26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shifting Perceptions Lead to a "True" Understanding, February 17, 2002
"One True Thing" beautifully and poignantly demonstrates that appearances can be deceiving, and that what one sees on the surface doesn't necessarily reflect the deeper truth. In this brilliantly acted film, Zellweger (the daughter), discovers that her notions about her parents (Streep and Hurt) and about marriage in general were illusions, and, in turn, comes to a greater understanding of both her parents and the realities of marriage.
Zellweger's relationship with her mother was always strained. and she looked down upon her mother's life thinking it provincial and small. Her father, the college department head and National Book Award winner, however, was put on a pedestal, appearing larger than life to her. When Zellweger moves back home to nurse her dying mother, she painfully discovers that her father treats her accomplishments as "small" and irrelevant (comparable to her view of her mother), and that he is far removed from her idealized image of him. She, in turn, comes to a new admiration and appreciation for her mother's perserverance and wisdom about life.
Streep, one of our greatest actresses, can communicate more with a look on her expressive face than most actresses can with hours of dialogue. Zellweger, another talented performer, more than holds her own with the formidable acting talents of Streep. The two of them together create scenes of enormous power and emotional energy. They make this perceptive and absorbing film an unforgettable experience.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful and Interesting Family Drama!, May 20, 2000
It seems less and less frequently that we get to see a superbly assembled cast of actors united in a story that tells itself in terms of its human interest, level of drama, and opportunity to learn something from the characters about the nature of life, relationships, and ultimately about ourselves. This movie offers such an opportunity. All of the cast memebers, but especially Meryl Streep and William Hurt, do an outstanding job in presenting this tale of a family in crisis, and the hidden secrets, weaknesses and strengths of its members and their enduring bonds to each other. The photography is well done, and the sound is excellent as well.
This is a worthwhile and serious movie, involving some interesting intellectual issues about how the needs of a family of strong but loving individuals and quite strong and needy personalities clash and interact with each other over an increasingly critical stage of terminal illness for the matriarchal mother of this modern American family. Overall, then, I recommend this as an absorbing examination of an intellectual family with a range of family issues such as rilvary, and a number of hidden dimensions to the relationships within the family itself. It is painful to watch each of them struggle to deal with a member's decline and death due to cancer. One of the increasingly rare worthwhile movie experiences, and one well worth owning.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It Goes Where Most Aren't Willing..., January 25, 2004
The first time I watched this film it was the 3rd movie we were watching in a marathon. I promised myself I would let myself fall asleep...and with the slow beginning I thought I was well on my way to dreamland. HOWEVER,something about the movie kept my attention, and by the end I was astounded by new revelations.
I watched this film again recently, and again I was amazed at all that this movie accomplishes in a very understated way. At a time when I personally feel frustrated at all the preachiness I see going on in literature and movies, I am a champion of this masterpiece. This film engaged me, brought me through a rich journey, and left me as a changed person...all without telling me what I should take away from the film.
For a little more background, the storyline is as follows: an up-and-coming NYC journalist (Zellweger) goes home to celebrate her father's birthday in a small town. She despises the vulgar simplicity of the town, her mother, the costume party, etc. However, she absolutely idolizes her father, who is a well-known English professor at a nearby university.
However, while she is at home, her beloved father coerces her to put her budding career on hold so she can take care of her mother (Streep), who she learns is battling cancer. Zellweger's character is openly angered & offended by this request...which is just the beginning of script filled with a refreshingly honest look at our ugly, selfish & occassionally brilliant emotions in such situations.
In coming to stay with her mother, Zellweger continues to despise the ignoble life of women's meetings, town decorating, baking, etc. that she is forced to join. Up to this point in the movie, everything is as you might predict or expect in the storyline. However, where the movie goes from here is absolutely phenomenal. As this daughter lives in her mom's world and begins to understand her mother's very understated, unacademic life, she is opened to whole new worlds of humanity. At the same time, as her opinion of her mother rises, her opinion of her father comes into question. As the movie explores this whole dynamic, more twists come and this daughter is overwhelmed by the complexity of relationships & adult life. No one is right. No one is wrong. Nothing is simple, and everyone struggles as he fights his own demons.
At the very end, this movie shows (not preaches but shows) an absolutely breath-taking portrayal of love well after the rose-tinted glasses have come off. I don't want to give anything away, but it's when Streep wraps her arms around her husband after his late night out. After being barraged with so many images of Hollywood love, the daughter (and the audience) is speechless at a protrayal of deep, full, rich love that has grown in the face of so much pain & struggle of life.
This might admittedly be more of a girl's movie than a guy's. One of my guy friends only stayed awake because of the DA interrogation of the daughter interspersed throughout the film. However, many, many of my girlfriends who hate chick flicks were as pierced by this movie as I was. (Many of them have also dismissed their mother's maternal role in their lives and have idolized their fathers.)
I simply can't express in words how wonderful and paniful and majestic this piece is. And it's so refreshing because it goes where so many films aren't willing to go - to the stuff of our true, everyday lives & situations that aren't glamorous but are filled with ugly emotions, pride, and underestimations of others.
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