One Fine Day
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Hoffman
Written by
  • Terrel Seltzer
  • Ellen Simon
Produced byLynda Obst
Starring
CinematographyOliver Stapleton
Edited byGarth Craven
Music byJames Newton Howard
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 20, 1996 (1996-12-20)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$97.5 million[1]

One Fine Day is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Michael Hoffman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney as two single working parents, with Alex D. Linz and Mae Whitman as their children. The title comes from the 1963 song "One Fine Day" by the Chiffons, which is heard in the film.

Pfeiffer served as an executive producer for the film, which was produced in association with her company Via Rosa Productions.[2]

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song ("For the First Time").

Plot

Melanie Parker is an architect and the divorced mother of Sammy. Her day gets off to a bad start when she is late to drop him off at school, due to the forgetfulness of fellow divorced father Jack Taylor, a New York Daily News reporter whose daughter, Maggie, is thrust into his care that morning by his former wife who leaves to go on her honeymoon with her new husband. The children arrive just a moment too late to go on a school field trip, a Circle Line boat cruise. Their parents realize that, on top of hectically busy schedules, they must work together that day to supervise the children. In the confusion of sharing a taxi, they accidentally switch cell phones, causing each of them, all morning, to receive calls intended for the other one, which they then have to relay to the other person.

Melanie must make an architectural design presentation to an important client. Jack has to find a source for a scoop on the New York mayor's mob connections. Sammy causes havoc at Melanie's office with his toy cars, causing her to trip and break her scale model display. In frustration, she takes him to a day care center (which is having a "Superhero Day"), where she coincidentally comes across Jack trying to convince Maggie to stay and behave herself. They create impromptu costumes for the children, using his imagination and her resourcefulness. She takes her model to a shop to get it quickly repaired. Having left for a meeting, she panics when she receives a phone call from Sammy about another child having a psychedelic drug. She phones Jack in desperation and asks him to pick up the children. He agrees, on the condition that she take over their care at 3:15 while he chases down a potential news source.

While in Melanie's care, Maggie goes missing from a store, and wanders some distance down a crowded midtown sidewalk. Melanie breaks down in despair at the police station, files a missing child report, and then goes to a mayoral press conference to find Jack. He is notified by the police that Maggie has been found, and makes it to the press conference just barely in time to confront the mayor with his scoop about corruption. He had earlier tracked down its source, just as she was leaving a beauty salon in a limousine. Although they have been antagonistic, Melanie and Jack work together to take the children, by taxi, to a soccer game. She insists that she will have time first to do her presentation to the new clients, despite him protesting that it will make them late for the game. She begins her pitch over drinks at the 21 Club lounge, but upon seeing Sammy in high spirits, she realizes that she cares more about him than her job. Insisting that she must leave immediately to be with him, she fully expects to be fired, but the clients are impressed.

At the game, Melanie meets with her former husband, Eddie, a musician; he informs her that he will not be able to take Sammy fishing in the summer as he will be touring as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen instead. That evening, Jack wants a reason to visit Melanie's apartment, so he takes Maggie to buy goldfish to replace the ones that were eaten earlier in the day by a cat. At Melanie's apartment, the children watch The Wizard of Oz while she and Jack share a first kiss. She goes to the bathroom to freshen up; when she returns, an exhausted Jack is asleep on the sofa. She joins him and they fall asleep together, with the children happily observing.

Cast

Production

Clooney's character did not exist in the script's original draft. Producer Lynda Obst explained the change: "We were being incredibly sexist. There are plenty of divorced, single working fathers going through the exact same thing." The studios initially wanted Kevin Costner or Tom Cruise to portray Jack Taylor, but they passed and Clooney ultimately received the part. The film was shot in 44 Manhattan locations.[3]

Soundtrack

One Fine Day:
Music from the Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by
various artists
ReleasedDecember 10, 1996
Length52:22
LabelColumbia
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic link

One Fine Day: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album to the film. It was released on December 10, 1996, by Columbia Records. The album peaked at number 57 on Billboard 200 in 1997.

Track listing

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[4] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Reception

Box office

One Fine Day earned a total of $6.2 million during its opening weekend, ranking in fifth place at the box office behind Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Jerry Maguire, 101 Dalmatians and Scream.[5]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 53% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With a throwback 1930s vibe, this screwball romantic comedy is perfect for One Fine Day of folding laundry."[6] It was considered a commercial disappointment by Twentieth Century Fox.[7]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "A 50's romp with a few glaring 90's touches (dueling cellular phones, frazzled single parents), 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... he's [Clooney] such a natural as a movie star that he hardly needs false flattery. Ms Pfeiffer, meanwhile, shows a flair for physical comedy."[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "'Cinema is the history of boys photographing girls.' Or so Jean-Luc Godard is claimed to have said. I thought of his words while watching One Fine Day, an uninspired formula movie with another fine performance by Michelle Pfeiffer. She does everything in this movie that a much better movie would have required from her, but the screenplay lets her down... 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."[9]

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote, "Director Michael Hoffman, whose idiosyncratic portfolio includes the period comedy Restoration and the spoof Soapdish, sets a mellow pace and alternates old-fashioned split screen with crosscutting to enliven the many phone scenes. If the stars don't click, of course, nothing else matters. Happily, Pfeiffer and Clooney, now officially a movie star, not only click, they send off sparks."[10]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "One Fine Day is fortunate in its casting. Not only does it have Michelle Pfeiffer, whose gift for this kind of business was visible as far back as Married to the Mob and The Fabulous Baker Boys, but it marks the emergence of George Clooney as a major romantic star... Still, despite feeling like its moments have been micro-managed for maximum audience response, One Fine Day often passes for a pleasant diversion. But with actors so suited to each other, it's too bad the film didn't give them more original material to work with."[2]

Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "We've seen it before, but Pfeiffer and Clooney do everything in their power to make it seem fresh and delightful. That's ultimately not enough, and even though the stars have some chemistry and Pfeiffer delivers her usual spotless performance, One Fine Day never manages to be more than a harmless, forgettable time-filler."[11]

Rob Nelson of the Boston Phoenix wrote, "Privilege and coincidence have always been central to screwball comedy, but the speed of crosstown travel here rivals Die Hard 3 for plausibility. And it's these convenient shortcuts that waylay the film from examining the condition it purports to critique: that is, the '90s compulsion to drive at full throttle."[12]

Accolades

Award Year Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards 1997 Best Original Song James Newton Howard, Jud J. Friedman, and Allan Dennis Rich for "For the First Time" Nominated [13]
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Favorite Actress – Comedy/Romance Michelle Pfeiffer Won [14]
Golden Globe Awards Best Original Song James Newton Howard, Jud J. Friedman, and Allan Dennis Rich for "For the First Time" Nominated [15]
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Favorite Movie Actress Michelle Pfeiffer Nominated [14]
Youth in Film Awards Best Family Feature Film – Musical or Comedy Won [16]
Best Performance in a Feature Film: Actor Age Ten or Under Alex D. Linz Nominated
Best Performance in a Feature Film: Actress Age Ten or Under Mae Whitman Won
YoungStar Awards Best Young Actor in a Comedy Film Alex D. Linz Won [17]
Best Young Actress in a Comedy Film Mae Whitman Nominated
Grammy Awards 1998 Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television James Newton Howard, Jud J. Friedman, and Allan Dennis Rich for "For the First Time" Nominated [18]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

References

  1. ↑ "One Fine Day (1996)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 18, 2023.
  2. 1 2 Turan, Kenneth (December 20, 1996). "'Fine Day' a Dawning for Clooney". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 7, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  3. ↑ Hruska, Bronwen (December 18, 1996). "Working Parents' Travail Informs 'One Fine Day'". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on December 28, 2013. Retrieved December 26, 2013.
  4. ↑ "American album certifications – Soundtrack – One Fine Day". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  5. ↑ Elber, Lynn (December 26, 1996). "'Beavis and Butt-head' sets record". AP Entertainment Writer. The South Bend Tribune. p. 41. Archived from the original on November 5, 2023. Retrieved November 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  6. ↑ "One Fine Day". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  7. ↑ Shaw, Jessica (January 10, 1997). "Pop Culture News: Christmas Wrap-Up". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
  8. ↑ Maslin, Janet (December 20, 1996). "Meet. Fight. Fall in Love. What a Day!". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  9. ↑ Ebert, Roger (December 20, 1996). "One Fine Day". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on January 7, 2022. Retrieved May 7, 2022 – via RogerEbert.com.
  10. ↑ Kempley, Rita (December 20, 1996). "A Sweet 'One Fine Day'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 7, 2022. Retrieved December 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Guthmann, Edward (December 20, 1996). "'One Fine Day' Is Forgettable Fun". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  12. ↑ Nelson, Rob (December 19, 1996). "Archives 1996". Boston Phoenix. Archived from the original on April 1, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2009.
  13. ↑ "The 69th Academy Awards | 1997". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved October 23, 2011.
  14. 1 2 "One Fine Day (1996) – Awards". imdb.com. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
  15. ↑ "One Fine Day – Golden Globes". Golden Globe Awards. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  16. ↑ "18th Youth In Film Awards". Young Artist Awards. Archived from the original on April 2, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
  17. ↑ Ellis, Rick (May 4, 1997). "1997's 2nd Annual Young Star Awards". AllYourTV.com. Archived from the original on August 1, 2009. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  18. ↑ "40th Annual GRAMMY Awards". Grammy Awards. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
  19. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions Nominees" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2015. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
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