quite fierce, and her depiction by Hathaway makes her seem very much like a real person, someone we may know, which makes her all that more endearing.
Watching Emma and Dexter across the decades is captivating, and for the most part, unpredictable. We see both characters blossom in ways that are human rather than cinematic, and possibly all too familiar for most of us. Hathaway is thoroughly enjoyable to watch, as is Jim Sturgess who plays Dexter. As an added bonus, the two actors have actual chemistry, and fill the screen with believable sexual sparks, which is hard to find in your average film where the actress has a hard time moving her forehead. Emma and Dexter's attraction to each other is palpable, believable, and it sucks you in.
Go watch One Day with someone you've been dating long enough who won't break up with you over audibly sobbing in a theatre, or perhaps your mother or your sister-in-law. I would not suggest seeing this film with someone who has read the book if you have not, as surely they'll just be tutting and whispering in your ear that "that isn't really how it happens" every three seconds.
One Day may not leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling or even a smile when you leave the theatre. But it will stay with you, make you think and reflect on your life, your relationships and the love of your life. That is, if you've had the pleasure of meeting them yet.
Reminds me of: Once, Atonement
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.