Entertainment For Lively Minds
One Day wrecked. Probably.
The trailer for the celluloid version of One Day is AWFUL (as pointed out by the Guardian yesterday).
Not only does it give half the plot away (though not THAT bit, thank goodness), it gives the impression that the film is nothing more than a humdrum romcom. Add to that a somewhat dubious accent from Anne Hathaway, and it looks like it could be yet another book ruined by the movies. Or to be more charitable (and ridiculously optimistic) a good film let down by a dreadful trailer.
Anyway, the trailer's below but a warning for anyone who intends to read the book (or, indeed, watch the film): Here Be Spoilers.
As an aside, I'd really recommend the book to anyone who hasn't yet enjoyed it - an absolute pleasure to read and perfect for your hols.
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I'd heard about Anne Hathaway..
..it should have been Julia Sawalha. Bah.
No point speculating and I do share your fears
but we'll have to wait and see for ourselves. Who knows, it might be watchable.
Shame
That looks absolutely dreadful.
I won't even watch the trailer.
I love that book, and I won't have it ruined, which it will be. If the film is anything less than a masterpiece, it'll be a disappointment, and since it clearly will be less than a masterpiece, I'll just do without the disappointment and avoid it completely.
Movies...
Oh dear god no.
That really is awful. Rebecca Hall! We need you to step in urgently.
It surely...
...should've been a McAvoy/Hall shoe-in again, shouldn't it?
This is correct in every way.
The thing is though, Starter For Ten was great, but I guess it wasn't really a hit. Perhaps Maxine Peake (can she play younger?) or an unknown version of her?
Yeah, but...
...James McAvoy's Hollywood profile has gone through the roof since SfT was made, and Rebecca Hall (aka literally the sexiest woman ever to draw breath) has gone on to bigger things too. So I reckon it would've sold.
Anne flippin' Hathaway, I ask you. I can't imagine anyone less Emma-like. Jim Sturgess looks reasonably Dexish, but McAvoy can play *anything* brilliantly.
I'm not touching this shower of shite with a ten foot pole.
Slight dissenting voice
That trailer is pretty much exactly how I imagined the book as I read it: very enjoyably frothy stuff (apart from MAJOR SPOILER BIT THAT I WON"T MENTION of course]
Agree
I devoured the book in a few sittings, loved it and practically forced MissusMate to read it. A very good story, well assembled, delightfully told and peppered with perfect and cannily placed cultural touchstones to hook a very specific (ahem) demographic.
Not many books translate well to film (and that thread's probably been done to death) but based on this trailer, I think it could have been a lot, lot worse.
"Cannily placed cultural touchstones"
One of the things I liked about the book was exactly this - the cultural references were subtle and absorbing. Where a lesser author might have weighed heavily on the 'remember this?' angle, Nicholls managed to set the scene with (for example) an offhand 'Is that a "Rachel?"' comment, casually reminding readers of the brief obsession with Jennifer Aniston's haircut without labouring the point.
I remember reading the parts set in the britpop years and thinking how cleverly evoked it was without once resorting to cliche. I imagine a poor film version would stick Oasis and Blur on the soundtrack and have Ocean Colour Scene on the telly in one scene; perhaps one of the characters would get out of bed to Wake Up Boo. Actually, maybe that won't happen here if the film's aimed at an American market - is that too UK-centric?
"Cannily placed cultural touchstones" a good thing
I meant it as a compliment. Too often we're forced to make our way through location or era setting references dropped subtly as manhole covers around us.
Rising to the bait (one expects no less) I am, on the one hand, unsure it's aimed at the American market. That voiceover guy (of whom I do an uncanny impersonation) gets tons of work. On the other hand, isn't every movie (and indeed, many films) ultimately aimed at the American market?
No baiting intended
I think targeting the US is inevitable, especially for this kind of film. Though not necessarily desirable - films like Shaun of the Dead managed to succeed there (to some degree) without sacrificing anything. I hope One Day does too, though the trailer clearly intends to hit the romcom market, regardless of which country it's in. Perhaps the book actually *is* a romcom, and I'm just in denial? I can see how you could market it as such...
Also - I realise you meant the 'touchstones' remark as a good thing. I was agreeing with you! (agreement? on the internet? what???)
I'd start apologising for the mis-read
but that would probably kick off a whole thing that's already been done. And that would lead to new posts being started and who knows where it may end.
With a goat,
probably.
I know nothing
of the book or the film, although it sounds *exactly* like the story in the film Same Time, Next Year from 1978. Now that IS a great film, with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078199/
Not to be confused with "1 Day"
A superbly bleak portrayal of gang violence and con-artistry in Birmingham, with rapping.
I saw the trailer
and my heart lurched. As sharply-observed, subtle and nuanced as the book was, the film seems shallow, prattish and horribly bland. And Anne Hathaway - WTF?? The character Emma is a dour, sensitive, conflicted, ambitious, insecure, kind-hearted, unglamorous Northern girl. They may as well have casted Nic Cage and be done with it.
Nic Cage and Megan Fox
ARE Dex and Em!
In...
Michael Bay's
One Day!
Doubt about the book (spoilers)
I've just finished the book and I enjoyed it apart from one major nagging doubt.
I liked the characters and the way David Nicholls captured them in a few sentences. I enjoyed the descriptions of cities and homes and the day-in-a-year structure which made every chapter a bit of a cliffhanger because I was dying to find out what had changed (or not changed) in a year. And I liked the way he captured twenty-something 'What am I going to do with my life?' angst.
But I never believed Emma and Dexter would be long term friends or lovers, let alone soulmates.
He's a shallow, selfish, vain, pretty boy, with no apparent morals, beliefs or sense of humour.
She's funny, awkward, creative, lacking in self confidence, bit of a lefty. They don't even seem to have the same music taste!
Emma had a crush on Dexter at uni, he went to bed with her and tried to sneak out. A year later she's writing him long passionate letters. I couldn't quite believe things would move on in this way, even after I'd read about the 'morning after'.
Dexter only needs Emma when he's hit rock bottom. She carries a bit of a torch for him because of her lack of self confidence. Surely she'd see through him by the time she's become successful?
My wife reckons Dexter didn't like the way he was in his twenties but I'm not convinced - the relationship between Em and Dex just didn't ring true with me. I thought they would have lost touch by the time they're 30 at the most.
Romcoms and the nature of chick lit.
I loved One Day. And delighted to find so many of my friends loved it too, both men and women.
One thing that I always quietly wondered... if One Day had been written by a woman, would it have been so widely read? Hang on, let me explain that, it's not because I think men are closed-minded to books written by women (I don't think that at all), more that I suspect it would have been marketed purely as chick lit and wouldn't have had such a wide cross-over.
Because, on paper, I think One Day sounds quite stereotypically chick-litty, surely? Man and woman, best pals, will they-won't they, various obstacles (won't go into more plot details, don't want to spoil it for anyone). Yes, it's brilliantly written and plotted, however there are a number of great female authors out there (like Marian Keyes) who also write intelligent books which then get packaged in chick-lit pretty pastels with shoes and shopping bags on the cover*.
However, they appear to be marketing One Day the film as a chick-flick romcom. Which I find quite interesting.
Anyway. Does that sound like a rant? It's not meant to be a rant. I'm in a very good mood, and I just had a delicious sandwich. I'm rambling now.
*NB: there is, obviously, also an enormous amount of horse-shit chick-lit out there too, don't get me wrong.
Different marketing
If One Day had been written by a woman it certainly would have been marketed differently. Hodder (or any other large-ish house) may have gone to paperback a lot more quickly. This doesn't have the same connotations of films going to video quickly, it's rather a means to reach mass audience faster.
Would it have been as widely read is a good question. Given that female book readers far outnumber male and they read more books per year, it may actually have done considerably better.
I am actually a man who has read...
... not only Brigitte Jones Diary but also Looking For Andrew McCarthy by Jenny Colgan.
But not in public obviously. I'd hate to get beaten up by a fey eighties indie popster.
The basic problem is there is an audience for "shit rom com" and if you cover a book with hearts, flowers etc, it will sell to them. The advantage is money comes in, the disadvantage is that good work which deserves a larger audience might not get beyond the ready built one.
You can see the cinematic equivalent of this every time Katherine Heigl has a new film out. Wedding dresses, hearts, flowers all tend to feature in the posters. The words "You wont like this Mr Ganglesprocket, move along" might as well feature.
So you are correct, because One Day was written by a man, a well done romantic comedy (and it is funny and romantic) was marketed slightly differently and was lucky enough to take off and strike a chord.
But if I was Marion Keyes, I'm not sure I'd be that bothered. More women than men read fiction as a whole and commercial success isn't to be sniffed at by any means. If I were a writer give me sales over acclaim anytime.
I think I've managed to isolate her accents
0:13 - Rebecca Hall.
0:17 - Generic Sheffield.
0:22 - Paltrow doing Bridget.
0:30 - Andrea Corr.
0:36 - Dunno. Caron Keating?
0:40 - Somewhere South of Carlisle, I think.
0:50 - Angela's Ashes.
0:55 - Hathaway's actual accent.
1:20-1:28 - Paltrow again.
1:30 - Hathaway's actual accent.
1:34 - Nicole Kidman
1:40-1:47 - Andrea Corr again.
1:59 - Generic Sheffield.
2:23 - Carey Mulligan.
In short:
Russell Crowe as Robin Hood.
But played as a girl.
Mark Ellen and I fell out badly over the book
He loved it.
I *hated* it.
I'm right of course.
You two...
...remind me of Blair and Brown sometimes. Although that's probably because I'm reading Andrew Rawnsley at the moment.
;-)
Which one's which
I wonder?
You are so wrong
...that I expect you to start an apology thread - nay, a website - forthwith.
Putdownable
This is one of only 2 or 3 books that I paid for and then decided to stop reading unfinished.
My inner miser means I usually slog it out.
I'm kind of with Olthwaite.
I thought the period detail was laid on with a trowel and the simplistic characters forced where the plot was determined to take them.
Sorry to rain on anyone's parade. Takes all sorts
I didn't think the trailer looked THAT bad
And in fairness, they could've cast worse - she ok as Jane Austen.
The pity's that they had to have an international star 'cause Jodie Whittaker ('Venus', various stuff on TV) would've been great.
Looking Jodie W up on imdb
Seems she's in the film after all! But as 'Tilly', not Emma. (Who was Tilly?)
Jodie W is in the forthcoming Attack the Block
Which I'm delighted to report is absolutely fantastic.