In "One Fine Day" Jack Taylor (George Clooney) and Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) meet when their children miss a school field trip, and after much bickering they finally agree to take shifts in watching their kids. Over the course of the day they run into countless mishaps and misadventures, and come close together, to understand each other in a sort of non-romantic romantic way.
The first time I saw "One Fine Day" it was 1996 and I was seven years old. I didn't like it. I found it tedious and boring. Now I'm fourteen, and I just finished watching, and I love it? I get all the jokes I didn't get now, all the clever one-liners spoken with a bright, witty confidence that is reminiscent of Frank Capra films.
And clever they are! I have to say, when you subtract a few (very few) somewhat cheesy lines from the script, it becomes perfect. I'd go as far as to say Oscar worthy. Yes, you may think its cheesy that Jack's a famed newspaper columnist bringing down a mob member and the mayor, and Melanie's an architect working on what we imagine is a multi-million dollar deal with big businessmen, but the way it's presented is not that it makes sense, it's that you don't care. And that's not the focus of the film either, the movie would rather be about the minglings of the two leads.
And I have to say, Clooney and Pfeiffer have great, perfect chemistry. Clooney is his usual cool, intense self whereas Pfeiffer is an uptight, worrisome hard worker. They play off each other perfectly. It's not just their chemistry either, their performances stand alone as emotional, funny and smart. I'd go as far as to call Pfeiffer's Oscar worthy.
The style and direction in the film is also notable. There are split-screen conversations, some long steadicam shots, the whole placing of the camera fits perfectly with the light-hearted nature of the film.
A fun, witty, lovable family film, 7.5/10.
