When their kids miss the boat for a school trip, single parents Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer), a career minded architect, and Jack Taylor (George Clooney), a laid back tabloid journalist, are forced to join forces despite an initial loathing of each other. With both facing a catastrophe at work, they take it in turns to supervise their children and as the day progresses their initial frostiness melts and a surprising romance starts to blossom.
►►► Opinion
Sometimes when you watch a film, especially one in the romantic/ comedy genre, you get a distinct feeling that they are made following a predefined list of 'must haves' which unless strictly adhered to will spell doom for the film, a sort of painting by numbers approach to film making. As is the case with "One Fine Day" a film which is filled with these 'must haves' from attractive leads, to cute kids, button pushing scenes and most annoyingly a truly predictable plot. But what in my opinion saves "One Fine Day" from being just another run of the mill romantic/ comedy is that the story is set over the period of just one day making the film feel snappy.
The main theme behind the film is nothing more than your predictable man meets woman, the initially detest each other but over time they realize that their initial misconceptions of who each other are dissolves to allow for a completely predictable yet unlikely romance. But whilst this may be the underlying theme most of the enjoyment comes from watching the slightly exaggerated issues that each of them suffer when
they take it in turns to look after the children. Scenes such as when Melanie's son gets a marble stuck up his nose, or when Jack's daughter goes walking off to play with some cute kittens and my favourite which sees Melanie manage to dress up the two children as super heroes with just the contents of the bag really do bring a smile to your face. But to be honest, after a while these sorts of scenes do become tiresome because as soon as one crisis is over another one starts, which although slightly realistic I doubt that any parent would go through the amount of problems that these two encounter in just one day.
Where the film is a bit hit and miss is in the romance stakes, as whilst the initial loathing of each other is handled brilliantly and their arguing is actually very funny. The actual romance seems to have been over looked and whilst you can definitely see their attitudes to each other change over the duration of the film it never really culminates in a satisfactory romantic climax. Maybe the writers were trying to be clever by attempting to demonstrate that two single parents don't have any proper time for real romance, but whatever the reason the film is seriously let down by this lack of romance. Where the film does score high marks is by making all this happen in just one day. Although at times the events and issues are hugely exaggerated, this time frame really does make the film zip along at a real good pace not allowing you time to realize how preposterous some of the set ups really are. The other area where the film manages to score higher than many others in the same genre is within the dialogue. The majority of the dialogue is surprisingly original and only on a couple of occasioned it felt like it was falling into the trap of becoming cliché and obviously button pushing with the use of totally over the top and out of place speeches.
As already mentioned, the film does follow the typical route of having two strong leads those being George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer, which in the case of "One Fine Day" is a very good thing. I strongly doubt that lesser known actors would have gained the same empathy from the audience as Clooney and Pfeiffer manage. Whilst I may not be a huge fan of Clooney I have to admit that he is pretty good as Jack Taylor the laid back tabloid hack, who is also a bit of a womanizer. His cheeky smiles and easy going manner works brilliantly as a contrast to Michelle Pfeiffer's character who appears to be more uptight and career focused. Of course putting Pfeiffer and Clooney in a film is going to appease both male and female audiences alike and the quick fire repartee between them is definitely one of the highlights of the film. But due to the script writers choosing to rush the romantic element of the film we never get a true glimpse of any real sexual chemistry. Add to the mix two cute kids; those being Maggie Taylor played by Mae Whitman and Sammy Parker played by Alex D. Linz and you have a nice set of characters. Amazingly the onscreen bickering between Sammy and Maggie works just as well as that of their parents and of course when they introduce the little kittens it is enough to push anyone's buttons in the cutesy stakes.
But, whilst everything so far has been reasonably positive, it does have a huge problem and that is when it comes to who this film will really appeal to. To be honest watching two thirty something's struggle to look after their children is not going to be an ideal date film for your young lovers and not something which will necessarily appeal to anyone who has not suffered the headache of looking after young children. So to be honest the film does seem to have quite a limited appeal to those in their thirties and have kids who can appreciate the stresses as shown in the film.
►►► Summary
Despite the formulaic approach and some obvious button pushing scenes, I actually quite like "One Fine Day". This is mainly down to the quick fire repartee and basing the film over the period of just one day, making it feel slightly edgier than your normal romantic comedy. Also the style of humour which could be classed as more situation than slapstick does raise quite a few smiles. My only real negative comes from the seemingly rushed climax, which whilst finishing upbeat really lets the film down. Of course it won't appeal to everyone and in reality it is a film aimed at the thirty something and older crowd or those who can appreciate the stress that young children can bring.
Certificate: PG Duration: 104 mins Year of Release: 1996 Genre: Comedy, Romance
Director(s): Michael Hoffman Writer(s): Terrel Seltzer, Ellen Simon
Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney, Mae Whitman, Alex D. Linz, Charles Durning, Jon Robin Baitz, Ellen Greene, Joe Grifasi, Pete Hamill, Anna Maria Horsford, Gregory Jbara, Sheila Kelley
Production Year: 1998 - Drama - Director: Martin Brest - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Marcia Gay Harden, Jake Weber, Claire Forlani, Jeffrey Tambor
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
I had never seen this until we got Sky Movies this year and its on there all the time. I did not expect to enjoy it as I dont like George Clooney, but I do like Michell Pfeiffer so thought it was a good film
n13roy 11.10.2007 11:10
I was dragged to the Cinema kicking and screaming to see this one, and guess what........I quite enjoyed it, and you have captured the feel of it very well here in this DVD review..........Roy.........
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![One Fine Day [1997] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78519928.jpg "One Fine Day [1997] [DVD]")
Jul 26th, 2007
(Oct 9th, 2007)
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