One True Thing, 1998

One True Thing, 1998
Director: Carl Franklin
Cast: Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Renee Zellwegger






Stage: home TV selection, on a nice Sunday evening.

One True Thing in short: 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.

Preps: none in perticular. When scrolling along TV channels, I figure this is the piece with an extraordinarily good cast. Therefore worth at least checking out.

Reality: One true thing is one good thing. For sure, a touching drama that will win the hearts of all the members in audience that have similar experience. The hardest thing I guess is watching someone you love, die, or die away, as it is vividly shown in this piece. I have IRL experience in quite similar field, therefore I was amazingly touched by individual scenes that horrificly reminded me of mine back at my home. I conclude that the director or the scriptwriter (or both) have done their homework and proposed the real thing instead of some guessed drama effects that would pack in the seats in movie houses.

Furthermore, not only the cast is brilliant per se (in terms of who is acting in the piece), their live impressions of the characters are amazing. Once again Streep is the Star with a capital S, her act is beyond excellent. The same goes for Hurt and Zellwegger. Although Zellwegger found her niche in characters that are either goofy, romantic, oh-so-american-hollywood-wedding - like, she is strong also in dramas. One for sure is this one. Overtaking responsibility for your sick mother, when you should have be doing something for your career and future, is a great burden and can consequently lead to the state Zellwegger so brilliantly exposes. The rage, lifting up her skirt every time she finds a "situation" - and she finds them a whole bunch, is not only very real, but also so sad to take in - from viewer's perspective. Obviously, everyone has his/her own truth and the reality is in the eyes of the observer. Nevertheless, in my opinion, if someone that hasn't had similar experience, really wants to see, how it is, this is definitely a must see.


My personal rate: 8,0 (a good, strong, solid piece. One of better dramas on family tragedy I have ever seen).

One True Thing on IMDB

The Bachelor, 1999

The Bachelor, 1999
Director:Gary Sinyor
Cast: Renee Zellwegger, Chris O'Donnel, Artie Lange



The Bachelor in short:Jimmie is seeing his single friends get married one by one. He isn't too worried until his girlfriend Anne catches the bouquet at his friend Marco's wedding. Suddenly, his wild mustang days are numbered. He finally decides to propose to her, but he sticks his foot in his mouth and botches the proposal. Being insulted by the defeatist proposal, Anne leaves town on an assignment. After she's gone, he finds out that his recently-deceased grandfather's will stipulates that he gets nothing of a multi-million dollar fortune unless he's married by 6:05pm on his 30th birthday: tomorrow! Not being able to find Anne, Jimmie begins backtracking through his past girlfriends to find a wife.

Stage: Home TV selection

Preps: None in perticular, the first five minutes sparkle my interest..

Reality: Well, this is supposed to be an anti-marketing campaign with a theme marriage. Who gets married and why are the "studs" - obviously self called male persons, so fucked up, when they get married? In the movie, it's all about getting the least out of your life when you get married and tons of excuses why not to get married.
For me, the marriage institution is not as important as it may sound from my beginning. However, I despise movies that go so deep into this topic. For heaven's sake, if a guy doesn't want to get married, so what. I mean, you can either to decide to "only live with a girl" and the marriage stays only a paper for what I can see, or you can go and smell the grass on the other side for as long as you want. But making a movie about how depressive life gets when you get married.. well, come on. It's really below the standards and it puts off any desire left in those that really want to get married.

Every now and then, you pop into a movie that turns a serious topic into some sort of comedy wannabe. Well, this piece is a commedy wanna be. So the guys are supposed to be these stereotipes of mustangs, running free, until a dragon lady catches them. Well, give me a break. It really pulled my nerve. You poor creatures, you men. Well, in my opinion, the director made a completely fool out of himself with this piece, as most of these things are not so stereotypical as they might seem in this movie. Life is not really black and white. It's maybe in the US, that a life is measured through 1:0 standard (married : not married), but in my honest opinion, real life doesn't work this way.


My personal rating: 2,0 (for amusement sake, not for the content)
The Bachelor on IMDB

My one and Only, 2009

My one and only, 2009
Director: Richard Loncraine
Cast: Renee Zellwegger, Logan Lerman, Kevin Bacon


My one and only in short: An unusual road trip movie about a mother driving her two sons from New York to Pittsburgh to St. Louis and eventually Hollywood in her quest to find a man to take care of them all.


Stage: Home theatre

Preps: None. I don't know the movie, I see Renee and I am satisfied. I like to see her act as she has grown tremendously in the last five years. Each role I find something interesting and unusual in this attractive actress and most of the roles she plays, are tailored for her. However, I never lose the Bridget Jones image :)



Reality: I tend to think about the time this was filmed - I mean the time presented in the movie. In my opinion, Zellwegger in this cast would more suit in the beginning of this century than in the nowadays. The fact that she's a lady, a spoilt lady, never used to work, just doesn't fit in the present figure we have in our minds with a woman nowadays. Still, she acts it brilliantly, as she struggles to keep her spirit and her pride in the act against her husband.

The only thing you need to know about women is something that keeps me smiling long after that man, she is chasing, is gone. They are either too hot or too cold. So you need a pullover or something to make them warm, if they are cold, you need to have it at you at all times. There are several topics in the movie, that are true and honestly addressed, and the struggle for life is real. How to know your children when you don't know them at all. And what is the purpose, the happiness of the parents, or the children? For they cannot be satisfied at the same level, the movie implies. I agree totally. See it. I think you might like it :)


My personal rating: 6,0 (a good script, good act, a bit poor on the flow, gets a bit unreal and unbelievable somewhere in the middle and to the end of it. But Bacon and Zellwegger get some more than decent dialogues and I think it is more that just one of the pieces in this genre.)

One and only on IMDB
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