“One Day” – Film Review

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess

Anne Hathaway seems to have joined the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Rennée Zellweger in the race for glamorous Americans to play ordinary British women. And we all know how that gets on everybody’s nerves. I concur that Hathaway is a fantastic actress, the height of her talent showcased in the dark Rachel Getting Married, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. But playing Jane Austen? Really? In Becoming Jane, Hathaway’s doe-eyed, full-lipped Austen enjoys a steamy affair with James McAvoy. The real, plain-Jane Austen, brilliant wordsmith as she was, perhaps enjoyed the odd fantasy about the postman.

And now Hathaway is back, curled around the lovely Jim Sturgess on the sides of buses all over the country. She plays Emma Morley in Lone Scherfig’s rendition of the bestselling novel One Day, on which the production team apparently thought they’d solve her beauty problem by handing her a pair of quasi-John Major glasses and asking her to neglect the hair straighteners for a day. Weeks before the film’s release, film critics, fans of David Nicholls’ book and Northerners alike lamented her supposedly Yorkshire accent, snippets of which were fed to us in the trailer.

I saw One Day on its first day at the cinema, expecting to be disappointed. I wasn’t, and this was largely down to the leading couple. Hathaway is brilliant; her accent, clearly misrepresented in the trailer, is inoffensive 90% of the time, with only a few glitches. She portrays very well the development of Emma’s character, from the awkward student shuffling around in her Doc Martens to the sophisticated writer dressed to impress in Paris; difficult to achieve when twenty years are condensed into less than two hours.

Nicholls – who adapted his novel to screenplay – and Scherfig are initially determined to translate Emma’s left-wing values and hunger for learning onto the big screen. In her student flat, adorned with the works of Harold Pinter and Milan Kundera, she throws on a “Nuclear Disarmament Now” T-shirt to the soundtrack of Tracy Chapman. In any other circumstances, it would all be sickeningly clichéd, but this side of Emma’s personality is so integral to her loveable character in the book that I was touched by the film’s interpretation, even if it isn’t consistent all the way through (see below).

Meanwhile, Jim Sturgess’s Dexter embodies the ultimate opposite. He groans to the sound of Chapman in Emma’s room, choosing to “find himself” inIndiaand show off a yin-yang tattoo fromThailandrather than engage himself with concrete ideas. Rather than taking pride in teaching children like Emma, he brushes off his dying mother’s appeal for him to do “something good” with his life and instead becomes embroiled in trashy late-night TV with a coked-up, airhead girlfriend.

One thing that Nicholls explores in One Day is the tension between the vacillation and maturity of human character and its simultaneous rooting for something constant. Similar to Hathaway’s Emma, Sturgess, in what will most likely be his breakthrough role as an actor, charts Dexter’s ups and downs with aplomb. As with the novel, there are times when Dexter is a greedy, selfish idiot, blind to the feelings of the most important people in his life, from whom he will learn the most important lessons – his mother, father and Emma herself. Eventually, he learns from his mistakes and realises the true values of life. But as is the case for everyone, the relationship he has with both family and friends (in this case Emma) gives him the memories he has and makes him who he is. Perhaps this is why he can never truly let go of Emma.

I have heard readers of Nicholls’ novel unconvinced by the connection between Emma and Dexter, given their completely different upbringings and attitudes, not to mention political views. I didn’t have this problem with the book, mainly because I myself have experienced friendship and attachment that on paper would seem utterly unlikely. I don’t know if being a youthful romantic also contributes to my belief that there is definitely such a thing as unexplained chemistry between two people, no matter how different you are. As Dexter explains of his yin-yang tattoo, sappiness aside, sometimes opposites really do attract.

However, I can appreciate the setbacks this would bring to a friendship or relationship, and I think that Nicholls, in the book at least, deals with this extremely well. Emma and Dexter bicker throughout the novel, whether through witty banter or full-blown confrontation – yet in itself it makes them, individually and as a pair, what they are. Before the staggering event at the end of their story, when relations are already tense, they enter into a seemingly arbitrary disagreement about the invasion ofIraq. Whilst this could initially seem futile and random, it is in fact crucial in so many ways, from bookmarking the narrative of recent British history to making a statement about their differing outlooks and subsequently the state of their relationship. It is a shame that Nicholls left this exchange out of the film, as it would have picked up Emma’s political side which actually seems neglected after she leaves university.

Hathaway and Sturgess are complimented by a fantastic supporting cast. Romola Garai is always a delight, even though Sylvie, Dexter’s High Tory adulterous wife, is hardly a complex role to perform; in fact, I have since been wondering if she might not be well-suited for the role of Emma. Patricia Clarkson and Ken Stott make wonderful parents for Dexter: frustrated at having given him everything he needs – both material and emotional – yet seeing him waste his life. There is an incredibly touching episode in the novel when Dexter, wracked with alcohol, drugs and obnoxiousness, is unable to connect with his dying mother. When reading the book I had no sympathy for him, but Clarkson’s portrayal of maternal grace and unconditional love give an extra poignancy to the scene.

The supporting cast cannot be mentioned without praise of Rafe Spall. He manages to depict aspiring comedian Ian as both irritating and loveable; his awkward over-keenness for both his childish jokes and his relationship with Emma is at once stifling and endearing. Geek to the core, Ian is likeable because he is so real: we all know someone who just won’t stop trying too hard. But whilst his adoration of Emma is sweet and he is undoubtedly a “nice guy”, his toilet-humour and gawky dialogue render their relationship pretty implausible. This is especially true given the casting of Hathaway as Emma: is Londonreally such a desert of good looking men that Anne Hathaway can’t find a decent boyfriend?

Unfortunately, whilst the actors’ performances are practically flawless, the structure of the novel, one of its unique selling points, gets lost in the rush to chase the plot. The premise of the novel is that Nicholls documents Emma and Dexter’s activities on St Swithin’s Day every year from the day they meet; together or apart, their actions always say something about the people they are, their relationship with each other and the world around them. However, with only 107 minutes of screen time, several of the dates that are recorded in the novel, each of them charged with a particular significance, only illustrate one scene, some not even with dialogue. After graduating, Dexter spends a few years travelling on his parents’ trust fund, and there is a lovely exchange of letters between him and Emma which results in a muddle that is, in hindsight, key to their relationship; this is completely overlooked in the film. Likewise, Emma’s career as a teacher is neither here nor there, with her class’s performance of Oliver! included only to showcase another humorous blunder from Ian rather than her professional and personal development.

For this reason, One Day is bound to confuse and perhaps even bore those who haven’t read Nicholls’ novel. Perhaps the film would never be as brilliant as the book, for the simple fact that, well, they never are. However, if you are a fan of the bestseller, I would recommend you see the film, because the actors do a great job of bringing the characters to life and portraying both the magic and inconveniences of friendship, love and loss – doing no disservice whatsoever to Nicholls’ story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfmh2FqhqIk