Since I watched One Day on Netflix over the weekend, I’ve been completely infatuated with the story. My TikTok page is consumed by One Day videos and each time I see one, I yearn to go back to their story. Rather than rewatch the show so soon, I decided to watch the film with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
I don’t want to solely draw comparisons between the show and the movie, but because I loved the show as much as I did, I’m having a little bit of trouble not comparing the two.
Like the Netflix series, the film follows Emma and Dexter and their relationship after spending graduation night together. The story spans twenty years, so we’re able to see tremendous growth between both characters as they navigate the highs and lows of their intertwined lives.
Emma and Dexter meet on July 15th and the story is structured so that we see what the characters are doing on July 15th of each following year. While I think this is an incredibly unique way of telling a story, I don’t know if I believe that it works for a film.
It works very well for a novel where each chapter can be a different day and similarly, it works for a tv series where each episode can show us a different day. For a film though, I think the story has to move too quickly to stay within the time constraints of a movie and it creates a disconnect between viewer and character that I didn’t feel while watching the show.
The structure of the story already makes you feel like you need to fill in the blanks at some points, so I dislike how each day in the film passes by so quickly. I don’t feel too much of a connection to the characters and I feel like we miss so much of their story. Even graduation night, which I would have guessed would take up a good bit of the movie, didn’t last too long and it left me wondering why the pair would remain so close after that one night.
I do appreciate how they movie opened – with Emma on her bike – and then we return back to this scene later in the movie just moments before her accident. I thought this was a very creative way of bringing the movie full circle, but Emma’s accident felt way too gruesome for me though. I am not easily grossed out by blood or anything, but this scene felt gruesome because of the sheer brutality of it. I felt almost like the accident was included for the shock value rather than the emotional value and to move along the story.
Overall, I would not recommend this movie. I’m not sure if it’s because I loved the series so much that I’m being overly critical of the film, but I was just never able to get invested in the film and really connect with the characters like I think was necessary for their story.
If you’re interested in the movie though, I’ve linked the trailer below!
Anchored Musings 