ONE TRUE THING
US, 1998, 122 minutes, Colour.
Meryl Streep, Renee Zellwegger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, Nicky Katt.
Directed by Carl Franklin
Meryl Streep won yet another of her many Oscar nominations for Best Actress for One True Thing. The role offers her the opportunity to play a sweet, vivacious and devoted wife and mother as well as to suffer and die from terminal cancer. This she does powerfully and even more emotionally than she did in her harrowing dying scenes in Ironweed. She proves once again what a versatile and moving actress she is.
The movie is a mother and daughter story, adapted from a novel by Anna Quinlan. Renee Zellwegger is an ambitious young journalist who has absorbed her father's academic ethos of excellence and has neglected her mother. William Hurt plays the father who is unable to face up to his wife's illness. The daughter discovers her father's selfishness and her mother's loving selflessness and learns from the simple devotedness of her mother a more grounded appreciation of the ordinary values of life.
The movie is a departure for director Carl Franklin whose crime thrillers, One False Move and Devil in a Blue Dress, marked him out as a tough storyteller. Here he handles strong family emotions with great sensitivity, inviting his audience to share emotions while showing that life is more complex than a popular 'illness-of-the -week' telemovie sometimes suggests. This is true of the final question of administering an overdose of morphine to relieve the agonising pain of the cancer sufferer and issues of mercy and responsibility.
1. The portrait of an American family, relationships and tensions? Universal themes about family?
2. New Jersey, the township, the contrast with New York City and the offices? The small-town locations and experience?
3. The title, George speaking it about Kate? The truth in her love and devotion? The impact on her family, on George? The lyrics of the final song?
4. The structure: the prologue and the scenes in the car with the children, George driving, Kate and her care for them, her being corrected about calves? The children reading? The relationships and the suggestions of the future? The move to the district attorney interrogating Ellen, her answers, the intercutting of this interrogation throughout the film, jigsaw pieces?
5. Ellen's viewpoint, Rene Zellwegger's presence and style? Her admiration for her father, her disdaining of her mother, the bonds with Brian? Seeing her father as perfect, his achievement, less is more, yet his coldness? Her journey to visit the family for the birthday party, her friendship with Jules, leaving Jordan behind? Her discovering that her father was less than perfect, having to adjust her relationship? The nature of her journey?
6. Ellen and her father, the gift, not close to Kate, despising her ordinariness? The scenes with Jordan, the off and on relationship, the clash, the phone calls, his coming to the funeral, her separating from him? Jules and confiding in her? Her work, the importance of the article, her father's critique, Tweedy and his threats, her trying to get the interview, going to the hotel, interviewing the senator in his car, her decision not to use the interview after listening to him? The phone calls about the interview? Her finally giving up her job and getting a new job?
7. Ellen and the birthday party, Kate as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, Brian and his casual approach, telling her that he had failed American Literature? Her relationship with each of the members of the family, the friends, the celebration of the birthday? Her staying, her father's reaction to the article, her feeling hurt? Her father asking her to stay at home, her initial resistance, acceptance? Her practical handling of the situation? The experience of working at home, the difficulties of cooking, her mother not wanting her to be waiting on her all the time? The introduction to the Minnies, their chatter, their good work? The meal and the cake? Her learning, talking with her mother, but not being able to confide in her? Her father and the amount of work he off-loaded on her, her puzzles about him, Halloween and the phone call, the witch, Kate's delight? The Thanksgiving Dinner, her preparing the whole meal, her father ignoring it, the distinguished visitor, his forgetting about the manuscript, her father's reaction? Her being ignored? Christmas, the trees, taking the woman out for the day and the wasting of time? With Santa Claus? Her mother reminding her of her scepticism about Santa Claus? Discovering the truth about her father, his not coming home, her anger with him, the students, reliance on Harold? His relationships with students? Her discovering the meaning of the Comeback Inn? The importance of her mother's medication, her mother's plea about the pain, her crushing the morphine, unable to give it to her mother? Her mother's death, her thinking her father had given the morphine? Lying to the district attorney about his coming home? At the graveside, her talk with her father, discovering the truth?
8. Meryl Streep as Kate, an earnest young woman, delight in her family, being corrected about calves? As Dorothy at the party, enjoying the fuss, cooking and cleaning? Laughing and giggling, her friends, the Minnies, so many jobs? The Minnies' lunch, taking the woman out? Her joy with George, the party, the dancing? Halloween and the visitor? The doctor, the information about her health, having chemotherapy? Her becoming more and more helpless, the scarf, her weakness, nausea? The Thanksgiving Dinner and her being discreet? Christmas, the wheelchair, being honoured in the town, the singing of 'Silent Night'? Her helplessness in the bath, her anger? The nurse attending and being more sympathetic than her daughter? Her not wanting to suffer? The importance of her direct talking with Ellen, her explanation of her marriage, understanding all that there was to know about George? The effect on her daughter, her taking the morphine?
9. George and William Hurt's style, the professor, love of literature, workaholic, perfectionist, the quotes and repeating them, ideals, his relationship with Kate, yet infidelity, the department, staying away? His writing, the first chapter, the Thanksgiving Dinner and Oliver not remembering it? His being upset? His persuading Ellen to stay, doing nothing, giving her so much work, his relationship with the students, drinking with Harry, the confrontation with Ellen? Her telling him the truth? His coming home, compassion for his wife, her death? With Ellen at the grave?
10. Brian, his place in the family, the younger son, failing his studies, genial young man, sympathetic to his mother, the tennis coaching, the job, his father's disgust, giving up studies, his work?
11. The magazine, the editor and his demands, Jordan and his work, Ellen and her dependence on Jordan, yet her moodiness, his coming to the funeral and the meals, her harsh dismissal of him? Her friendship with Jules and confiding in her?
12. The visit of Oliver at Thanksgiving, his being feted as a celebrity, the quotes, the same as George's? His forgetting the chapter?
13. The Minnies, their friendship with Kate, sustaining her, their good work?
14. The DA and his interrogation, decisions, the open finding about Kate's death?
15. The themes of family, relationships, fidelity and infidelity, betrayal, the journey towards love, acceptance of life and its ordinariness? Death and suffering? Mercy and responsibility?
