Based on the award-winning bestseller from British writer David Nicholls, One Day is the story of to friends, Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) who have a one-night stand the night after graduating from Edinburgh university and the film then follows them over the course of 20 years, revisiting them on the same day – 15 July – and examining how their lives and relationship develops. Emma’s career path towards becoming a successful novelist starts slowly, and she soon finds herself waiting tables in a lousy London restaurant. Dexter on the other hand catches an early break in TV and becomes something of a cult figure, hosting a late night television show reminiscent of Channel 4’s The Word. Dexter struggles with his fame, however and it’s not long before he is swallowed by the industry.

The two central performances are incredibly strong and although Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent comes and goes, and Sturgess’ character is often downright loathsome, you can’t help but be won over by them. Because of this, we are sold on their on/off relationship and understand only too easily why neither of them can go their separate way nor commit to a full-on relationship. There is also excellent support from Rafe Spall as Emma’s painfully unfunny comedian boyfriend, and Patricia Clarkson as Dexter’s ailing mother.

Lone Scherfig’s direction makes One Day a wonderfully nostalgic indulgence, typified by a succession of bad television, hideous hairstyles and garish fashion choices, all accompanied by spot-on musical choices which immediately transport us back to each specific year in our own lives. As the couple isn’t always together on this day, we are also treated to a parade of phone booths and payphones that are equally period-specific and will resonate with anyone who grew up in the UK during the 90s. Time and again One Day will remind audiences of moments, people or even entire relationships in their own lives and clearly Nicholls was exorcising many of his own demons when writing both the novel and the screenplay.

Fans of the book will doubtless bemoan that so much has been left out of the film and that Emma has been beautified too much from her frumpy description on the page, but these are all but unavoidable when making the transition to the big screen. What Nicholls and Scherfig have succeeded in doing is presenting an honest relationship between two young people whose worlds are expanding too quickly. Fate brought them together and now seems intent on keeping them apart, what One Day examines is their attempts, over the course of 20 years, to realign their lives before it’s too late.