FILM REVIEW: One Day.

We haven’t reviewed films on this blog before. But after watching One Day at the cinema on Wednesday and then reading the negative reviews it’s been getting, I thought I'd give my opinion on the whole thing.

First things first, lets talk about Anne Hathaway. She has been absolutely torn apart by critics in England, they’ve absolutely slated her for her accent and condemned her for being to pretty, I however disagree, I was sceptical at first but I have to say Anne Hathaway did an OK job, Well as good as she could have done really. For those that are condemning her for being too pretty, they have either not read the book or completely missed the point, because if you have read One Day, you’ll know that Emma is pretty! Not stunning, no, but she is attractive, she just doesn’t have the confidence to realise it and due to her political beliefs decides not to make the most of herself. She isn’t some fat ugly Yorkshire woman at all. The part would NOT have been better being played by a young Ruth Jones as someone suggested. The perfect person to play Emma Morley would have in fact been Kate Winslet circa 1998, unfortunately though we don’t have a time machine. And to be fair Anne Hathaway and the make up department actually do a good job of making her look the part! Despite being one of the best looking women in the world, Anne manages to look dowdy when she graduates, and extremely greasy when she works in the Mexican restaurant (side note that is actually filmed in a bar called Cubana at Waterloo, they make a cracking strawberry daiquiri!) She then starts to blossom as the film goes on, just like she does in the book.

With regards to the accent, it is also said in the book (and let us not forget that the film is based on a book) that Emma used to have a thick northern accent but when she moved to London she started talking just like every body else. So what we’re looking for accent wise is an English dialect with a hint of northern and Anne Hathaway doesn’t do this too badly! She occasionally drops in a bit of Yorkshire on certain words and sentences just the way someone who had been living in London for 15 years would. Do. She also pronounced words like ‘Laff’ and ‘Grass’ properly, so to completely tear her accent apart is unfair. Yes she isn’t Renee Zelwegger in Bridget Jones, but I suspect Renee Zelwegger got paid a lot more for Bridget Jones then Hathaway did for One Day and thus probably spent more time with a dialect coach.

Unfortunately for Anne, Jim Sturgess as Dexter completely steals the show. In fact he absolutely shines! This is partly due to the fact he is a fine actor but also due to the fact that the film left in all the important parts of his character so we got to see him as the complex character he is, giving Sturgess something to really get his teeth into. Throughout the film We get to see Dexter as a posh boy struggling to find his way, we see him on a downward spiral swallowed up by the showbiz world, we see him suffer as he watches his Mother battle with cancer, we see him put on a ridiculously common voice so he can fit in with the TV crowed. We see him grow up and fall in love with a woman who has his baby then cuckolds him. Not forgetting that throughout all this he has to age 20 years and my, does he do it well. I’d never heard of Jim Sturgess before this film but he’s an actor that from now on I’ll never forget and I expect plenty of others feel the same. He completely captured the essence of the character, and like I said that is partly due to the writing. The same however cannot be said for Emma.

Whilst we see the best of Dexter in the film One Day, we never find out much about Emma other then that she loves Dexter. Besides from a few lines at the beginning of the film we never get to see how passionate Emma is about the world and politics. We never see how much she wants to escape her Yorkshire roots and her stifling family. We never see her working for theatre company writing plays about things she believes in and failing. We never see why she broke up with Ian, the reason being because she had an affair with her head teacher at the school she worked in. This was such a mistake to leave out because it’s here in the book that we realise Emma could actually love someone other then Dexter. In the film Emma just comes across as weak and shallow completely besotted by one man for her whole life. We never see how hard it is for her either to leave her love in Paris when Dexter decides he wants to be with her. She just comes across as one-dimensional and that’s something Emma definitely isn’t.

So if Anne Hathaway comes across an actress who plays a character with no emotional depth and a bad northern accent, it’s not completely her fault. She did the best she could. It’s not her fault because they left out all the good bits! She never had a script to get passionate about. Someone wrote that on paper the character of Emma was worthy of an Oscar nomination. I completely agree, however that’s not the case in the film, not one tiny bit.

I do have to quickly mention how amazing Raffe Spall, the actor who plays Ian, was. In the book Ian comes across as an unfunny, rude, insecure, asshole that makes Emma’s life a complete misery by trapping her in a relationship she never wanted to be in. However in the film he comes across as a sweet man whom whilst insecure loves Emma to bits and really only wants the best for her. It’s the one adaptation from book to film, which I approve of. Ian provides most of the laughs throughout and without a doubt delivers the best line of the film and he does it beautifully. “She made you decent and in return you made her so happy” For me that was the highlight of the film.

So yes, the film isn’t as good as the book but it is a good film. If you were to watch the film as a stand alone it would be fine if you were to watch it after reading the book, yes you may find faults but you’ll also get caught up in the story again because it’s like meeting up with old friends. You know how the story is going to end but it doesn’t matter because you’re just happy to have these people back in your lives again. The romantic and sad moments are just as romantic and sad in the film because you remember how you felt when you read the book; It is also filmed and directed beautifully.

Besides even its harshest critic has to admit, that whilst they may have played a bit fast and loose with accents and locations (Greece becomes Southern France, Italy becomes Paris) it wasn’t as bad as P.S I Love You. But then again what is?