Product Details

• Actors: Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham
• Directors: Carl Franklin
• Writers: Anna Quindlen, Karen Croner
• Producers: Harry J. Ufland, Jesse Beaton, Leslie Morgan, William W. Wilson III
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.0)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0783230583
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,244 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "One True Thing" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Based on Anna Quindlen's bestselling novel, this is a mother-daughter and father-daughter story, two for the price of one. But director Carl Franklin also tries to inject a police-mystery angle that it neither needs nor will support. Renee Zellweger plays a young writer on the rise, who has finally gotten her break for a New York magazine. While home for a birthday party for her nearly famous writer father (William Hurt), she learns that her mother (Meryl Streep) has been diagnosed with cancer. Then her father does the unthinkable: He all but commands her to put her career on hold to take care of her mother and nurse her through her illness. Dad, a popular college professor who has never gotten the literary acclaim he always believed he deserved, essentially checks out--and daughter must play parent to her mother. Strong performances by Streep and Zellweger give this parent-child relationship the heart--and the anger--of the real thing, while Hurt seems slightly disembodied as the self-involved father whose needs have dominated both women. Still, the detective-story aspect (the film is told in flashback, as the cops try to discover whether someone slipped Mom a fatal dose of morphine) is a construct that could have been done without. --Marshall Fine

Product Description

An engaging often humorous story of an ambitious young journalist who returns to her family only to find that rediscovering her parents mean redefining herself in ways she never expected. Insightful inspiring and unforgettable one true thing is truly a film that touches the heart. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 02/27/2007 Starring: Meryl Streep William Hurt Run time: 128 minutes Rating: R Director: Carl Franklin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MOVIE TO TOUCH YOUR HEART, June 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: One True Thing [VHS] (VHS Tape)

GET READY WITH THE TISSUES, HOWEVER, THE MOVIE IS SO TRUE TO LIFE AND WHAT HAPPENS WITHIN A FAMILY TOUCHED WITH A CANCER VICTIM. I CAN RELATE TO SO MUCH OF THE MOVIE. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW CANCER CAN AFFECT YOUR FAMILY AND WHAT GOOD CAN COME FROM GIVING FROM THE HEART, THIS MOVIE WILL GIVE YOU INSIGHT TO WHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE CARE GIVER AS WELL AS THE CANCER PATIENT. THE MOVIE IS WELL DONE AND I GIVE IT A FIVE STAR FOR QUALITY PRODUCTION. IF YOU HAVE JUST GONE THROUGH A TRAGIC SITUATION WITH CANCER, GET READY FOR SCENES WHICH WILL GIVE YOU INSIGHT INTO WHY PEOPLE ACT AS THEY DO.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shifting Perceptions Lead to a "True" Understanding, February 17, 2002

By	cdset "cdset" (Saylorsburg, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One True Thing [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"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.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful and Interesting Family Drama!, May 20, 2000

By	Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.