'One Day'

'One Day' (PG-13) (2 STARS)

Writer: David Nicholls based on his novel
Director: Lone Scherfig
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson, Romola Garai, rafe Spall, Ken Stott, Jodie Whitaker

"One Day" has something to me that can kill my enjoyment of a movie. That is a main character that I did not care for and like and who I feel did not deserve the love of the other main character. Jim Sturgess is a very good actor but his Dexter is a character who is selfish, arrogant and a bore. The problem is the movie's writing makes him so one note and superficial when he grows and becomes affectionate it feels phony.

"One Day" tells the story of Emma and Dexter who start to have a one night stand one day in 1988 and instead become friends. The start of the movie is promising even though the gimmick of showing the one day anniversary of meeting ruins the flow of the movie. We see Emma and Dexter's friendship grow over the years and we catch up with their lives almost every year from 1988 to present day. Of course they are friends and there is that unspoken love between them that they never act on.

Like I said the movie starts out well but towards the middle I realized something. I realized that Emma and Dexter are better as friends and that I didn't really like Dexter. Emma is too good for him and Emma winds up with a wannabe stand up comedian as a boyfriend and of course she doesn't really love him. I just don't understand that a sweet and beautiful and smart woman like Emma can't be given a really great guy to be with in the story. Of course that is done on purpose so Emma and Dexter can be together and that is what I didn't want to see. It also doesn't help that as each year progresses I felt the movie skipping ahead too soon.

Jim Strurgess is very good here but his character is really a jerk and he stays that way even when the movie starts to make him sweet. When a certain series of events and tragedies happen to Dexter I still felt that he was a cold person. I didn't believe he was changing even when a huge tragedy happens and when he is given a family. Critics are blasting Anne Hathaway about her British accent. It is not a perfect accent but Hathaway is so radiant, graceful and charming here I didn't mind. I like Hathaway's performance and the way she lights up the screen but that and her character are the only good thing going here.

P.S. There is an older movie with the same gimmick that is much better than "One Day" and that is 1978's "Same Time Next Year" with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. Also better movies like "One Day" are "Rachel at the Wedding" with Hathaway and "Love, Actually". Also with the right romantic vehicle for Hathaway (which she hasn't been given yet) she could be as graceful and radiant as a young Audrey Hepburn. That is a huge compliment from me because Hepburn is my all time favorite actress.