Perilously light on drama and overly reliant on kooky comic mugging from Renée Zellweger, "One True Thing" is a film that is at least briefly enlivened by Meryl Streep before collapsing under the weight of its bizarre quasi-mystery framework.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 22, 2024

Probably won't appeal to teens.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 26, 2010

Carl Franklin's understated direction keeps the tears and life-affirming revelations from congealing into chicken shmaltz for the soul.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 18, 2008

There isn't one schmaltzy moment in the entire film, and any tears the viewer sobs into their hankies are well-earned.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 18, 2008

The script shifts audience sympathies about quite adroitly, though it's a pity all the men had to be such humbugs.

| Jan 26, 2006

There's a lot of Oscar timber here...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Streep, Zellweger, and Hurt are outstanding.

| Original Score: B | Apr 9, 2005

the movie ultimately belongs to Streep, who illuminates the extraordinary soul inside an everyday woman.

| Jun 4, 2003

One of those rare films -- a movie that is genuinely sad and moving without being melodramatic, sentimental or hokey.

| Original Score: B+ | May 22, 2003

Streep's performance will probably secure her another Oscar nomination.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 8, 2003

As finely wrought a drama as one could ask for.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 7, 2002

Brings extraordinary honesty and keen emotional pitch to the family drama.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 15, 2002

A well-oiled machine manufactured to tap our welled-up ducts.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2002

A heart-affecting film that challenges us to confront some of the myths and meanings we have constructed about our parents.

| Mar 3, 2002

Even director Carl Franklin...can't prevent One True Thing from descending into chick-movie hell.

Full Review | May 11, 2001

Instead of being just about coping with cancer, it tells an interesting story about a young woman coming to terms with the fact that her parents are not who she always thought they were.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 27, 2001

One True Thing demonstrates that the power of simple things, the transcendent nature of the ordinary, can make for riveting filmmaking.

| Feb 14, 2001

The film is helped, by wonderful performances by two of the top talents in the business in Streep and Hurt, and Zellweger stays right with them.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 1, 2001

Streep is luminous as the hypermaternal Kate.

| Jan 1, 2000

One True Thing celebrates the very things you don't miss, or even know exist, until they are gone.

| Jan 1, 2000