The film follows graduating college classmates Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Sturgess) over the course of two decades. They meet, one day a year, as their lives go in different directions: She goes from dead end waitress to successful novelist, he becomes a TV presenter and crashes and burns. Along the way, they (of course!) fall in love.
The trailer reveals as much, following the trajectory of their lives in standard romantic movie trailer fashion. Will they end up together? You know they will. Will it take false starts and mess-ups and arguments and failed relationships and career ups and downs for these crazy kids to realize they belong together? I think you know the answer to that question, too.
So what's left to discover here? About a dozen awful to hilarious to cute period hairdos, costumes, and details -- Scherfig enlisted An Education designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux to nail the specific '80s, '90s and '00 outfits and hired production designer Mark Tildesley, who brought retro England to life in Pirate Radio and 24 Hour Party People. And is there anything more adorable than Jim Sturgess looking like an early '90s dreamboat? Or Jim Sturgess making desperate late night pay phone calls to the woman he doesn't yet know he can't live without? Or Jim Sturgess doing... anything, really?
Verdict: If Jim Sturgess can survive Hathaway's faux-British deliveries ("When wee weh at Un-ee-vuh-sity") so can I.