Following her stunning coming-of-age tale, An Education, Danish director Lone Scherfig returns to London for this adaptation of the bestselling novel about a love that spans 20 years. Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) have a one-night stand in 1988, just before leaving university to take London by storm. The film progresses with snippets taking place on July 15 every year thereafter. Middle-class Emma endures horrible jobs and lukewarm relationships to attain success, while wealthy Dexter grows more dissolute with each year. Still, there's a spark between them, which makes the plot somewhat derivative and implausible: we saw this in Sandra Goldbacher's more complex Me Without You. Here, we simply wonder why these two can't get together already. But Hathaway shines as always, Patricia Clarkson is a marvel in a key role, and Scherfig's masterful treatment of silences, surfaces, and locations is worth watching.
