Dear One Day,

WARNING: Major SPOILERS ahead for One Day (both the book and the movie.)

You've been warned.  I'm gonna spoil everything.  Every last detail. 


Last summer I read One Day by David Nicholls, and I was really excited.  I searched the book down, at one point I even found that there was a preview of the book on the Barnes and Noble website and briefly contemplated reading the entire book in tiny barely legible font on my laptop because I wanted to read it so badly.  Thankfully, my mother bought a copy for me and I was able to read the book like a normal person. 

I really enjoyed it.  I loved the device of seeing them every July 15 even though it was totally improbable.  And then comes the ending.  She gets hit while riding her bike? Are you fucking kidding with me? I think I sobbed and sat on the couch and read the rest of the book straight through because if I had put it down I would have been too angry to ever pick it up again.  So, overall I like the book, but anyone who has read it will tell you that it has a shit ending. 

Immediately, I thought: What an interesting movie this would make! Not even a month later I find that it is going to be a movie, with Anne Hathaway.  And then, a year in a advance, I make plans to go see this movie with a friend. 

Today we went to go see the movie.  (I knew it wasn't going to be great, the trailer made sure of that.  Also: Anne Hathaway's accent?) And I was really curious whether they would change the ending.  Traditionally that would be book-to-movie-adaptation sacrilege, but here I thought I would find it a welcome change (as would other readers). 

Well friends, they do not change the ending.  And not only do they not change the ending, they make it the most jarring, gasp-inducing, cringe-worthy car crash.  And then they fade out with a shot of Anne Hathaway on the ground, with only one shoe and a bloody foot.  Oy. 

The general consensus among my crowd (four readers, one who knew the ending, and two who had no clue what they were getting themselves into) all agreed that the crash was too much.  My suggestion? (Also, my brother's) All you need to do is cut to black with the sound of the crash, then when you cut the tragic shot of him laying in bed crying, we all can know exactly what happened. 

See? I should be making movies. 

(Apparently, when I write long posts, I use lots of parentheses.  Strange.)


love,
hannah