Quite some time ago I wrote a review on the book “One Day” by David Nicholls. Then I heard there was to be a film adaptation of the story with Jim Sturgess as “Dexter” and Anne Hathaway as “Emma” and I watched it this weekend.
The script was also written by David Nicholls and I love the fact that he stayed really close to his story. Just like the book we hop from one 15th of July to the next and grow up with Emma and stay an adolescent with Dex. Dex loves Emma (as a friend – or so he thinks) and Emma loves Dex (as more than a friend) and hates him at the same time.
He wants to make it big in showbiz and she wants to be a writer. Emma, however, lacks the self-confidence that is needed to write something and publish it and that’s why she first gets stuck in a job as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant. Dex, meanwhile, is living it up with a multitude of girlfriends, which Emma looks on sadly. It never seems the right moment for them and when it eventually is the right moment they find happiness together (despite a major setback during their relationship).
I must confess I didn’t remember the way the story ended when I was watching the film, and I think that it must have had something to do with the fact that I think the ending is not really that important. It was their journey that got to me. However, because I didn’t remember the ending, I was surprised by some of the events and especially by one in particular at which a gasped, developed goose bumps and cried.
I know it’s a romance and most people will call it a chick-flick, but I loved it. For me, the best scene was one of the last ones in which Dex is eating in front of the TV with his dad.
Dad: “So, is this going to be an annual festival, you think? Every year, fifteenth of July?”
Dex: “Well, I- I hope not.”
Dad: “I don’t want a heart-to-heart. Do you?”
Dex: “Ah, no, no, I’d rather not.”
Dad: “Except to say that I think the best thing that you could do… would be to try to live your life as if Emma was still here. Don’t you?”
Dex: “I don’t know if I can.”
Dad: “Of course you can. What do you think I’ve been doing for the past ten years?”
