On July 15th, 1988, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew celebrate their graduation. They've never really engaged in much talk before, although Emma has a crush on him. Influenced by the buzz, they go off to her tiny flat, where, well not much happens. And so begins the story of Dex and Em, close personal friends. She's a nerdy feminist whose idea of romantic music would be Tracy Chapman's Revolution. He's a charismatic girl-magnet who wants to leave her room as soon as the sun comes out. She wears dresses with combat boots. He wears Armani suits. She's a cynic. He's a prick. And they're friends. Underline friends.
Directed by Lone Scherfig, whose 2009 cautionary tale An Education got an Oscar nod and put Carey Mulligan on the map of serious actresses, One Day is based on the bestseller by David Nicholls, who also wrote the script. Starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, the film is a love story unlike most we've seen in recent years, yet familiar. While it begins as a comedy mixed with drama, it eventually unfolds into a drama mixed with comedy.
The premise is that we meet Dex and Em the same day every year, July 15th - the day they met. This is a challenge, because while a novel leaves more room for character development with such plot, a movie has to move faster, and still remain smooth. Hathaway and Sturgess have fizzling chemistry and both excel in portraying their characters with empathy. From the very beginning, you feel like you know these people and you can relate to them and what's happening between them. Emma really likes Dex. Like, really. But he's too busy chasing skirts and having unprotected sex in bathroom stalls. You won't be able to take your eyes off Hathaway's face when in a would-be-crucial moment of their relationship Dex admits, "Well I fancy pretty much everyone. It's like I just got out of jail all the time." It pinches a nerve. Hathaway has been growing more and more as a dramatic actress, and although this role may seem comic from the trailer, it is more than that. She plays a character similar to her role in Love and Other Drugs, but with more zest and sensibility. And Sturgess, who's been grossly under-appreciated, is reminiscent of a young Michael Caine. Cool and collected on the outside, but you know there's something bubbling inside. This is what makes a performance real and memorable. Sturgess joins other young actors such as Ryan Gosling and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who handpick their roles and excel absolutely every time.
The movie has an offbeat and true to the book script (it helps that the movie was written by the same guy, of course). It's packed with smart dialogue. In terms of supporting cast, most endearing is Rafe Spall as Ian Whitehead, Emma's totally unfunny comedian boyfriend. Patricia Clarkson who plays Dexter's mom, also co-stars and is as charming as always.
One Day is not the new When Harry Met Sally. And don't go to see it if that's what you want to get. It joins a category of bittersweet love dramedies (my personal favorite) like (500) Days of Summer and the upcoming Sundance Festival gem Like Crazy. While it definitely poses the unanswered dilemma whether men and women can really ever be just close friends, it doesn't laugh at it. It shows a more fragile side to the relationship between a man and a woman, and the best part is that it doesn't answer the question. Close personal friendships have the word "personal" in them after all.
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