Un beau jour

I am speechless. This one is a classic movie, and I have no words to describe it. I wish they would make more movies like this one. Michelle Pfeiffer is brilliant as usual and George Clooney, the right choice as co-star.

Pleasant romantic comedy stars Pfeiffer and Clooney as two divorced, overworked parents whose children are bickering classmates. They meet, and don't exactly see eye to eye, but then circumstances force them to put aside their differences and try to help each other out as they struggle to balance their job priorities with their parental obligations, all during a hectic day in New York City. Predictable setup made worthwhile by two very appealing leads, believable situations, and well-drawn characters. Youngsters Whitman and Linz are especially likable as the two children who reluctantly get dragged from one place to the next. ***

The headlong screwball comedy of this breakneck romance of two stressed-out single parents is a delight from beginning to end. It has scenes as quick witted - and often as wackily off-kilter! - as the adults must be just in order to survive their average day. Stir love into this mess of two increasingly desparate modern lives and you get a miraculous souffle of a film, at once sharp and sweet.

No scene is laboured, no point is telegraphed, and - phenomenally for a modern American film - neither kids nor kittens are allowed to smother the audience in the nauseous layers of cutesiness that are usually applied. The scene with the analyst, where Clooney must obscure his account of his sex-life in an ever-more-surrealistic periphrasis involving iced cakes and fish, since his little daughter has to accompany him into the presumably crecheless analyst's surgery, and her dad is embarassed to expose her to such adult matters as he is obliged to reveal during the session, is a scene which is a model of intelligent and stylish comedy writing. The dialogue of both himself and his analyst finally founders on the increasingly strained comparisons and metaphors being attempted. The analyst begins to construct an alarmingly kinky lifestyle for his client out of what he takes to be Freudian suggestions - but which are, as noted, merely the product of old-fashioned seemliness - whereupon Clooney is forced to bring the whole towering edifice back down to earth when his version of the morning's business with the goldfish gets mixed up in the heady brew of symbolism: 'No. I mean fish. You know - 'Fish' fish?'

The humour is all good, never strained, and beautifully played by all the principals, including the wonderfully un-sentimentalised children. The transformation, stage-by-stage, of the harsh mutual competition and resentment that exists at first between these harassed adults, into an exhausted truce, by way of barely-restrained irritation, grudging gratitude, reluctant respect, and growing affection, is handled with considerable dramatic finesse throughout.

To produce the unlikely union of such an ill-assorted pair under such utterly unpropitious and unromantic circumstances is a comedic challenge of considerable proportions, and the makers of this film do an excellent job to bring it off at all. The spirits of Grant and Hepburn - even Beatrice and Benedict - are not too far away.

The only disappointment is to see how many people in the audience have gone home just as sour as when they arrived, judging from some of the comments here. But then, love curdles in any mean-spirited breast.

One particularly admires the fact that, at its conclusion, the film's romantic clincher - when the tired-out couple have to settle for just falling asleep together, despite their by now clearly desparate need for each other, - insists upon the importance of exactly this: Love, rather than merely lust, as the basis for an adult relationship.

Just occasionally, Hollywood still lets us have a grown-up entertainment. It makes a pleasant and wholesome change from the usual fare of adolescent dreams.

I would probably never watch this film, had it not been for my wife who rented the DVD. Like others here, I expect romantic comedies to be all the same - terribly unrealistic and the humor to be 3rd-grade.

But One Fine Day surprised me in many ways! First, it is not "I need insulin right now!" sweet. Also, it is surprisingly relevant for today's world, and not targeted at teeny boppers.

One Fine Day is a film with a very smart script, funny dialogues, beautiful acting, and directing, and it all gels well together. Most moviegoers today expect blood, gore, and darkness of warped minds, and it seems that films that don't have that have a hard time getting a good review. It is time we step back, enjoy some of the subtleties of life and people, and laugh at ourselves, especially when it's all presented in a believable and funny way.

The film takes us through "one fine day" of a single mother and her son, and a single father and his daughter. Due to his error, they miss their kids' field trip and are, reluctantly, helping each other take care of the kids. While he obviously likes her but has a problem with trusting again, and also suffers from questionable flirting tactics, she is more obviously shell-shocked and uses every opportunity to put him down. In a single day, they go through so many humbling episodes that the relationship develops from "I already have an opinion about you..." and "So do I..." to "I'll help you out if you say: 'Be my knight in shining armor...'"

The control freak named Melanie and played wonderfully by Michelle Pfeiffer manages to stay likable even though she "beats every miserable bastard that comes her way to a pulp". George Clooney has an easier time being liked as he is his pretty much usual self, and that's exactly what the character requires. Both kids were much better than I would normally expect them to be; I am always put off by artificial adult gestures and the "too cool for you" acting of today's kids in Hollywood films, and expected that this time it would be the same, but it was not and that was a pleasant surprise.

The humor in this film is subtle, and you may actually miss it altogether if you expect things to blow in your face. I loved those brief encounters between Melanie (Pfeiffer) and Celia (Amanda Peet) in which a beautiful perfectionist with a heart (Pfeiffer) meets her less polite match... Amanda Peet was also fantastic! Just notice how Pfeiffer's facial expression changes when she realizes who she's talking to. Another one to watch and enjoy is the episode with Melanie's boss.

Also, this film can be watched more than once, as there is a lot to appreciate about it.

Ps. A scene at the shrink's office made me laugh like never before!

When movies of today try and capture that "old-fashioned" feeling, usually it's the "values" that they're trying to recapture, forgetting that if you don't make a good movie, what you're left with is two hours of preaching. This movie, on the other hand, may be trying to capture that "old-fashioned" feeling, but the values it's after are the values of craftsmanship and intelligence, two things rarely seen in comedies these days. Oh, yes, and chemistry; Clooney and Pfeiffer have it in spades here. The fact that it's set among the world of working parents and, for the most part, tries to get the details right, also helps. And, oh yeah, it's funny. It is a little cloying at times, and the end feels abrupt, but overall this is a pleasing movie.