Movie Review: One Day

ROMANTIC DRAMA; M, 1hr 47min
STARRING: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess

Ms Hathaway in bluestocking English-rose mode? Gosh, yes! As no-nonsense grad student Emma Worley, she’s as close to frumpy as it’s possible for a certified bombshell to be when One Day kicks off on July 15, 1988. Emma is a poet who slums it as a waitress to pay the rent and really should be getting it together with her silvertail playboy pal Dexter Mayhew (Sturgess), except that he’s all over the place. So can Em and Dex be plain old friends?

An Education director Lone Sherfig’s reflective film of David Nicholls’s 2009 bestselling novel (adapted for the screen by the author) is in no hurry to answer that one while the years scroll by and we check in with the two every July 15. As a couple, Hathaway and Sturgess have the lived-in feel of the genuine article. Their finely shaded characters are given plenty of breathing space by Nicholls and Sherfig and it speaks volumes that we very much want the best for them without necessarily believing that they’re going to get it.
Andiee's Rating: ***

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