One True Thing is a 1998 drama film directed by Carl Franklin, based on the novel of the same name by Anna Quindlen.
Ellen Gulden (Renée Zellweger) works as a journalist for New York magazine and has a great boyfriend. At the request of her father George (William Hurt), Ellen returns home to New Jersey to care for her mother Kate (Meryl Streep). Ellen soon realizes that her parents aren't what that they seem to be.
Tropes in this film:
- The '80s: The movie takes place between summer 1987 and March 1988.
- Adaptational Sexuality: In the novel, Brian reveals to Ellen at the end he's gay, but the movie makes no mention of this.
- Adaptation Distillation: The movie gets rid of one of Ellen's brothers, cuts her friend Jules down considerably, and replaces Ellen getting tried for the Mercy Kill the authorities think she did for her mother to Ellen being interrogated by a detective about it. However, it's pretty faithful to the novel otherwise.
- Big Applesauce: Most of the film is set in New York City where Ellen works.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family/Dysfunctional Family: The Guldens in spades, for starters Ellen's father George has affairs with his female students, her mother Kate is suffering from terminal cancer and her younger brother Brian is flunking out of college.
- Broken Pedestal: George is implied as this to Ellen after she discovers that he has slept with his younger students.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Ellen confronts her father about his dalliances with his students and his selfish attitude towards her dying mother.
- Christmas Episode: One scene takes place shortly before Christmas.
- The Film of the Book: The movie is based on a novel by Anna Quindlen, though it's been compressed (see Adaptation Distillation above).
- Halloween Episode: Ellen and Kate attend a Halloween carnival dressed as a witch and a fortune teller, respectively.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The movie opens on Ellen and her brother Brian when they're 8 and 4 years old.
- The Reveal: Two of them: Kate was well aware George has been cheating on her. Also, Ellen has thought all along her father was the one who had helped Kate kill herself to spare her any more suffering, which is why she covered up for him. Near the end of the movie, she finds out her father thinks the same thing of her, and realizes her mother made her own Mercy Kill Arrangement.
