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One
True Thing
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From Ordinary People (1980) to The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), American cinema has taken pride in its largely unspectacular but often finely crafted films about the ties that bind within families – frankly therapeutic stories perched between the traumatic despair of uncovering closeted secrets, and the catharsis of achieving a necessary compassion and forgiveness. To some, this small but steady genre is the ultimate in bourgeois pap: apolitical tales which reduce all human and social experience to the misunderstandings between generations cooped up within the four walls of suburbia. Pseudo-New Age wisdoms about finding your place and accepting your lot certainly underwrite the worst films of this bunch. One True Thing, however, is a disarmingly effective and understated contribution to the genre. Director Carl Franklin – who made his mark with the stylish crime thrillers One False Move (1992) and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) – adapts himself perfectly to the dramatic naturalism and muted lyricism of this family chronicle. Ellen (Renee Zellweger) finds herself implicated in the everyday habits and tensions of her family once again when her mother, Katherine (Meryl Streep), falls ill. A heavy burden of moment-to-moment responsibility falls upon Ellen, since her father George (William Hurt) – a charismatic literary professor with frustrated ambitions – has long gotten away with his self-absorbed, secretive, withdrawn behaviour. Gradually, the story strays into sensational, melodramatic and painful areas. Franklin, however, never lets the material become mawkish, and largely suspends making moral judgments. The actors respond well to the overall tone: Streep and Zellweger, both notorious for their histrionic tendencies, give pleasingly contained performances, while Hurt adds another memorable portrait to his evolving gallery of sexy-but-wounded characters. "Love what you have": this stark promotional line for One True Thing may strike fear into the hearts of many prospective viewers, with its implied sermon about accepting the status quo of family life. All ideological suspicion aside, however, Franklin's film strikes a fine balance between extolling family values and subtly questioning them. Observing the relationship between Ellen and Katherine, we come to understand and sympathise with both the mother's code of tolerant acceptance, and the daughter's need to resist and defy a claustrophobic, conservative lifestyle. As is often the case in this story, the difference between the women is caught in their respective attitudes to classic novels like Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina – and the diverse role-models they offer to women. Karen Corner's screenplay deftly translates the central theme of Anna Quindlen's novel – that the central problem in this family is ultimately the way in which George himself divides the women in his life into two groups, smart ones who are heartless and kind ones who are mindless. Everyone loses out as a result, not least George himself. Yet, for all its toughness, One True Thing – like the underrated The Deep End of the Ocean (1999) – manages to salvage something triumphant and positive at the heart of its typically dysfunctional, middle class family. MORE Franklin: High Crimes, Out of Time © Adrian Martin May 1999 |
