At what point does a cinematic courtship get out of hand? At what point does one begin to grow weary of the two people onscreen continuing to ignore the fact that they are Perfect For Each Other? Is at the one decade mark? Two decades? Or – let’s throw a spanner in the works – is it less a matter of duration than it is one of execution? I’ll hazard a guess and say that we might be onto something there.
The relationship in question here the one depicted in Lone Scherfig’s adaptation of David Nicholls best-seller, One Day. It’s between Dexter (Jim Sturgess; The Way Back) and Emma (Anne Hathaway; Love and Other Drugs), two friends who essentially take the two decades previously mentioned to realise that they’re meant to be. As to whether you’ll find the film agreeable or not, that’s going to be intrinsically linked with your stance on the genre best described as ‘the weepy’.
Dexter and Emma graduate from university on July 15, 1988. This happens to be St Swithin’s day, as Dexter informs Emma on the morning of their first encounter. They very nearly sleep together that morning, running into a near miss after a night of celebrating their graduation. It’s then that Emma and Dexter decide to be friends, thus beginning the story of their entwined lives.
It’s on St Swithin’s Day every year that we check in on the Dex & Em to see where they’re at. Sometimes they’re together, sometimes they’re not. Sometimes the mood is joyous, but more often than not one of them is in dire need of the other, of friendly advice and comfort. By keeping to the one day per year, One Day rollicks along at a fine pace, although some might find the episodic structure a cause for slight irritation. In the months between each July 15 events obviously occur, but if they don’t transpire on July 15, they take place off-screen. In rather heavy-handed symbolism, Emma enquires about Dexter’s new tattoo. It’s a yin yang symbol he explains, “a perfect union of opposites.” Dexter, who finds success early, turns into a coked-up twat TV host and quickly hits rock bottom. Emma, who puts her literary dreams on the back burner immediately after university grows in strength and confidence (and beauty, as Anne Hathaway loses the silly, over-sized spectacles) as the year-counter ticks along. They go through a lot, that much is clear. So, one hast to hope that the two leads have chemistry. Luckily for One Day, they do.
Without a doubt, I’m of the opinion that if it weren’t for Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway, I would have enjoyed One Day far less. The pair possess on-screen chemistry above the necessary quota, and for this the goings-on are elevated in quality and believability. Jim Sturgess imbues Dexter with the right amount of cockiness and bravado, makes him an irritating toff, but not a d*ck that one is inclined to hate. Here’s a fun fact (I’ll say ‘fact’, but it’s really just me postulating) about Anne Hathaway. She is blessed with some sort of skill or naturally occurring ability to remain a likable onscreen presence, even while speaking in one of the worst English accents I’ve heard in a long while. It’s really bad. Really bad. Aside from that, Hathaway’s performance is solid, and certainly she has a number of really fine, often humourous and endearing moments.
But — and it’s a big but — there’s just something about One Day that didn’t work for me. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it’s the weepiness of the goings-on, which brings me back to that question of the execution of a weepy mentioned earlier. To me, Lone Scherfig appeared to be hell-bent on squeezing every bit of emotion out of every reel. There’s grandiose where there should have been simple. There’s cheap sentimentality where there should have been a whole lot of delving into the core of characters we have to spend no less than two decades with. Scenes seem overwrought and mawkish, gestures seem a little heavy-handed, there’s a fair amount of ponderousness. Yes, this onscreen courtship did cross the line into “getting out of hand” and “maudlin”. And this is where my warning earlier regarding one’s stance on the weepy comes in. If you don’t mind a film doing its utmost to make you reach for the Kleenex, then chances are you’ll have no problem with One Day. To its credit, it is a notch above the usual romantic dramedy fare of recent memory. However, I dare say I would have cared far more for Dexter and Emma if Lone Scherfig (and this is such a shame to say, after An Education) had opted for a less is more approach rather than taking a leaf out of the Weepy How-To book.
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