Movie of the Day (11/13/2009)- One True Thing (1998)
Starring Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger and William Hurt
Directed by Carl Franklin
- Do you ever find that when you are looking forward to a certian film's release that you virtually ignore most other films being released around the same time?? Such was the case with me and One True Thing back in 1998. I had become so pre-occupied with so many other films coming out around that time (Apt Pupil, Cruel Intentions, Ronin) that I let this film slip through my radar. Years later, through some reason which currently escapes me, the movie found me. And I'm so thankful it did.
One True Thing is about a successful young journalist Ellen (Zellweger) who spent her childhood idolizing her writer father (Hurt) while ignoring her doting mother (Streep.) After living in his shadow all her life, Ellen now spends her adulthood trying to make him proud of her. Upon a visit home for his birthday, news comes that Kate (Streep) has cancer. George (Hurt) asks ellen to come home and take care of Kate as she battles the illness. Both mother and daughter are not in favor of this arrangement, but give into it in the end. Throughout Kate's illness, Ellen begins to not only question the man she has always idolized, but also to finally examine the woman who has always been her mother.
On the surface this might appear to be a film worthy of made-for-tv status, yet the writing and the actors help elevate it to be one of the most enriching family dramas of the late 90s. Streep received her 11th Oscar nomination for her portrayl of a woman whose whole existence was devoted to being a mother. Though she lost to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love, one cannot write this off as just another Oscar bid by Streep. Indeed it is her performance that is the heart and soul of One True Thing. She inhabits qualities of all mothers and in her suffering, the audience feels her grieve for her family, rather than for herself. When she knows she is dying she cries, but not because of her own mortality, but for the fact that she still has so much more to give to her family. The main example of this can be found in the scene between her and Zellweger in her bedroom where Kate, for one of the first times, airs out her frustrations about her illness. It is, in my humble opinion, one of Streep's finest hours on screen.
Beyond just a brauva performance from Streep, the film should resonate with any person who has never particularly felt that kinship with a parent that we may have felt should have been stronger than it was. Its easy to love your parents I feel. However its even easier to disregard them, take them for granted, never realize what they do for us, and understand how much of their world we consume. After Ellen takes on many of Kate's duties when she is no longer able to, she asks her mother: "How do you do this everyday in this house and no one notices?" One True Thing not only makes us face this realization, but it also makes us recognize our own parents as genuine people with thoughts, interests, and opinions as opposed the institutions we eventually come to see them as.
Just as Ellen finally gets to know who her mother is, she also beings to realize that her father is not the mythical hero she has conjured up in her mind. The more Ellen becomes immersed in her mother's world, the more withdrawn George becomes, and Ellen realizes that she has inherited her disregard from her mother from George. Its disheartening to view the role model you looked up to your whole life with older, wiser eyes because it strips one of the comforting illusions and familiarity which have helped to shape who we've become. Yet for Ellen, as with most individuals, it is a necessary event in life.
One True Thing will never be considered a classic. More than a decade has passed since its release and the film is still being considered just another piece of dramatic fluff. Yet the film serves as a valuable reminder for people who take those in thier lives for granted. As both the tagline and Kate proclaim: "love what you have."
-please enjoy what I consider to be two of the best scenes in the film...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsOBIv69VAs&feature=related
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