'One Fine Day': Old-fashioned love story for the cellular age

By Laksmi Pamuntjak-Djohan

JAKARTA (JP): As befits its occasionally democratic nature, the silver screen offers up its own set of blonde totems for moviegoers of all manners and stripes.

There is Drew Barrymore, the "Shock Queen" of many film noir. Another is Alicia Silverstone, the doe-eyed archetypal angel who preens and poses in see-through baby dolls, yet somehow manages never to look cheap.

Nicole Kidman has also succeeded in making good, appearing not only in box-office successes but also high-profile, literate movies directed by formidable directors.

A perennial favorite is Michelle Pfeiffer, the forty-something former beauty queen who has come a long way from the shrill- voiced and pouty Stephanie Zinoni of Grease 2. But she clearly belongs in another league.

Pfeiffer still pouts - that's part of her appeal. But there is a difference. The present pout isn't a product of conscious deliberation, nor is it part of that thing they call "acting". It comes from her understated sexual aura, her moody armor, the polished trademark that has seen her trudge through countless thankless roles to finally arrive at her present peak.

She teases well, flirts occasionally, and smiles brilliantly. For all its brilliance, her smile belies a certain kind of aloofness; she is always at a distance, refusing to be categorized. It's no wonder that although she has played many babe characters, she never comes across as the archetypal babe. Indeed, that pout isn't about being a babe but about resisting being stereotyped as one.

This is why she is different from other actresses. Pfeiffer is not a great actress, but she has a certain magic about her. She doesn't blend into the character - she is the concept of the character. It is this rule that she applies in playing single mom Melanie Parker in Michael Hoffman's new romantic comedy One Fine Day, which she also co-produced.

Melanie Parker is the epitome of the 90s super mom. She must single-handedly raise a five-year-old son (Alex D. Linz), maintain a high-profile job, and cope with an indifferent family, useless ex-husband, and New York's urban angst. Welcome to the era of single parenting and cellular phones, the most anti-babe thing you can imagine.

On the other side of the equation, we have Jack Taylor, played with childlike panache by George Clooney. He is a hard-driving news columnist, with an ego to match, who gets his handsome face plastered on buses. Squeezing his five-year-old daughter, Maggie (Mae Whitman), into his crazy schedule is, understandably, no easy matter.

One not so very fine day, they both get their kids up too late to make a school field trip. As fate would have it, their respective jobs are at stake the very same day, as he has to rub out big-time City Hall corruption and she has to present her most important architectural design to VIP clients.

They have no choice but to pool their resources. What ensues is a one-day partnership in hell as they keep trading the kids back and forth, in between racing off to save their careers.

The way the two lovable kids refuse to give their parents a break provides some insight into the consequences of permissive parenting, but it is winningly true to life and something that all parents can relate to. The kids remind you what monsters they can become, and also what monstrous fun they are. In between the catastrophes they create, they drop hints that their parents are falling in love.

And indeed they are. Granted, they detest each other at first sight. Melanie, an obsessive control freak, distrusts all men. Since Jack is responsible for the kids missing their ferry, she has him immediately pegged as a typically immature and irresponsible man. They keep trading insults, attracted to each other but too frazzled to acknowledge the feeling.

Initial animosity that turns into romance is one of Hollywood's grandest romantic traditions. But this is not just an old-fashioned love story, updated for the cellular age. The idea for the film came from producer Lynda Obst's personal experience of having to do her job and deal with the exigencies of a teenage son: "I suddenly realized that the new definition of heroism was simply to survive the day as a working mother."

The romance aspect of the movie is also part and parcel of the modern single parenthood she is trying to depict. "This movie is meant to give license for romance to people whose lives appear to have no room for it," Obst said.

Among its fine points, One Fine Day shows that Clooney can take command of the big screen on the strength of the easy-going charm he's made famous in TV's popular sitcom E.R.

More significantly, like today's pseudo-androgynous rock weenies (e.g. Liam and Noel Gallagher), Clooney is an icon of our changing times. Muscular, angst-ridden, testosterone-oozing bad boys have made way for hard shell but soft core guys.

Angered by an archaic gender system that requires men to be unfeeling, the likes of Clooney are striking back with their own version of male sensitivity. They are tough on the outside but vulnerable inside in a way that women, as well as men, increasingly find attractive.

But while it is very well for the movie to pitch together two radically different approaches to parenting - Melanie's hyper- vigilance and Jack's laid-back attitude - the final conclusion seems to be that Melanie has to become less uptight to be acceptable for a man of Jack's kind.

Jack, meanwhile, doesn't have to change one bit; he's fine as the cute, smiling, huggable teddy bear that he is. Is being the ideal SNAG so prestigious that it should deserve such an accolade? Is tough love, which Melanie displays more than Jack, a notion too outdated for the 90s?

But these are minor drawbacks in an otherwise eloquent movie. The mood is capricious, the energy sugar-high, the humor effective, the music beautiful, especially Natalie Merchant's bluesy rendition of the famous Gerry Goffin-Carole King title song. The acting is thoroughly competent and the child actors gracefully underplay their characters.

All in all, this is a highly recommended feel-good movie that looks like the stuff sequels are made of.