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

Biutiful, 2010

Biutiful, 2010
Director: Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu
Cast: Javier Bardem, Hanna Bouchaib, Maricel Alvarez


Stage: Cankarjev dom / Linhartova dvorana - official stage of Life

Biutiful in short: This is a story of a man in free fall. On the road to redemption, darkness lights his way. Connected with the afterlife, Uxbal is a tragic hero and father of two who's sensing the danger of death. He struggles with a tainted reality and a fate that works against him in order to forgive, for love, and forever


Preps: I adore the cast of Javier Bardem. And spanish movies seem so truthful and dramatic - at least the ones shown on LIFE. This year no Almodovar. Nevertheless, I need to see at least some of them. And this was the selection.


Reality: The movie strikes hard with its honesty, sincere approach and a solid, difficult story. Javier Bardem is the main protagonist, seeking the way to forgiveness, from the people in his life towards him and vice versa. In his deep an emotional and soft man with a good heart, on the outside a hard negotiator, difficult to live with and ready to argue every time something falls into his lap when he's unprepared to face with it. Living alone with two kids and finding out he has a deadly disease which leaves him a few months to live, makes the story hard to swallow and with mouth wide open you can merely watch him pull off with everything he planned until the day he passes away. This includes several attempts of making up with his divorced wife, trying to live with her and leaving her the kids she's incapable of taking care of.
On the other hand, making business with his brother (that is messing up with his ex wife behind his back), business with chinese labour (exploited), but still he's trying to make at least some comfort for them, as he knows some of them personally. Making the wrong decision in buying heating devices they all end up dead, and his misfortune and depression even deepens and takes an endless downfall that you can only stare at, shaking your head in misbelief.

The movie touches in many departments you never want to think about. What to do in this situation? Forgive and forget, move forward, leave everything behind? How much pain can one stand.. and when to tell the children you are going away forever. Hard decisions, a true drama that will rock your guts and make you very pesimistic about the things you think you can change but in reality cannot, or even influence a bit on them. No go.
A strong recommendation for this piece. It amazed every last bit of me.


My personal rating: 9,0 (an intriguing deep drama about misfortune will make your heart wanna cry sometimes. It can drag you so deep into its core - the movie - that you need to think it all over again - several times. And the supreme cast of Javier Bardem).


Biutiful on IMDB

Spanish official movie site