All Critics (61)
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Top Critics (18)
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Fresh (55)
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Rotten (7)
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DVD (4)
A well-oiled machine manufactured to tap our welled-up ducts.
Even director Carl Franklin...can't prevent One True Thing from descending into chick-movie hell.
One True Thing demonstrates that the power of simple things, the transcendent nature of the ordinary, can make for riveting filmmaking.
Although the plot rarely excels, the actors bring enough to their roles to transform this motion picture into a satisfying weeper.
Meryl Streep is an actress of such transcendent skill and sympathy that she regularly elevates her material, taking it up several notches and giving us feelings, insights, feelings and textures the original writer may have just missed expressing.
Yes, Meryl Streep is phenomenal again!
Probably won't appeal to teens.
Carl Franklin's understated direction keeps the tears and life-affirming revelations from congealing into chicken shmaltz for the soul.
There isn't one schmaltzy moment in the entire film, and any tears the viewer sobs into their hankies are well-earned.
The script shifts audience sympathies about quite adroitly, though it's a pity all the men had to be such humbugs.
There's a lot of Oscar timber here...
Streep, Zellweger, and Hurt are outstanding.
the movie ultimately belongs to Streep, who illuminates the extraordinary soul inside an everyday woman.
One of those rare films -- a movie that is genuinely sad and moving without being melodramatic, sentimental or hokey.
Streep's performance will probably secure her another Oscar nomination.
As finely wrought a drama as one could ask for.
Brings extraordinary honesty and keen emotional pitch to the family drama.
Thanks to Carl Franklin's clever direction, which always stays real close to the characters, what could have been a TV movie-of-the-week becomes a thought-provoking and touching film.
A heart-affecting film that challenges us to confront some of the myths and meanings we have constructed about our parents.
It recovers William Hurt from years of career waywardness and lets us see again the special grasp he has on chilly, unlikable traits.
Instead of being just about coping with cancer, it tells an interesting story about a young woman coming to terms with the fact that her parents are not who she always thought they were.
The film is helped, by wonderful performances by two of the top talents in the business in Streep and Hurt, and Zellweger stays right with them.
Renee Zellweger, in particular, is captivating; she is irresistible as an actress, while Meryl Streep is luminous, perceptive, and courageous.
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