One Day: a review

My friend and I spent most of this film laughing, but I still couldn't tell you if it was a comedy or not. The basic premise of the film is a nice idea, more than a good plot. The film takes place over July 15th, of the two main characters from 1988 to 2011. It gives brief snapshots of the characters lives and builds them slowly, compared with most films in the genre. It was a smart film too, because it knew exactly what it is: a generic romantic comedy, yet instead of attempting to something new or different with the plot, it kept its standard story, basically it was predictable. Despite this, the film was super funny, it kept me laughing all the way through, partly because it was predictable, but mostly because of how the characters handled that predictability. They were surprising. You watched Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) banter playfully one second, then yelling at each other in the next scene.

It was a little fast-paced in terms of plot development, but the slow character development balanced this out. Since Emma and Dexter are really the only characters you see throughout the whole film which almost show cases their relationship before character development. Most of the other characters don't really get a chance to develop properly because of this pinhole effect of the plot. I love movies that play with time and place in interesting ways so this film really appealed to me, but as I watched it, i couldn't help but wonder what was going on in between the July 15th's.... Although it would have been less realistic, it would have been nice to get more of a summary of that time from the characters themselves, just so we knew where they stood.

The film also surprised me because it flowed surprisingly well. There were a couple of jumps where you questioned the movement of time, but the scenes would quickly explain themselves to even things out. The characters were also smart and funny, I didn't find them boring at all, even though they were acting out such a generic story. There were a few moments which surprised me and lots of funny moments, I this is wrong and I should have come up with an answer for you, but I haven't. I still couldn't tell if you the humour in this movie was intentional or not. I think it must have been just because the rest of the film was so carefully crafted, yet somehow strange and expected, at the same time. It did have a artificial feel too it, but then I think the director may have intended it that way, they didn't want you to forget it wasn't real. The ending was probably one of my least favourite parts, because it was just so cheesy and cliché. You think I would have expected this after the rest of the movie, but I was surprised and felt like it should of had something a little better. There were some good lines throughout it though, such as Emma saying "I'm not lonely, I'm alone" and when Ian (Emma's ex) goes to visit Dexter he (at the end of the movie) tells him that Emma made him decent and she made her happy.

In all seriousness if you go see this film and have the wrong perspective or expect it to be a boring romantic comedy, it probably will be. If you go see it not knowing what to expect (like I did) or expecting it to be amusing it will probably be much better. Don't take this film to seriously and it will be more enjoyable.