The film opens at an inquiry into Kate's death, which the district attorney suspects may have been a mercy killing. And with few exceptions, he and screenwriter Karen Croner ("Cold Sassy Tree") approach the story with humor, sensitivity and restraint rather than easy sentiment. Though rife with potential for cloying sentimentality, the movie works because director Carl Franklin ("Devil in a Blue Dress") is not one to tug on the heartstrings. It takes another 20 years, sometimes more, to realize that Mom and Dad are childhood illusions, too.Įllen Gulden (Renee Zellweger), a zealous magazine reporter, makes that unnerving discovery in "One True Thing," an uplifting, superbly acted and intelligent family drama about how little we know about those who love us best.ĭrawn from Anna Quindlen's 1995 novel, the moving story centers on Ellen's return to her picket-fence home town over the holidays to care for her cancer-stricken mother, Kate (Meryl Streep). By the time they're 7, most kids recognize these wondrous beings for who they really are: Dad in a beard or Mom tiptoeing through the night. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy. No sob sisters: Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger, quietly earning tears from moviegoers.
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