Emma (Anne Hathaway) has always been in love with Dexter (Jim Sturgess). But because he told her, "We can just be friends," that one day in Scotland, in July 15th 1988, after graduation, they did become close platonic best friends for a long time, with the smart and sort of geeky Emma still harboring feelings for her commitment-phobe womanizing and booze-guzzling best friend.
In One Day, based on the bestselling novel by David Nichols, who also penned the movie's screenplay, and directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education), we follow the two in a span of 20 years as they lead their own lives, sometimes together and sometimes not--the life events in the following years are shown to us on the anniversary of their friendship, July 15th.
Putting off watching this drama-love story for fear that it's going to be Nicholas Sparks-ish, I was pleasantly relieved that it's not. Never mind Hathaway's awful accent that skips between Scottish, British and American Princess Diary, the characters are richly developed. They are imperfect, real people, flawed and vulnerable, misguided and lonely. The characters are not even movie-star attractive; Emma portrayed as homely and nerdy without looking like the stereotypical homely and nerdy, and Dexter, fairly attractive but not handsome, is a wild, lost soul and not portrayed as the generic playboy. Both earn our sympathy and compassion for their errors and choices.
A character-driven plot, One Day has an engaging screenplay, with breathtaking locations that set the mood of the story's theme: love and loss. And accompanied by the heart-wrenching and soaring film score that conveys the two characters' real feelings for each other, we become all the more sad. But there is not one time when we are frustrated by the many years wasted on missed opportunities, wrong decisions, pretentiousness and cowardice that prevented them from being romantically together; instead, we understand why, and it is heartbreaking.
I cried in the culmination of the story.
One Day is not a fairy tale love story nor is it your generic best-friends-in-love romantic drama, but it's a painful portrayal of true love muddied by the many complexities, uncertainties, and failures in life.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Comments
Emma, having been rejected by Dexter the first day, in turn constantly rejects him for yearsss, as her protection from pain. And Dexter is all along in love with her since the first day, but because he's a commitment-phobe and clueless about his real feelings, he does not commit to her. They wasted so many years. *SOBS* The entire movie is one big conflict. And the beauty of it all is that we can relate one way or another, and we feel the characters' pain and helplessness bubbling in the surface of their innocence and pretenses. :((