Taglines: She was having a perfectly bad day… Then he came along and spoiled it.
One Fine Day movie storyline. Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an architect and divorced single mother to son, Sammy (Alex D. Linz). Her day gets off to a bad start when she is late to drop him off at school, due to the forgetfulness of fellow single parent Jack Taylor (George Clooney), a New York Daily News reporter whose daughter, Maggie (Mae Whitman), is thrust into his care that morning by his ex-wife.
The children arrive just a moment too late to go on a school field trip (a Circle Line boat cruise). Their parents are forced to accept that, on top of hectically busy schedules, they must work together that day to supervise each other’s child. In their confusion of sharing a taxi, they accidentally switch cellphones, causing each of them, all morning, to receive calls intended for the other one, which they then have to relay to the right 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 toy cars, causing her to trip and break her scale model display. In frustration, Melanie takes Sammy to a daycare 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, utilizing his imagination and her resourcefulness.
She takes her model to a shop to get quickly repaired. Having left for a meeting, Melanie 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 both kids. 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 get both Sammy and Maggie, 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. Bravely insisting that she must leave immediately to be with him, she fully expects to be fired, yet the clients are impressed.
One Fine Day is a 1996 American romantic comedy 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.
Michelle Pfeiffer served as an executive producer on this film, which was made in association with her company Via Rosa Productions. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song (“For the First Time”).
One Fine Day (1996)
Directed by: Michael Hoffman
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, George Clooney, Mae Whitman, Alex D. Linz, Charles Durning, Jon Robin Baitz, Ellen Greene, Anna Maria Horsford, Sheila Kelley
Screenplay by: Terrel Seltzer, Ellen Simon
Production Design by: David Gropman
Cinematography by: Oliver Stapleton
Film Editing by: Garth Craven
Costume Design by: Susie DeSanto
Set Decoration by: Anne Kuljian
Art Direction by: John Warnke
Music by: James Newton Howard
MPAA Rating: PG for language and mild sensuality.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: December 20, 1996
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