Delayed Reaction: One Day

The Pitch: The relationship between a woman (Anne Hathaway) and a man (Jim Sturgess) told by checking in on them on July 15th from 1988 to 2006.

There's an idea I've mused about in the past about how there are certain movies that pair with other movies specifically because one makes you appreciate the other even more. I believe I first discussed this after seeing Lock Up. That movie made me appreciate The Shawshank Redemption even more by reminding me of everything that could've gone wrong in the film. While not as perfect a match as those two movies, I feel that way about One Day and About Time. Both tell the story of a relationship over a long period of time. They have a charming British man and a likable American actress (who is the real reason I was attracted to each movie). The men deal with the death of a parent. The women work in publishing in different capacities. Basically, both films are about time travel and the mistakes you need to make to appreciate what you have.

Only, One Day doesn't pull it off. All the years of check-ins are supposed to have a cumulative effect at the end, but it never gains enough momentum to do achieve that. I spent my One Big Leap accepting that so many important things would happen on July 15th each year and even then, it really overtaxed the rule. The arc of each character's success and failure was way too familiar as a structure and didn't go anywhere unexpected. The only place the movie zigged when I expected it to zag was when it killed off Anne Hathaway. Much of that surprise was due to the brutal method (major Meet Joe Black flashbacks). Thematically, it was a textbook tragedy to have in a romantic movie. All this troublesome plotting could be forgiven though. As much as I like to credit About Time for finding a lot of ways to surprise me, it is actually quite traditionally structured. What held One Day back was that I didn't like the two lead characters together. For Jim Sturgess to get away with being such a dick for so much of the movie, his chemistry with Anne Hathawaty needed to be off the charts and it wasn't. Perhaps if Hathaway wasn't so concerned with reeling in her wandering accent* they could've been a bit more natural together.

*Look, I'm not one to be the "accent police" very often. Most of the time, I don't even notice a bad accent. That said, I don't think it's crazy to suggest that an actor not having to worry about an accent can free up his/her performance some.

For nearly everything I can say about One Day, I end up thinking of a direct About Time comparison that is better. In almost every way, what About Time opted to do was better. I'm not saying One Day was horrible. It's clever enough and has some really charming moments. Hathaway and Sturgess aren't bad. They just have characters who are duds and don't work together as the movie requires.

Going back to my original point, now that I've seen One Day, I can see all the pitfalls that About Time narrowly avoided. It's similar to how people say that it's better to remake a bad movie with good ideas than to remake a movie that's already great. I can see the pieces of the same movie in both One Day and About Time. Because of that, One Day makes it easier to appreciate the smaller things that About Time so well.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend