As might be expected from a 8.19 release that was press-screened for people in my short-lead realm for the very first time yesterday morning (i.e., three days before opening), Lone Scherfig‘s One Day (Focus Features) is getting badly beaten up over at Rotten Tomatoes (27% positive) and somewhat less so at Metacritic (47%).

The writing has been on the wall for several months. In a 5.30 posting called “Oy! Dumb Girls!,” I wrote that “‘destined to be together but indecisive and unable to pull the trigger for 20 years’ is not my idea of an engrossing concept. It’s my idea, actually, of a repellent one. The narration in trailer #2 (‘…but life got in the way’) is very cliched, and the British narrator’s speaking style has that same ‘talking down to idiots’ tone that the last trailer had.”

How could the gifted and respected director fo An Education and Italian for Beginners have made a film like this?

I missed yesterday morning’s screening, but will catch it tomorrow, courtesy of Ginsberg-Libby and Focus Features.