One Fine Day

One Fine Day erases any doubt that George Clooney could make the leap from the operating rooms of "ER" to stardom in films. He has it all: a slick, sardonic manner, calm assurance, commanding presence, great looks and, most importantly, a distinctive voice...Not much can be said about Michelle Pfeiffer except that she is perfection - knockout looks, without bragging about it, and a strong sense of comedy, including the roughhouse kind. [17 Dec 1996]

Clooney proves himself to be a true movie star and romantic leading man. His charm, his energy, even his ease with children (one of any adult actor’s most terrifying challenges) carry One Fine Day into irresistibility. Read full review

Happily, Pfeiffer and Clooney, now officially a movie star, not only click, they send off sparks. Read full review

For those viewers who can relate to Melanie's and Jack's lives, One Fine Day offers light-hearted romantic fun, but for younger viewers the film may not quite hit the mark. Read full review

One Fine Day has a few enchanting moments, such as a scene where Jack sweeps Melanie off her feet (literally), then splashes around in a large puddle of water. However, as a romantic comedy, this is a spotty affair because it's not really funny or romantic enough. Keeping the leads apart might work for something like Sleepless in Seattle, where the intention is to develop an old-fashioned, long-distance romance, but, in a movie like this -- one that's being pulled in so many directions that it's coming apart at the seams -- it's a mistake. For much of its running length, One Fine Day lacks focus and direction, and that makes it one fine mess. Read full review

Mild and unassuming, the movie gleans its modest charm from Clooney and Pfeiffer's chaste flirtation, much like Doris Day and Rock Hudson did 40 years ago: There are no hot-blooded boudoir scenes here. Like its sensible co-stars, One Fine Day has both feet firmly planted on terra firma. [20 Dec 1996, p.6G]

One Fine Day is two formulaic hours, but they do illustrate how two attractive leads and a lickety-split narrative can elevate meager material into something this side of bearability. [20 Dec 1996]

One Fine Day makes for sunny, pleasant fluff. Both stars are enjoyably breezy, and there's enough chemistry to deflect attention from the story's endless contrivances. The screenplay by Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon is full of energetic wisecracks. But it's jokey rather than actually funny most of the time. Read full review

Minus delightful stars, this would be laboured indeed. Thanks to them, it scrapes along as modestly appealing fluff. Read full review

[An] appealing, if overcooked romantic comedy. Read full review

While Pfeiffer is a stickier subject, Clooney is so game he could have chemistry with a sandbox. [20 Dec 1996, p.61]

It would be nice to say that One Fine Day lives happily ever after, but it's difficult to take as much pleasure in the finished product as the casting anticipates. Directed by Michael Hoffman, this film does not care to be original, falling back on cookie-cutter plot elements that give the finished product an unbecoming mechanical sheen. [20 Dec 1996, p.F1]

Pfeiffer looks, acts and sounds wonderful throughout all of this, and George Clooney is perfectly serviceable as a romantic lead, sort of a Mel Gibson lite. I liked them. I wanted them to get together. I wanted them to live happily ever after. The sooner the better. Read full review

One Fine Day is no great shakes, but it avoids being tiresome thanks to the attractiveness of the stars and to a few twists that screenwriters Terrell Seltzer and Ellen Simon offer to differentiate this from other bickering-adversaries-fall-in-love comedies. Both stars also have adorable kids who figure prominently in the plot. Read full review

Michael Hoffman, whose credits include the far more lively Soapdish, directs this predictable business in a predictable fashion. [20 Dec 1996, p.03]

One Fine Day is a fluffernutter. Half of it is as down-to-earth, satisfying, even nourishing as peanut butter. The rest of it is gooey, dense and indigestible. [20 Dec 1996, p.4E]

It's so routine and predictable it grows quickly wearisome, its inventions are thin and its wit is witless. You feel the clumsy manipulations coming hours in advance, and when they come, they seem to take forever to finish. [20 Dec 1996]

Safe is the operative word here, since One Fine Day wouldn't think of messing with its casting chemistry to take any comedic risks. Clooney is as benign here as he was dangerous in From Dusk Til Dawn. Somewhere in the middle, I bet he'll make a terrific Batman next summer. [20 Dec 1996, p.10]

There are a handful of laughs, and maybe three solid scenes. Otherwise, it's an unfunny, relatively charmless, ultimately grueling excuse for a comedy that often plays like a 105-minute public service ad on why it's not a good idea to have children. [20 Dec 1996]

Here and there, a good idea or scene erupts, as when the antagonists accidentally switch cellular telephones and start taking each other's emergency calls. And Jack keeps his shrink appointment but must speak in code so his daughter won't understand. But these are anomalies and subside just as suddenly as they appear. Read full review

A film that takes such sadistic delight in the thorough humiliation of its heroine. Read full review