One Day (2011)

We wanted to see this because we love Anne Hathaway. We didn't hate it, and we liked her in this story of English chums and their relationship told over twenty-two July 15th's, starting with their graduation from Edinburgh University in 1988. The cinematography by Benoît Delhomme (The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, more) is gorgeous, as are the locations.

Directed by Lone Scherfig (I wrote about her in An Education) from a script which David Nicholls adapted from his own novel of the same name, it's a little flat and I'm tempted to advise Nicholls to stick to books, but now I see he adapted Blake Morrison's novel into When Did You Last See Your Father (2007), which starred Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent and was good. I wrote about my favorite Hathaway performances in Alice in Wonderland, and then I was less than kind about Love and Other Drugs, which I like better in retrospect. Jim Sturgess was good in 21 (2008) and okay in Across the Universe (2007), which was really about the music, and I haven't seen him in anything else. He and Hathaway seem to lack the chemistry necessary to pull off the evolving relationship between Emma and Dexter.

Rafe Spall (son of prolific actor Timothy), on the other hand, is full of life and awkwardness as Ian the "comedian", and I wished he'd had more screen time, as I did for Patricia Clarkson (profiled in both Whatever Works and Shutter Island) who plays Dexter's mother.

There are lots of fashion faux pas taking us through the passage of years (and trying to make Hathaway look less than the beauty she is) but the time changes are better observed with the songs, listed here, despite a romantic soundtrack by Rachel Portman (discussed in Never Let Me Go), for which I can find no clips. You'll have to be satisfied with the theme played in the locations video link above.

Ninth at the box office last weekend, critics have rated it 34%, audiences 69% on rottentomatoes. Though I regret saying it about Love and Other Drugs, this one can wait until you've seen the others on your list. Or wait for cable. Don't bother on a plane, as you'll miss the beautiful pictures.