One might consider the premise of this film to be that around the edges of life, sometimes we see that ordinary things make us who we really are. In that space we can come together and really love each other for what's good in each of us and despite what's not so good. That's the thing that really counts.
As others have said here, the performances were the best part of the film. The framing device of Renee Zellweger's character telling her story to the District Attorney didn't really work. Some of the relationships seemed underdeveloped. There should have been more of the son, and either more (or less) the best friend. Still, the film definitely transcends the 'disease of the week' genre into which some might categorize it. It isn't sentimental or schmaltzy. Much of that is because of the tension in the family relationships here on display.
William Hurt isn't scared to play a really flawed person without trying to necessarily redeem him. Zellweger's discovery that he's not quite the hero she thought and her subsequent anger because of this gives the film an edge it might not have had if this was the story of a less complicated happy family. But guess what? Most of us are "dysfunctional," and that's what makes us human. The writer and the director subtly bring these things forward.
Renee Zellweger, with her sweet face, takes a little while to make herself believable as the outwardly tough Ellen, but ultimately hers is a really thoughtful, moving performance. You can really see her character growing up. During the worst of circumstances, Ellen learns who her parents are as people, not as the images of the brilliant intellectual father and the fluffy suburban mum she's always seen.
As usual, Meryl Streep is magic. That almost sounds unfair, like she's always the same in everything. But Kate Gulden is really different to any character she's played before. She really makes this woman a fully realized human being, showing us sides of the character that Kate's children, her friends, maybe even she herself never knew she had.
Kate appears at first to be a kind of Martha Stewart/Suzy Homemaker perfectionist who is nevertheless a kind and sweet woman. And Streep's portrayal gives us the sense that before her illness, essentially Kate was that. But through her insightful performance, we learn that perhaps that image was what she put out for others to see, maybe even as a coping mechanism to gloss over those parts of her life that she was unsatisfied with.
Director Carl Franklin really shows restraint in this film. It's definitely a tear jerker, but it doesn't manipulate the viewer with a sugar sweet picture of a dying woman and her family. Instead, "One True Thing" shows us what this situation might really be like, and invites the viewer to empathize. The Christmas scene at the town square with the singing of "Silent Night" is maybe the saddest but strangely also the most uplifting moment of the film.
As the outward trappings that made up the Gulden family as they saw themselves fall away during Kate's illness and death, they learn about the nature of love. It isn't always easy or pretty or deserved. It isn't even always a choice that we make. Love just IS, and will carry us on even after those we love have gone.
As others have said here, the performances were the best part of the film. The framing device of Renee Zellweger's character telling her story to the District Attorney didn't really work. Some of the relationships seemed underdeveloped. There should have been more of the son, and either more (or less) the best friend. Still, the film definitely transcends the 'disease of the week' genre into which some might categorize it. It isn't sentimental or schmaltzy. Much of that is because of the tension in the family relationships here on display.
William Hurt isn't scared to play a really flawed person without trying to necessarily redeem him. Zellweger's discovery that he's not quite the hero she thought and her subsequent anger because of this gives the film an edge it might not have had if this was the story of a less complicated happy family. But guess what? Most of us are "dysfunctional," and that's what makes us human. The writer and the director subtly bring these things forward.
Renee Zellweger, with her sweet face, takes a little while to make herself believable as the outwardly tough Ellen, but ultimately hers is a really thoughtful, moving performance. You can really see her character growing up. During the worst of circumstances, Ellen learns who her parents are as people, not as the images of the brilliant intellectual father and the fluffy suburban mum she's always seen.
As usual, Meryl Streep is magic. That almost sounds unfair, like she's always the same in everything. But Kate Gulden is really different to any character she's played before. She really makes this woman a fully realized human being, showing us sides of the character that Kate's children, her friends, maybe even she herself never knew she had.
Kate appears at first to be a kind of Martha Stewart/Suzy Homemaker perfectionist who is nevertheless a kind and sweet woman. And Streep's portrayal gives us the sense that before her illness, essentially Kate was that. But through her insightful performance, we learn that perhaps that image was what she put out for others to see, maybe even as a coping mechanism to gloss over those parts of her life that she was unsatisfied with.
Director Carl Franklin really shows restraint in this film. It's definitely a tear jerker, but it doesn't manipulate the viewer with a sugar sweet picture of a dying woman and her family. Instead, "One True Thing" shows us what this situation might really be like, and invites the viewer to empathize. The Christmas scene at the town square with the singing of "Silent Night" is maybe the saddest but strangely also the most uplifting moment of the film.
As the outward trappings that made up the Gulden family as they saw themselves fall away during Kate's illness and death, they learn about the nature of love. It isn't always easy or pretty or deserved. It isn't even always a choice that we make. Love just IS, and will carry us on even after those we love have gone.