One True Thing

Columnist/novelist Anna Quindlen's portrait of a family affected by cancer and dysfunction is brought to the screen with opulent flair by director Carl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress and One False Move). Unfortunately, Franklin's efforts can't lift the manipulative material above its melodramatic flatness and Terms of Endearment pretensions. Renee Zellweger (Jerry Maguire) is Quindlen's fictional alter ego, an up-and-coming journalist in New York City whose career is stalled when her controlling father (William Hurt), a small-town college professor, beckons her home to nursemaid her cancer-stricken mother (Meryl Streep). Both Zellweger and Hurt lurch through the film with the curl of resentment on their lips: she wants to pursue her career; he wants to carry on with his professorial duties, as well as his mysterious, late-night dalliances. There's a lot of Oscar timber here, and Streep and Hurt do well by their roles -- it's just unsettling to watch them project the same personas they've been recycling on screen for the past decade. Zellweger turns in the film's one true thing as far as performances go, emoting the pain of loss and sacrifice while harboring ambition and her desire for self-fulfillment on the inside. At the Harbour Mall, Opera House, Showcase, and Woonsocket cinemas.

-- Tom Meek