One True Thing (1998)

A career woman reassesses her parents' lives after she is forced to care for her cancer-stricken mother.

Director:

Carl Franklin

Writers:

Anna Quindlen (novel), Karen Croner (screenplay)

Stars:

Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger, William Hurt

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meryl Streep	...	Kate Gulden
Renée Zellweger	...	Ellen Gulden
William Hurt	...	George Gulden
Tom Everett Scott	...	Brian Gulden
Lauren Graham	...	Jules
Nicky Katt	...	Jordan Belzer
James Eckhouse	...	District Attorney
Patrick Breen	...	G.A. Tweedy
Gerrit Graham	...	Oliver Most
David Byron	...	Senator Sullivan
Stephen Peabody	...	Harold
Lizbeth MacKay	...	Dr. Cohen
Mary Catherine Wright	...	Clarice
Sloane Shelton	...	Evelyn Best
Michele Shay	...	June

Storyline

When a tough New Yorker's mother is stricken with a serious illness, she is forced to quit her job and her relationship with her boyfriend to take care of her, finding out a lot of things she didn't know about her mother and father and her life along the way.

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Plot Keywords:

love | job | cancer | new york | professor | 

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Taglines:

Love What You Have.

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Country:

USA Brazil

Language:

English Portuguese

Release Date:

18 September 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Cosas que importan

Filming Locations:

Morristown, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$6,606,455 (USA) (18 September 1998)

Gross:

$23,209,440 (USA) (13 November 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Monarch Pictures, Ufland, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In some birthday-party scenes, daylight is visible through some windows, and lighting on the staircase suggests daylight, although the action is supposed to be at night, and other windows show darkness outdoors.

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Quotes

Kate Gulden: It's so much easier to be happy, my love. It's so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, and you have so much, instead of always yearning for what you're missing, or what it is you're imagining you're missing. It's so much more peaceful.

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Connections

References Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986)

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Soundtracks

"Silent Night"
Music by Franz Gruber
Lyrics by Joseph Mohr
Performed by members of the Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church Choir, Maplewood, New Jersey

User Reviews

A well-acted, non-schmaltzy drama

What impressed me the most about "One True Thing" was how up-front it was when the daughter mentions her mother's cancer at the beginning of the movie. As depressing the subject matter was, it was a refreshing change of pace instead of being blindsided with the revelation about a character's fatal illness 2/3 into the movie ("Love Story" "Terms of Endearment", etc.).

Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger and William Hurt give very strong performances that don't go over the edge. The characters they play seem human; they're not perfect people. (Arguably, one might not say that about the "Martha Stewart"-type character Streep plays but throughout the film, I found her character to be noble in a non-sappy way. She's dealing with her plight the best way she knows how.)

"One True Thing" is an observant, unsentimental family drama in which the tears at the end were well-earned.