'Thing' isn't true to real emotions

By Ed Sholinsky

Daily Arts Writer

In order for tearjerkers to work, a person's tears need to come from genuine pain, not manipulated hurt. "Ghost" and "Terms of Endearment" work because the audience's anguish is in no way forced by the filmmakers. One of the places "One True Thing" goes wrong is the creators have the audience crying due to the lack of story and big deal props. They cue up the sad music and force the audience - trapped by the $7.75 they've shelled out - into an emotionally vulnerable position.

Renee Zellweger plays Ellen Gulden, an aspiring writer for New York magazine. She returns home to celebrate her father's 55th birthday. Her mother, Kate (Meryl Streep), is the ultimate domestic goddess and Ellen's polar opposite. Kate is so sweet she drips honey - enough to make any kid sick.

It's the day after the party that Ellen finds out from her father, George (William Hurt), who she worships, that Kate has cancer and needs surgery. At his insistence, Ellen returns home to care for her ailing mother.

Courtesy of Universal Pictures Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger star in the weepy "One True Thing."

"One True Thing" has the makings of a good movie, but strays too far from its core. Screenwriter Karen Croner decides to tell the story as a flashback from Ellen's perspective as she recounts for the District Attorney (James Eckhouse) Kate's decline. The DA wants to "clear things up" (whatever that means) regarding her death.

The DA's investigation only adds to the sprawling subplots that take the focus off the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the film. By dealing with Ellen's dysfunctional relationship with her boyfriend, Ellen tracking down a coke-addicted senator who crashed his car and George asking Ellen to write the introduction for his new book, the story is too busy.

Instead of focusing on the trauma of losing a mother Ellen barely knows, Croner has thrown in every device she can to make the movie weepier. The film dabbles too much in cliché instead of character development; by the end of the film it's clear the writer and director have done everything in their power to tug at the audience's heartstrings.

The film is a distinct disappointment largely because director Carl Franklin ("Devil in a Blue Dress") is one of the best directors working today. "One True Thing" won't do anything for his career. The film's pacing is off, so the two hours feel like an eternity. Perhaps this is because "One True Thing" is Franklin's first attempt at the melodrama and he hasn't mastered the details of the genre.

The only thing that makes the film worth watching is the acting. Streep and Zellweger are terrific, but can't carry the movie by themselves. While Streep has a significant chance at winning a well-deserved Oscar for her role as Kate Gulden, a Zellweger nomination is questionable. It's more likely that Streep's will overshadow Zellweger's performance.

Streep plays the dying Kate with both the grace and the pathos necessary for the part. At the start of the movie Kate is the glowing picture of health. By film's end her hair is gone and she can't even get out of the tub by herself. By transforming Kate from her goody-goody, suburban housewife into a woman desperately clinging to life just long enough to touch her daughter, Streep adds dimension to this shallow character. The truth about her marriage comes out when Ellen confronts Kate about George's affairs; Kate tells Ellen, "You know he's not the person you thought he was, but he's your whole life." She goes on to tell the moody Ellen that "It's so much easier to be happy."

Zellweger demonstrates that she's someone to watch in the coming years. Her Ellen is ambitious and resistant to the domestic life her mother has created. It's not that she doesn't love her mother, it's that she's afraid she will become her. Zellweger manages the comedy and drama equally well in this losing effort; it's apparent she worked much harder than the film's creative team.

At the heart of "One True Thing," there was the making of a good movie. But the saddest part about this film is watching Streep and Zellweger squander their abundant talent on this loser.

09-21-98