One True Thing

Ellen Gulden is an ambitious journalist at a New York magazine, absorbed in her work and determined not to repeat what she sees as her mother Kate's small, domestic life. When Kate is diagnosed with cancer, Ellen's father George, a literature professor, presses their only daughter to put her career aside and come home to care for her mother in the family's New Jersey town. Ellen reluctantly agrees, and the months that follow force her to see her parents as people rather than as the roles she assigned them, and to weigh her own ambitions against her obligations to her family.

Carl Franklin directed the film, his third feature after One False Move and Devil in a Blue Dress, from a screenplay by Karen Croner. Meryl Streep plays Kate, Renée Zellweger plays Ellen, and William Hurt plays George, with Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham and Nicky Katt among a credited cast of 63. The film runs 127 minutes.

Released in September 1998, One True Thing drew a critics' rating of 7.2 out of 10 from 60 reviews, a favorable reception, while audiences on TMDB have rated it 6.5 out of 10 from 140 votes, a more modest response.