A plain and shy girl and an arrogant charmer hook up on July 15th, 1988, the day of their college graduation and we are shown that day every year over the course of twenty plus years to revisit their relationship. "One Day" is a lifeless, lazy, and shameless film which contains unbearable acting, unlikable characters, and easy plotting. It's directed by Lone Scherfig who made the well realized "An Education" and here is failed by the screenplay (written by David Nicholls, author of the book) and only succeeds in employing pleasant production values. Anne Hathaway's British accent comes and goes and her performance is paltry to boot, same goes for Patricia Clarkson playing Jim Sturgess' mother, and he is just as putrid as well! The characters and the relationships are so poorly drawn that the relationship between Hathaway and her nerd husband played by Rafe Spall, which is supposed to be bland and ungainly, ends up being more compelling then the one between her and Sturgess. The filmmakers here are trying to convey that crazy kind of love that knows no rationality, but it's not that crazy inexplicable kind of love. It's the screenwriters were two lazy to invest in their characters so they employed a cheap gimmicky screenplay kind of love.
