Review of One True Thing (1998) by Bobmeier — 19 Jun 2016

I recently discovered this on a library DVD. I never heard of it and therefore had no preconcieved ideas about it-how did the critics react, etc. What a shame this one went by my radar because I would have loved to see it on the big screen (and in 1998 it would have been in 35mm). Streep plays the mother and housewife that allows her husband Bill Hurt be a selfish academic who is more concerned with his place in the literary world than of his beloved wife's eminent death from cancer. So much so he insists.

That his daughter(Zellwiger) simply drop her good job in NYC and come home and take care of her mother-as it turns out-so he can remain in HIS job, feeling the important man of letters and grabbing the occasional young coed for some "private tutoring." I always hear Streep is the actress's actress, one of the best, etc but I really never appreciated why until this movie. She simply embodies this selfless woman who looks the other way while her husband "works late, has a late class". The scene where the poet laureate pays a suprise visit says so much about him-apparently the poet at one time praised his first novel (which meant a lot to Hurt ) only to find that years later the poet didn't even remember the book-quite the slap in the face to the would-be great author that he thought he was.

I thought it was going to be another uninspired library dvd night-what a suprise this delightful film was...maybe someday it will be revivied-at a Streep retrospective in NYC or something-I'd love to see it on a big screen with an audience. Probably won' t happen-and that's too bad.