I’m starting a campaign after seeing One Day. A campaign to persuade the film classification board to introduce a censorship classification of RO, as in, romantics only. One Day is a film which deserves an RO rating. The romantics amongst us will see it for the accomplished, funny and poignant tear jerker that it is. The rest, well, I can’t answer for you.

One Day is the new film by Lone Scherfig and starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe). Adapted from David Nicholls’ 2009 book of the same name it is the story of two friends, clearly in love, taken on the same day, St Swithin’s Day, for over 20 years. It is a will they, won’t they story of love, loss, longing, betrayal, bad timing and missed opportunities. It is film about the big issues of taking your opportunities, making the right decisions and not the easy ones and realising that mistakes are part of the long path of growing up. It’s a tale intimately told by looking at two very different people as they go from fresh eyed graduates to hardened 40 somethings. Ultimately, it’s a film about the love between Emma and Dexter. Within that love there is sadness, and boy, has this movie got the production cred to guarantee tears. David Nicholls wrote the powerful 2008 adaptation of ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’, from which I am still recovering and Scherfig has the excellent 2009 coming of age tale ‘An Education’ behind her.
My difficulty with the film largely falls with Hathaway as Emma. Hathaway performs the role quite well (apart from the poor excuse for a Northern accent), has believable chemistry with Sturgess and she lends most of the films funniest lines. However, I can’t help but feel that she is miscast. Emma is a woman who doesn’t have the confidence to follow her dreams; she stuffs up her first night with Dex because she’s scared she’ll do something wrong, falls into a relationship with a man she doesn’t love because she doesn’t think she can get the one she does, spends years working in a tragic restaurant because she doesn’t have faith in her own talents. We are supposed to go on the journey with Emma as she comes of age, and grows into herself.Unfortunately, Hathaway lacks the vulnerability to allow you to really believe. Instead of understanding that she doesn’t think she can really become something, the viewer feels like the film is just killing time until she does. Hathaway is too womanly, too strong, dare I say, too American, to really make you believe. This would be fine except, when dealing with a ‘will they, won’t they’ film it hard to understand why they aren’t together when your female character seems to have the confidence to match her male counterpart’s flirtatiousness.
Sturgess himself is fantastic. You ride through his highs, but moreover, empathise through his many lows. The supporting cast are strong, if inconsequential, especially Rafe Spall (son of Timothy) in the role of Ian, Emma’s long suffering boyfriend. Finally, the excellent costuming and production supports the film amiably as it travels across the eighties, nineties and noughties.
Special note needs to go to Mr Sturgess’ make-up artist. I cannot recall a film in which a character has crossed a 20 year age span so believably and stayed incredibly handsome the entire time.
Ultimately, after a rocky start One Day settles into itself so that you become absorbed in the story, in the changing decades, in the charming scenery and in the enduring love of Dexter and Emma.

In 1968 a powerhouse group of female machinists at the Dagenham Ford production factory held the first strike by women in British history. What started out as a seemingly straightforward pay dispute became a fight for equality and ultimately led to the pivotal Equal Pay Act of 1970. It is surprising that it has taken 40 years for this remarkable story of determination to hit the big screen, but now it has in the shape of Made in Dagenham.

The film focuses on the story of Rita O’Grady, the leader of the strike, played by the effervescent (if tiny) Sally Hawkins. Hawkins, who received the Golden Globe for her performance in Happy-Go-Lucky, gives one of those performances which immediately makes you want to run to your video store and borrow her entire back catalogue. And she needs to, as the picture depends on the strength and believability of her portrayal of O’Grady. While perhaps she overplays the reluctant hero too far into the film, it is ultimately the depth and vulnerability which she brings to the role which takes this from a dull British biopic to a worthy international film.

Hawkins’ supporting cast are equally strong, each providing an ‘oh, where do I know YOU from’ moment, ensuring IMDB was checked on the smartphone the minute the credits rolled. Rosamund Pike shows her true beauty as a woman from another world, yet suffering every bit as much as those from the factory floor. Similarly, Daniel Mays as Rita’s husband, Edie, holds his own as the man at the forefront watching the changing nature of the genders from his overfilled kitchen sink.

It is these performances, along with a touching subplot led by the crumbling Connie (Geraldine James) which allows the audience to take full scope of this event. This isn’t just about overcoming adversity or the fight for feminism, but about the true nature of society. It leaves you asking the big questions about rights, equality, entitlement and human relationships and led to several pints worth of engaging chat with my companion afterwards.

However, Made in Dagenham is not all seriousness or politics. There are some truly laugh out loud moments, while the excellent sets and costumes remind the audience of the romanticism of 1960s England. Director Nigel Cole keeps it moving at a healthy pace, neither sacrificing the true story nor tending too far to the side of re-enactment, nor crossing the line into sentimentality as the material could allow.

Perhaps the flaw lies in the skill of his direction however. Cole’s other films include Calendar Girls and Saving Grace which while worthy works, are such defiantly ‘nice, British’ films that it is unsurprising that a similar sheen is cast across Made in Dagenham. This allows it to be a worthy and enjoyable film, but does not take the step to a great one which is perhaps a disappointment given the strength of the material.

Three and a half stars.