Movie Monday - One Day

I'd really been wanting to see "One Day" when it was out in the theaters. There was just something about it that drew me in. Perhaps it's just that I really like Anne Hathaway in movies, but I think it's more than that. I liked the premise that the movie is looking at two people on one day each year over the course of their friendship. And it finally showed up in the mail via Netflix, and I had my time with it on Saturday morning.

As I've mentioned, the premise is that Emma and Dexter (who had met before - although Dexter doesn't remember that) run into each other on the 15th of July 1988 as they're graduating from University. They have a rather bumpy St. Swithun's day together - which we see snippets of - and thus begins the 20-odd years of their days together.

For anyone who was in college in the late 80s, this movie nails so many things perfectly. The clothing. The music. The causes. Even the minutiae of the books they're reading is dead on. And, unfortunately, so is the way the movie captures the passage of time and friendship over decades.

One of the amazing things about the movie is the way we're only shown one specific day of each year. Not always a day when they're both together. Not always a day when anything terribly monumental happens. Just days. Of course, to make it as a movie, there are a remarkable number of things which - coincidentally - happen to fall on July 15th, but not so many that you find yourself doubting the premise. And we're left to fill in the other 364 days.

And they stick to the premise really well - much better than I had expected at the start.

They move ever-forward throughout the movie, never spending more than the allotted 24 hours in any given year. And, wow, the Costume and Make-up people really deserved tons of awards (although I don't believe they were nominated for any), because at no time did we doubt the ages of Emma and Dexter. They grew from their early 20s through the next 20-some years (the movie ends in, basically, the present day) without missing a beat. And, yes, due to the fact that I am - in essence - just one year younger than they are, I have a decent frame of reference.

Overall: A. It's not an A+ because... well... it just isn't. But it's so earnest and true and real and quiet and hopeful and sad and joyous that it made me wish for just a few days more. Granted, I don't know if I would feel that way if I hadn't graduated from college in 1989, so don't hate me if you think I'm wrong on this one.