One True Thing

Starring:Meryl Streep, RenÃ©e Zellweger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham, Nicky Katt, James Eckhouse, Patrick Breen, Gerrit Graham, David Byron, Stephen Peabody, Lizbeth MacKay, Mary Catherine Wright, Sloane Shelton, Michele Shay, Bobo Lewis, Marylouise Burke, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Diana Canova, John Deyle
Director: Carl Franklin
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

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

Customer Reviews:

Believable.......2007-06-16

I had a hard time putting into words how I feel about One True Thing. This is a believable movie about one families' struggle to battle their mother's cancer. Through their journey they were able to come closer as a family and learn more about each other....until the end where they learn the one true thing.

I really think that Meryl Streep did a fantastic job at playing Kate, the mother. It was almost life-like.

If anyone has ever seen anyone struggle with a disease, they can identify with this movie. Be forewarned, tissues are a must. :-(

A view to a soul!.......2007-05-16

Ellen (Zellwegger) is a rising star with a New York magazine that may have just gotten her big break and chance to 'wow' her literary professor father (Hurt) with her new found success.

After she returns home to attend a birthday party for her father she learns that her mother (Streep) has been diagnosed with cancer. Ellen's father guilts her into saying that she will put her future on hold and move home to help care for her mother. In Ellen's eyes her father was strong and authoritative, intelligent and stoic; while her mother was silly and naïve and involved herself in frivolous, meaningless things.

Over the course of her mother's care Ellen begins to see things in a different light. Convinced that her father is cheating on her mother while she has been forced to be the caregiver she begins to blaze a new path of consciousness. In a twist of circumstance Ellen comes to realize that her father never had an original thought of his own and that her mother was the backbone of the family...the one who understood the capacity of each member of the family and the one that soothed and protected the wounds of missed opportunities and bore the brunt of failures. She was his "One True Thing."

One True Thing

Life is full of surprises.......2006-08-12

A close, loving and stable family is knocked back on its heels when Mum (Meryl Streep), the strong uniting force develops cancer. Dad (John Hurt) is too busy with his career as a university professor and head of department to look after mum and it is inconceivable to employ a nurse, even though there is money enough to do it, so it falls to the daughter (Renée Zellweger) to put her career at risk to look after her. She makes an enormous sacrifice and performs miracles looking after her mum but her dad doesn't really appreciate it and carries on with his own career and affairs. The son does very little to help and on top fails his exams. The daughter finds out some quite unpalatable things about her dad which she thinks mum doesn't know. We see poor mum gradually dying from cancer and in the end the pain and suffering is too much and she is dispatched to the better life. But who did it? The daughter, dad or.......
On the whole a very good, engrossing film. I shall watch it again soon.

One, true great movie.......2006-04-10

This movie has it right even before we know what it's about just by the casting itself. When you have an amazing cast like Meryl Streep, Wiliam Hurt and Renee Zelwegger etc 9 times out of ten you can't go wrong. Then when we do find out what the story to this movie is we realise just how wonderful it is. There's no need to give a synopsis of this film considering Amazon do it for us but I wanted to rate this movie to advise anyone who hasn't seen this film to rent it immediately. If you like a movie with real human emotion, realistic storylines and fantastic acting this is the film to watch.

One True Thing.......2005-10-23

This film is so well performed by Meryl Streep, William Hurt, and especially Renee Zellweger, that I could experience the frustrations of each of the characters. I felt the pain of Meryl Streep and her stress brought on by her inability to do the things that she loved to do for her family and home. I felt the struggle of William Hurt trying to receive acclaim for his literary work, and having it forgotten by the one person, whose opinion meant so much to him. I felt the resentment that Renee felt being thrust into a situation that she felt could have been dealt with by her father. I felt her ineptness trying to make a meal for her mother's friends and being unable to manage it the way her mother was accustomed to doing. I felt her sense of being trapped into giving up her career opportunity to stay and help her mother. I also felt her accepting and being glad to be there for her mother as her illness progressed to the end.

A magnificently played film all around

Beatrice

Average customer rating:

Believable
A view to a soul!
Life is full of surprises
One, true great movie
One True Thing

One True Thing [Region 2]
Starring: Meryl Streep , Renée Zellweger , William Hurt , Tom Everett Scott , and Lauren Graham
Director: Carl Franklin
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00004D0ED

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Believable.......2007-06-16

A view to a soul!.......2007-05-16

Life is full of surprises.......2006-08-12

One, true great movie.......2006-04-10

One True Thing.......2005-10-23

Charlie Rose with Joe Klein; Anna Quindlen; Carl Franklin (September 18, 1995)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Joe Klein; Anna Quindlen; Carl Franklin (September 18, 1995)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

Newsweek's Joe Klein talks about his new cover story which deals with the so-called radical middle in American politics, dissatisfaction with the Clinton administration, and how Democrats and Republicans are trying to capture the swing voter. Then, Anna Quindlen talks about writing novels including her latest, One True Thing. She also shares thoughs on Shannon Faulkner leaving The Citadel, the Clinton administration, and the competitive world of journalism. Finally, Carl Franklin discusses becoming a director, working with Denzel Washington, and his new film Devil in a Blue Dress.

Charlie Rose with Anna Quindlen; Gary Oldman; Scott Elliott (February 2, 1998)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Anna Quindlen; Gary Oldman; Scott Elliott (February 2, 1998)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Charlie Rose with Anna Quindlen (September 22, 1994)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Anna Quindlen (September 22, 1994)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen talks about her new novel, One True Thing, the story of a journalist daughter called upon by her father to take care of her dying mother and the story's parallels with her own life. She also discusses her op-ed column and some of the issues she has covered.

Average customer rating:

One True Thing [Region 2]
Starring: Meryl Streep , Renée Zellweger , William Hurt , Tom Everett Scott , and Lauren Graham
Director: Carl Franklin
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( O ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00004VY0P

DVD:

DVD

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