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One True Thing Reviews
Solid acting and a gritty subject, One True Thing tells of Streep's journey through cancer and how it affects her family. When the pain became too much, her life was ended short and the framework for the film is Zellweger's interview with the investigator.
Exceptional performances. Such a moving topic and definitely made me reflect on how much I take my own mother for granted and all she does for EVERYONE
There’s one true thing and that’s family Carl Franklin directs Renee Zelwegger, the late William Hurt, and Meryl Streep Zelwegger plays Ellen and Streep plays Kate Gulden, her mother Ellen was never close to her yet Kate was the matriarch Ellen’s a successful journalist in NYC but has to drop everything after her mother is diagnosed with cancer Her father doesn’t see her for what she is and Ellen has no idea how to be the mother of the house Secrets and revelations start popping up the more time she spends with her parents There’s truly some solid performances by everyone But this is so depressing it’ll make you feel not so blissful after it’s over It’s also 2 hours too long so 90 min would’ve sufficed It’s tough to sit through so have the tissues ready to wipe your eyes
Little more than a made for tv movie on a low budget with a bad script. What were these actors thinking when they took the job? The plot has big holes and the interview with the lawyer that enables Renee Z extra screen time in close-ups has no narrative use. It's agenda to give voice to unappreciated house wives is extremely dated and drenched in cliches.
Ellen Gulden (Renée Zellweger) is a career woman writing for a magazine who can't understand her mother (Meryl Streep) while looking up toher father, George (William Hurt), a fellow writer and literature professor. Yet when her mother gets sick with cancer, she must come home and learn to love her. This will force her to evaluate how she sees her father, as she discovers several long buried secrets from her mother. It also means giving up her life, a fact that she resents. The film was directed by Carl Franklin and written by Karen Croner, whose script was based on One True Thing by Anna Quindlen, a book based on her real life experiences. I usually avoid dramas like this, but I can recognize when a movie is well made.
Meryl Streep has received an unprecedented 21 Oscar nominations. That's 9 more than any other actor has ever received. It was for this reason that I set my 2022 goal of viewing all her performances that I hadn't already seen. One of her Oscar nominated acting performances was in 1998's "One True Thing". And very deservedly so. Ellen Gulden (Renee Zellweger) is a writer in New York City. She follows in the footsteps of the father she idolizes, George Gulden (William Hurt), who is a published novelist and now a professor at Princeton University. When her mother, Kate (Meryl Streep), is diagnosed with cancer, Ellen is asked by her father to move back home to help take care of her. Reluctantly Kate agrees to do so, but her decision is more about pleasing her father than actually helping her mother. Ellen's mother is an individual who seeks to bring joy, companionship, and empathy to others. When Ellen grew up, she saw her mother's existence as silly and one undeserving of respect or appreciation. But as Ellen spends more time with her mother Kate (and with Kate's close friends), her understanding of life, and what is truly important, begins to change. Ellen begins to learn all her mother is, as she simultaneously comes to understand all her father isn't. This film is not perfect. It relies much too much on exposition as it opens to establish its characters and starting point. But that's easily forgiven once the story starts unfolding. The acting is superb. Streep radiates the human experience throughout her character's decline, just as Zellweger portrays the anguish of having to re-evaluate all her character had previously determined were examples of a successful life. Hurt has the unenviable job of playing a character that, without Kate's light, is quite frankly a loser. I am not ashamed to say that I cried often during the second half of this movie. It brilliantly expresses the universal experience of when a child comes to understand that her parents are just as human and fallible as she is. Huge kudos to the film's Director Hal Franklin and the amazing cast for such a moving experience.
Its a bit melodramatic but the acting makes it better.
A touching and deep family story. The acting was really top notch from everyone. The interview in the lawyers office throughout the movie provided an aspect of intrigue to an otherwise classic style drama. At the end I was pining to call my mom and tell her I love her.
Superb Meryl being just herself. Superb. Can´t help myself disliking Rene for the role she played. An unfeeling daughter despite how super Meryl was.
A nice family drama with really nice performances from Meryl Streep, William Hurt, and Renee Zellweger. Great script and score as well
2015-03-15 very well done, sad but good
sad, sobbing story. a delight!
Really depressing movie, but Meryl Streep succeeds again in delivering an amazing performance. Could have done without the whole crime drama feel at times.
Good, well-acted (Meryl Streep is always good) tear jerker about a family struggling with the mother's terminal cancer.
I cried so much. Such a beautiful movie with so much emotion from both Meryl Streep and Rene Zellweger. A true beauty!
A very honest and emotional movie. Made me connect with my loss as I lost my grandmother due to cancer.
I wasn't so sure how I would feel about this piece, but it proved itself to be important. Of course, to a degree, but it's still glorious. One True Thing stars Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger and William Hurt. This centers around Ellen Gulden, a young, ambitious yet hard woman who works for a newspaper and is very successful at it. Her life seems to be ideal and normal, a job she loves, a boyfriend she has a passion for (it doesn't feel like love) and a girlfriend she hangs out with. She lives the desirable life of a person in their twenties. This is all interrupted one day when she gets a call from her father, Kate. He calls her and tells her about a birthday party her father, George, is having. Annoyed and feeling forced, Ellen decides to go. Kate appears and is genuinely a soulful, extremely delightful woman of two children and a seemingly lovely husband. She is bright and a joy to be around, making you want her to be your own mother or at the very least, a family member. But Ellen only sees her as an irritating, stubborn pushover. You can see this from her attitude towards her and begin to feel sympathy for Kate and rather frustrated with Ellen. Not really angry, but frustrated. It is clear Ellen adores her father, a middle aged college professor. As the story progresses, Ellen realizes and finds out that Kate is ill and eventually diagnosed with terminal cancer. George forces her to stay with her mother and she reluctantly does. As she spends time with her ailing mother as her caretaker, she slowly realizes that she is becoming her daughter too. And as she becomes closer to Kate, she notices her father's sneaky acts as he is cheating with a student. But of course, the best performance is Meryl Streep. She never comes off as bad or mediocre or even simply as OK. She enters Kate's world of bottled up pain and shining nature. She is like a warm blanket you climb into bed with at the end of the day. Her work paid off with her 11th Oscar nomination, which she would receive seven seven more in the future. Renee Zellweger seems as if she is in a simple soap opera in the beginning, but she is perfectly fine as a regular woman who has problems with keeping relationships with people who are close to her. Hurt is solid but seems a bit dull in other scenes. The film itself sounds like a typical old family soap opera, but comes off as uncanny and intriguing. It's not about troubles in families, but about how to improve them.