One Fine Day -

A formulaic romantic comedy is helped along by the good chemistry of its stars. Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Melanie Parker, a working single mother, a control-freak with an uncontrollable son, Sammy (Alex D. Linz). George Clooney is Jack Taylor, a single father, with whom his newlywed ex-wife leaves their daughter, Maggie (Mae Whitman) during her week-long honeymoon. Jack is a newspaper columnist whose aloof and irresponsible seeming demeanor immediately rubs Melanie the wrong way when they first meet. Due to a miscommunication, Jack and Melanie are late delivering their respective children to a class field trip, and as a result are stuck with their kids for the entire day. And a big day it is, Melanie, an architect, has a career-defining presentation to give that morning, and Jack must find additional sources for a problematic column that he wrote, or he may be out of a job. There aren’t too many surprises in One Fine Day. It follows the by-the-numbers romance without much variation. There are, however, two appealing stars in One Fine Day, and a whole host of identifiable situations. When Pfeiffer and Clooney are on the screen, you immediately identify with them and cheer them on. Sure, they would have been serviced better by a more varied plot, or some less obvious direction by Michael Hoffman. The script manages a few flashes of wit here and there, but overall it doesn’t stray far from the formula. But as it stands, One Fine Day is enjoyable to watch, though not too intellectually stimulating.