One Day

Twenty years…two people. Directed by Lone Scherfig (director of “An Education,” Academy Award-nominated for Best Picture), the motion picture “One Day” is adapted for the screen by David Nicholls from his beloved bestselling novel One Day. After one day together – July 15th, 1988, their college graduation – Emma Morley (Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess of “Across the Universe”) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground. For the next two decades, key moments of their relationship are experienced over several July 15ths in their lives. Together and apart, we see Dex and Em through their friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears.

Dove Review

The movie opens with a date of July 15, 1988, and continues to update on that same day and month, July 15, until finally we finish at July 15, 2011. A lot happens in between to both Emma Morley (Anne Hathaway) and her best friend, sometimes lover, Dex Mayhew (Jim Sturgess). She is the steady one of the two, consistent in her life as she teaches school while harboring dreams of being a writer. Dex hosts a raunchy TV show and is seldom sober. He goes through several relationships while Emma lives for years with a man named Ian, whom she later admits “I don’t really love”. She carries the torch for Dex but there seems to be hope for him as he always turns to Emma when his life goes south.

Despite a few good themes like living a life which touches others, and being the best one can be, the movie is definitely not a family film as it features a few scenes of nudity and strong language to boot, in addition to drug use, strong sexual content and a graphic scene of a woman on a bike hit by a truck. Our Dove Seal can’t be affixed to this one.

Dove Rating Details

Faith

None

Integrity

A woman is seen riding a bicycle and she is suddenly struck by a truck and it is graphic and realistic; a character unintentionally whacks his girlfriend during a game involving a blindfold and her nose bleeds; a man is injured and has bloody face.

Sex

Unmarried couples have sex but it is not graphic; frank sexual comments and innuendos are included in the film; a comment about a shotgun wedding as a man gets his girlfriend pregnant; a woman wraps her legs around a man in one scene; passionate kissing; a man says the word "sex" several times in a row.

Language

F-1; D-1; H-1; G/OMG-7; Slang term for sex-3; Slang term for male genitalia-1; Bollocks-1; Wa*ker-1; Bloody-2

Violence

Drugs

A character uses cocaine and drinks throughout the film and is often drunk; several drinking scenes including beer and wine; a character suggests someone gets a bottle of tequila; a comment about a dry martini is made.

Nudity

Rear male and female nudity; side of woman's breast is seen; nude beach which shows people nude from behind and the side; a man and woman jump into water nude but it is from a distance and dark and the woman covers her breasts as she dives in; cleavage; women in short shorts; shirtless men.

Other

A character's mother dies from cancer; grief; in a jump scene another character is hit on a bike by a truck and dies; a flatulence comment.

More Information

Film Information

Genre

Comedy

Runtime

108

Rating

N/A

Reviewer

Edwin L. Carpenter

Actors

Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson

Writers

David Nicholls

Directors

Lone Scherfig

Producers

Nina Jacobson

Studios

Focus Features