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One True Thing | Year: 1998 Directed: - Carl Franklin Actors/Actresses: - Meryl Streep - Renee Zellweger - William Hurt - Tom Everett Scott - Renée Zellweger A Wonderful and Interesting Family Drama! It seems less and less frequently that we get to see a superbly assembled cast of actors united in a story that tells itself in terms of its human interest, level of drama, and opportunity to learn something from the characters about the nature of life, relationships, and ultimately about ourselves. This movie offers such an opportunity. All of the cast memebers, but especially Meryl Streep and William Hurt, do an outstanding job in presenting this tale of a family in crisis, and the hidden secrets, weaknesses and strengths of its members and their enduring bonds to each other. The photography is well done, and the sound is excellent as well. This is a worthwhile and serious movie, involving some interesting intellectual issues about how the needs of a family of strong but loving individuals and quite strong and needy personalities clash and interact with each other over an increasingly critical stage of terminal illness for the matriarchal mother of this modern American family. Overall, then, I recommend this as an absorbing examination of an intellectual family with a range of family issues such as rilvary, and a number of hidden dimensions to the relationships within the family itself. It is painful to watch each of them struggle to deal with a member's decline and death due to cancer. One of the increasingly rare worthwhile movie experiences, and one well worth owning. Amazing! Meryl Streep soars! One True Thing based on the bestselling novel tells the story of a hard working & determined mother who has fallen ill with cancer (Meryl Streep). The plot is based around the discoveries her daughter makes (Renee Zellweger) about her family, and realizes that the world her family lived in so many years ago was not as happy as it seemed. The daughter has clearly favored her father over her mother for as long as she could remember, and never treated her mother fairly or appriciated anything she did for her. Zellweger's character discovers the dark secrets of her fathers sexual affairs and his massive drinking problems, and at the end of her mother's life realizes just how badly her father had treated her. The movie is very well done (unfortunatley it was greatly overlooked). The movie is ultimatley depressing, but tells an extreamly powerful story and effective in its delivery. It's Not The Brady Bunch If you want your next family flick to be sugar coated and ideal, skip this marvel of a film. If you want to pay attention to subtle dialouge details, be enthralled with rich, textural cinematography and possibly weep at moments so close to your heart, it hurts, actually hurts, add "One True Thing" to your video collection. This film adaptation of Anna Quindlen's book may be considered a "chick flick"--and those viewers may cluck all they like. But once in a while, I like to be moved, deeply moved. And this cast does that: William Hurt, Meryl Streep, and Reneee Zellweger (of Jerry Maguire fame), encircle a plot like campers tending a continuous fire. Each doing their part to kindle, fan, and eventually stare into dying embers. One of my favorite scenes of this "daughter comes home to take care of dying mother, realizing her perfect father has faults of his own" drama, is when William Hurt reaches for Meryl Streep's fragile hand, a rare reassurance of his love, and ever so slowly swirls her to Bette Midler's rendition of "Do You Wanna Dance". I watched this film with yearning. Craving chances not taken with issues regarding my own mother. She did not die of cancer--she died of her own hand by pills, in my arms. I best stop here. Got tissues? A grand film for thoughtful provocation. Thank you for your interest & comments--CDS Serious drama, luminous Streep This adaptation of Anna Quindlen's novel of a daughter coming to terms with her mother's fatal illness is boosted immeasurably by Meryl Streep. As a wife and mother dying slowly, agonizingly of cancer, she turns in her by now expected superb performance; even so, there are scenes that amaze. When Streep, whose entire identity has been formed around her skills at running a household, instructs daughter Renee Zellweger on how to have a wedding that she will never have the chance to organize or preside over, her words, delivered without an ounce of false sentiment, will draw tears from the hardest-hearted viewer. The film is fortunate to have Streep on hand, as she does much to alleviate weaknesses elsewhere. The structure and tone of Quindlen's book has been somewhat altered, not to its advantage. Hurt, playing the philandering father, comes off as more of a weakling and charlatan in the film script, thus skewing the emotional balance toward the women in the family. The mystery of whether someone in the family committed a mercy killing is clumsily handled, dealt with in segments showing Zellweger being interviewed by a police official that interrupt the flow of the drama. Finally, Zellweger herself, though sympathetic and a worthy foil for Streep, is not altogether convincing as a driven career woman. Still, the underlying truths about life, death and family, as brought forth by Meryl Streep's luminous performance, make this a drama worth savoring. Buy One True Thing at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  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