One Day...I might learn to love One Day

(Images sourced from weheartit.com)

Given my trade what I’m about to say may come as a surprise – I’ve never read ‘the greats’. You know the classic novels, your Jane Austin, your Shakespeare, your Bronte. And the same goes for those so good they were recreated as films. Harry Potter, The Notebook, Lord of the Rings. And sure enough the latest must-read fiction book has yet to replace my beloved ELLE reads – One Day.

Perhaps in this instance I’m more of a film lover than a reader as for each and every classic read, I have watched the movie version. One Day as I mentioned last week is my latest film conquest and here’s what I thought...(if at this point you wish not to know anything about the film One Day as you are yet to see it, please look away...now)

To start bluntly, I didn’t like it :( I’m such a romantic, girly, chick-flick lover and couldn’t wait to see what has been described as “a great romantic novel” on the big screen but I was quite disappointed. I found it slow, frustrating and a little dull. I like a feel-good, happy ending and One Day didn’t have the finale that I had hoped for (I realise this breaks the predictable “and they all lived happily ever after” ending that most films live by, but I’m quite accustomed to this and don’t like change!).

Except for watching the ‘friends’ grow apart, change into two people with completely different lifestyles and then form a relationship that wasn’t quite fitting, there wasn’t too much going on plot-wise. Each 15th July that came around you would scream at the screen for them to get together, to make that over-friendly hug a kiss, or to shut Dexter up before he puts his foot in it yet again! To me they both progressed separately to a point where even friendship would have been unlikely if it hadn’t been for the fact this was a Hollywood movie.

And then once a couple, I couldn’t help but think a guy like Dexter wouldn’t choose a girl like Emma and vice versa. I believed in their love enough for the ‘event’ to have an effect on me, leaving me reeling for their future plans, saddened and shocked. But that loss only heightened my dislike for the film as the frustration from them being apart had finally been relieved, only for that to go and happen!

Aside from me loudly dropping my bag and all the contents spilling down the aisle, the cinema screen was deadly silent as the credits rolled and I could feel a sense of disappointment hanging in the air. Whereas an hour and fifty minutes ago, everyone was excited to have front row seats to this year’s greatest love story, by the end I got the feeling that we would all have been happier staying in and watching When Harry Met Sally. Or even Beauty and the Beast!

From reviews and raves over David Nicholls’ book I presume (and only hope) that the original is more fulfilling, entertaining and compelling than Scherfig’s movie. Perhaps this is where my habit will be broken and I will revert to reading the novel in a bid to believe that One Day is truly a great love story.