This tear-jerking twaddle, adapted by David Nicholls from his 2009 bestseller, is nearly as bad as Anne Hathaway's British accent, which is heading for infamy. Hathaway plays Emma Morley, an idealist in a world of the cheap and superficial, repped by Dexter Mayhew (real Brit Jim Sturgess), the rich stud she pines for. Director Lone Scherfig, toppling from her peak with An Education, follows these ill-fated lovers for two decades one day each year, starting July 15th, 1988. By the 1990s, I was begging for mercy. One day? Like hell. The movie feels like a life sentence.

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“Alison”

On Elvis Costello’s country-tinged ballad, the lyric does not get too sentimental in recalling an ex who had since been with one of the singer's "little friends" and is now married. Some believe the song is about murder, due to lines like “Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking,” "Somebody better put out the big light" and, of course, "My aim is true,” which became the title of Costello's debut album. In 2002, Costello told Rolling Stone, “It isn’t [about murder]. It’s about disappointing somebody. It’s a thin line between love and hate, as the Persuaders sang.”