movies: one day

I'll admit that until I went looking through the list of movies playing today, I actually hadn't heard of One Day.

But it had Anne Hathaway in it, and I tend to like her in things... so we went with it.

It turned out to be a good choice.

The tag line of the movie pretty much sums it up... two people, twenty years. But only ever on August 15... that's the only window we have into their lives, that one day. Which, given that the movie is 107 minutes long, averages out to a new day (helpful indicated by on screen graphics) about every 5 minutes.

It doesn't sound like a lot, but the movie manages to give you just enough at each stop (it's also amazing the number of substantial events that seem to happen on that particular day each year) to let you know where both characters are at.

And it does an amazing job capturing each time period, both with the fashions of the day, as well as the use of particular "tent pole" songs that give an instant nostalgia hit.

It's also helped by the strong performances of the two leads, the aforementioned Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

Other than the story hook of "every August 15" there really isn't that much story going on here... but it's not really a movie that needs a grand plot, it's about the relationship between the two of them at the end of the day.

On the down side, Hathaway's accent is occasionally a little questionable... and there are certain moments which are predictable, including the ending. And in a lot of ways it does feel like a story we've seen before (which probably accounts for the predictability), or at least seen very similar types of stories.

But it's still very watchable.

yani's rating: 3 August Fifteenths out of 5