One Day

It was Eleri and I's anniversary the other day and so we decided to go to the cinema together but there was nothing on really so we waited a week and there was still nothing on so we went to see One Day, which Eleri had already managed to see once. My scepticism about whether I would enjoy it was only heightened when I saw that 85% of the audience were women. The trailer suggested that it was just a typical romance but Eleri assured me it wasn't quite and she was right.

The Bible tells us that a in God's sight a day is a thousand  years and a thousand years a day. This film, based on a highly praised novel by David Nichols, takes that idea up and rather more modestly takes the premise that a day is like 23 years and 23 years like a day. The day in question is St Swithins day, 1988, and what happened to two people in their early twenties on that day bookends a 23 year story that is mostly pretty predictable but has some less obvious twists and turns. What you get on the way is a cursory consideration of changes in technology and fashion between 1988 and today (done quite subtly on the whole - if only they could have resisted having the female lead scoff at the idea of owning a mobile phone) and a modern take on what really matters in relationships and life.

The piece was fairly well done though one or two plot devices seemed, to me at least, rather jejeune. (I also couldn't understand why nothing was made of the St Swithins connection or was I missing something?) I enjoyed watching it I guess but not what it was saying. It made assumptions about the nature of relationships, of success and about what the purpose of life is that I would totally reject. I also spotted chauvinism (the way the female lead is put on a pedestal is ultimately chauvinistic and juvenile), product placement (the white earphones near the end), the predominance of stereotype over real characters and the blatant presentation of a clearly stunning actress as every woman. There was also I fear a typically modern and shallow obsession with the sexual act. Whenever it got close to questions of morality it quickly shied away and avoided spiritual questions like the plague.

Oh yeah, people complained about Anne Hathaway's poor and fluctuating Yorkshire accent but the real problem is the complete lack of insight into the class divide that the film seems to possess. I've not read the book but I would guess that the huge class divide between the two main characters could have been explored well by someone who understood what that is all about.

As with most modern films there were brief problems with language and flesh that anyone going to see it should at least be aware of. So go see it if you have the chance. I'd love to talk about it with someone.