One Day (Blu-ray)

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Rating: PG-13

Starring:
Anne Hathaway as Emma
Jim Sturgess as Dexter
Tom Mison as Callum
Jodie Whittaker as Tilly
Rafe Spall as Ian
Patricia Clarkson as Alison
Ken Stott as Steven
Joséphine de La Baume as Marie
Heida Reed as Ingrid
Amanda Fairbank-Hynes as Tara
Gil Alma as Waiter

Directed by Lone Scherfig

Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Em and Dex, Through the Years
Anne Hathaway: Bringing Emma to Life
The Look of One Day
Feature Commentary with Director Lone Scherfig

Other Info:
Widescreen (2.35:1)
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Sound
French and Spanish Language
French and Spanish Subtitles
Running Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes

The Details:
The following is the official description of the film:

“After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their college graduation – Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess) begin a friendship that lasts a lifetime. She’s a working-class girl who dreams of making the world a better place. He’s a wealthy charmer who thinks the world is his playground. Somewhere over the next two decades, these two very different people realize that the love they’ve been hoping for has been there for them all along. Directed by Lone Scherfig (‘An Education’) and based on the bestselling novel by David Nicholls.”

“One Day” is rated PG-13 for sexual content, partial nudity, language, some violence and substance abuse.

Mini-Review:
While I wasn’t familiar with the original novel by David Nicholls, I was willing to give “One Day” a try. And as the movie progressed, I found myself actually enjoying it. The idea of revisiting two characters on one day each year was a clever way to tell a story. Over a period of 20+ years, we see them grow as people, we seem them drift closer together and farther apart, and we see them mature from idealistic kids to seasoned adults. And their story was funny, too. The “opposites attract” theme offers a lot of amusing conflicts. We see Dexter as a cheesy television host. We see Emma as a failed writer turned Mexican food waitress. Overall it was funny and romantic while being utterly predictable… up until a point.

Then the movie takes a dramatic, dark, and shocking turn. It comes out of nowhere and turns the film from a light romantic comedy to a dark tear jerker. Unless you’re on board for that shift in tone, then, like with me, the story will lose you. It pretty much ruined the movie for me.

I wasn’t sure about Anne Hathaway’s British accent at first, but I eventually got over it. She has pretty good chemistry with Jim Sturgess as Dexter. And the way they aged the two twenty years through the film was pretty impressive (though they really needed a few more pounds). Hathaway has proven herself capable of playing the ugly duckling before and she does so here again.

I can’t say if fans of the book will be happy with this, but I can say if there are fans of romantic tearjerkers out there, then “One Day” should please them. Fans of Anne Hathaway should be pleased, too. But if you’re looking for lighter fare, I recommend you pass on this one.

The bonus features on this Blu-ray are surprisingly light. Each of the three are less than 5 minutes long. They’re like online promotional videos, not real insights into the making of the film. You’ll also find some deleted scenes and a commentary by the director.