One Day

I was a huge fan of the book by David Nicholls and really looked foreword to seeing this... And while it didn't quite live up to my expectations and somewhat failed to capture the love and tragedy of the novel it was still a decent enough romance.

The lovely Jim Sturgess plays rich playboy Dexter, with the (mostly irritating) Anne Hathaway as working class woman Em. We join them in 1988 on the night of their college graduation where they almost get together, decide to be friends and then proceed to follow them over the course of the next two decades.

We see them through assorted relationships, phone calls, fights, hopes, vacations, missed opportunities, laughter and tears. There is always the anticipation of, will these two ever get together? The tone of the movie is different than the book, trying to be a bit like 'When Harry Met Sally' and failing. I also didn't ever feel the connection between Dexter and Em. I guess I should stop comparing the two, apples and oranges and all that but when you adore a book as much as I did its hard.

The ageing of the characters is very well done here, subtle but especially apparent at the very end when the movie flips back to the night they met and you go wow, look how young they were. The clothing is also true to the decade and there are some fun (bad) hairstyles. 1/4/15