One Day [2011]

I think it’s safe to say that so far, Anne Hathaway has proved she can play a princess, a businesswoman, a drug addict, a parkinson’s disease patient…hell she can even play Jane Austen. The question is: can she do an English accent? The answer would be no no no. I know this shouldn’t really bother me, since the movie is not as bad as some might say. I even tried to ignore it at some point, but I just couldn’t. “One Day” is clearly a movie that needed a couple of real British actors to make it work. The main character, Emma, is supposed to be a Yorkshire lass. Sometimes Hathaway attempts to sound like one, not very successfully. Another problem is that we don’t really know these characters enough to care for their problems. I’ll explain: the movie follows the ups and downs of two people, Emma and Dexter, over a period of twenty years, always on the same day, July 15. So basically, when we first meet them on July 15 1988, they’re both college graduates. Next time we see them, it’s already July 15 1989. And so on and so forth. What happened in between? We don’t really know. That said, the movie still offers some solid emotional moments, especially towards the end. But any movie in the hands of Danish director Lone Sherfig (who did a great job with “An Education” a couple of years ago) should have a better structure, or at least a more suitable actress in the lead. I admire Anne Hathaway, but “One Day” just isn’t her best moment.

Rating: 2/4