The worries about this adaptation of David Nicholls’ much-loved and likeable 2009 novel were obvious when it was first announced. Could Anne Hathaway pull off the character of a Northern lass (‘We spent all our summers in a caravan in Whitby’), first as an Edinburgh student and later a graduate working in a Taco joint? Would Danish director Lone Scherfig be sensitive to the book’s subtle but playful period stylings? Would the film’s makers resist the temptation to tip what was already a slightly gimmicky and cloying story into the territory of full-on romantic sap? And how could one film do justice to 23 eventful years in the lives of confident public-school boy Dexter and earthy, less assured Emma (Hathaway) – two opposites whom the novel visits once a year on the same date they first have a romantic encounter in 1988 as students?
The result is a compromise – but not a disastrous one. Nicholls’ script follows his novel closely as a ‘greatest hits’ spin on the book, rather than taking it anywhere new. Dexter follows a path of success, hubris and self-destruction, followed by rehabilitation, while Emma takes equally as long to discover what she wants from life and a friendship with Dexter, but without the accompanying obnoxiousness.
Other new stuff this week
SMURFS, THE (2011)
PRIEST (2011)
ONE DAY (2011) BLU-RAY
WEEDS SEASON 6 (2010)
COMPLETE JEAN VIGO, THE (1930-1934) CRITERION
LANDMARKS OF EARLY SOVIET FILM
RIVER MURDERS, THE (2011)
BEGINNERS (2010)
CHANGE-UP, THE (2011)
FROZEN PLANET
INTO THE UNIVERSE with Stephen Hawking