The Netflix series One Day and the film of the same name with Anne Hathaway are adaptations of the same novel by David Nicholls. What are the differences between the two? Warning, spoilers.
Warning, spoilers. It is recommended to have seen the series One Day before continuing to read this article.
It’s THE romantic series of the moment on Netflix! In the top views since it was put online, the series One Day is the adaptation of the world bestseller by David Nicholls. This British fiction by Nicole Taylor tells the story of Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) over twenty years, from 1988 to 2007.
For fourteen episodes, subscribers cried at the story of love and friendship between Emma and Dex, for better and for worse, with the backdrop of profound British societal changes and the disillusionment of a lost generation. .
If this series is a great success, it is not the first time that David Nicholls’ novel has been adapted. 13 years ago, director Lon Scherfig brought this moving story to the big screen with actors Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
The main story is essentially the same between the film and the series, but some differences should still be noted. Here they are.
A longer, more intense story vs. a shorter version
The strong point of the Netflix version is that the series format allows the main and secondary characters to be developed much more, in particular their relationships with Tilly (notably her marriage), Ian, Sylvie or other conquests, but also to be able to adapt more passages from the book, where the film had to ignore certain sequences or reduce others, such as the story between Emma and the principal of her school, or the first day that Emma and Dex spent together.
SND Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in the film One Day.
This also allows us to better characterize its two main characters and to build their developments more deeply. In the series, Emma has less self-confidence and learns to face Dexter and the world around her while gradually becoming an accomplished and self-confident young woman and Dexter is funnier and inclined to become better than in the film.
The Netflix series with its 14-episode format allows you to devote an episode to a year and explore its characters and situations, but above all to nourish the spectators’ feeling of attachment to its heroes. Which makes the tragic ending even more devastating.
Emma’s death
Emma’s death is the same in the film and in the series: she is hit by a driver. But small subtleties make the two deaths different. So, in the film, Emma pedals her bike on a sunny day and crosses an alley before being hit head-on by a truck by surprise.
In the series, Emma is cycling in the rain and is hit by a car coming from the opposite direction. The viewer can sense Emma’s death a little more in the series version of One Day.
Dex’s life after Emma’s death
After Emma’s death, Dexter is inconsolable. He finds his old demons and dives back into his faults by drinking and taking drugs, whether in the film or in the Netflix series. But television fiction takes advantage of its serialized format to also focus on his recovery, in the last episode.
Netflix
Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod in the series One Day.
Indeed, the Netflix series focuses on the mourning process of Dexter, who is helped by his family, blood and heart, formed by his father and his daughter but also his ex-wife, Emma’s friends and even Emma’s ex, much more empathetic in the series than in the film.
The series ends on a sweeter note with a walk by Dexter and his daughter to the same place where Dexter and Emma spent their first day together, followed by a montage of kisses from the two lovers, whose story has spanned the decades .
A more inclusive casting
One of the big differences between Lon Scherfing’s film and Nicole Taylor’s Netflix series lies in its casting. While the cast of the feature film is exclusively white, the cast of the series is more diverse. Thus, Emma is played by Ambika Mod, a British-Indian actress and her character has Hindu origins.
Several secondary characters, such as Tilly, Jean-Pierre (Emma’s French boyfriend) and Suki, are played by black actors in the series, which is not the case in the film.
Series A day is available on Netflix.