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train in a parallel story (and dumps the
lout for Glaswegian actor John Hanna).
Catch this before it leaves. (Alps)
Smoke Signals (PG-13) A Native
American story directed by. co-pro
duced by and starring Native
Americans. A young man named Victor
(Adam Beach) leaves his reservation to
find the ashes of his estranged father.
On the way. he hooks up with a young
storyteller named Thomas (Evan
Adams) who won't keep quiet. Direcetd
by Chris Eyre. A double-prize winner at
this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Opens Friday. (Mall Inside)
There’s Something About Mary (R)
Ben Stiller, the reigning king of the talk-
show couch scene, stars 3S a lonesome
loser who tries to find his high-school
crush, Mary (Cameron Diaz). Hilarious,
extremely crude and vulgar (it earns the
“R" rating) anc ultimately sweet and
harmless. With Jonathan Richman. Matt
Dillon, the guy frcm The Karate Kid, and
Chris Elliot. (Beechwood. Commerce
Drive-In)
To Catch A Thief (NR) 1955. Alfred
Hitchcock’s comedy-thriller starring
Carey Grant as a dapper former jewel
thief who falls in love with the dapper
Grace Kelly while in the French Riviera.
After the cops accuse Grant o f reverting
back to his thievery, the poor guy strug
gles to prove his innocence. Buouyant
and goofy. (Tate)
Urban Legend (R) A new horror-
thriller from Australian director Jamie
Blanks that looks scarier (and less
campy) than either Scream or / Know
What You Did Last Summer. Students at
Pendleton College studying American
folklore and ‘urban legends’ under a
Professor Wexler (played by Robert
Engluno of Nightmare On Elm Street)
suddenly find themsetves victims of the
very stories they're studying. With
Rebecca Gayheart. Tara Reid, Jared
Leto, Alicia Witt and the annoying
Joshua Jackson. Opens Friday.
(Beechwood)
Who The Hell Is Juliette? (NR) Or
iQuien Diablos es Juliette?. Mexican
director Carlos Markovich's 1997 film
about a streetwise Cuban teenager
(Yuliet Ortega) who turns to prostitution
after her father emigrates to the U.S. and
her mother commits suicide. The sec
ond film in this months Latin American
Film series. (Georgia Museum of Art)
Why Do Fools Fall In Love? (PG-
13) This strange biopic of doo-wop
singer Frankie Lymon focuses on his
tragic death and the consequential bick
ering between his (count 'em) three
wives over his estate. Who cares? (Mall
Inside)
MOVIE PICK
/w
TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT
One True Thing (R) Sometimes the truth
about the people closest to us is more diffi
cult and complicated than we realize, and
sometimes it takes a crisis to spark that real
ization. That’s the point in One True Thing, a
moving and complex drama based on the
novel by Anna Quindlin and directed by Carl
Franklin (Devil In A Blue Dress).
The story revolves around an ambitious
young Manhattan journalist named Ellen
Gulden (Renee Zellweger of Jerry Maguire)
and her parents. Her father George (William
Hurt) is a brilliant and charming literature
professor who, while very much in love with
his wife, seems preoccupied with his acade
mic book world on campus (and a few other
things as well). Ellen's mother Kate (Meryl
Streep) is an extremely maternal homemaker
wno loves her family and home, but cares lit
tle about academics. Ellen loves both par
ents but can t quite figure them out. While
she feels closer to her father and his writing,
she really doesn't know either of her par
ents.
This changes unexpectedly after Ellen's
father calls her home to look after her moth
er, who is diagnosed
with cancer. Away
from her New’ York
life (stressful job,
numerous daily cups
of coffee, wishy-
washy boyfriend),
she’s forced to func
tion <n hei mother’s
world of tea parties
and bake sales — a
w^rld Ellen finds
shallow and boring.
She feels angry and
resentful having to
make sacrifices for this woman she doesn’t
understand or particularly like. Through the
months, however, she learns more and more
about her parents and their character flaws
and strengths. She slowly realizes that the
truth about her family and herself is far
more complicated than she previously
believed.
The family situation is illustrated in a
carefully constructed early scene in which
Ellen brings her best friend home for her
father’s surprise theme birthday party, orga
nized by Kate. While Kate dresses up as the
Wizard Of Oz’s Dorothy and guards the
refreshments, her husband George handles
the crowd, recites well-worn literary anec
dotes and offers frank criticism upon
request. It’s evident that everyone in the
Gulden family cares about each other and
that the parents are still romantically
involved, but we sense there’s something
out of balance and disconnected.
Other clues that point to the family’s
mounting dysfunctional situation pop up as
we watch the men around Ellen tell lie after
lie. Her brother Brian (Tom Everett Scott of
That Thing You Do) can’t admit to his par
ents that he plans on dropping out of
Harvard to pursue tennis. Ellen’s non-com
mittal boyfriend flirts with other women and
cheats on her while she’s away. George stays
away from home more and more as his wife’s
cancer accelerates, teaching “late classes”
and attending “important meetings.”
Renee Zellweger’s strong dramatic perfor
mance is the heart of this film: her Ellen is
convincingly transformed from ambitious
young daughter dying for her father’s
approval into an adult v.ho finally under
stands why her mother tolerates her father’s
actions for better or for worse. Her perspec
tive on life widens as she survives the
paiiiiul crisis.
Hurt and Streep are at their best in these
roles, performing with delicate grace and
muscularity. Streep’s best dramatic scenes
are saved for the
conclusion as she
approaches the end
of her ordeal: she
finally lets go of her
emotions and con
nects with her
daughter in a big
way. Hurt handles
the role well, creat
ing a sympathetic fig
ure who is both
patriarchal and
frightened.
The only confus
ing aspect of One True Thing is the way
much of the story is told in flashback. Ellen
gives inaccurate accounts of her mother’s
final months to a District Attorney in an
office after it’s discovered that her mother
may not have necessarily died of cancer.
These scenes seemed unnecessary and only
served to reiterate the same points that the
actual story already handles well — that
Kate had courage, love and strength up until
the end of her life.
Tear-jerkers like this inevitably get a little
bit soppy by the conclusions, especially
when they have to do with death and termi
nal illness, but One True Thing opts for
something more complex than what’s typical
of the genre. Truth among family is not
always easy to come by; this film explores
that thicket like none other this season.
Ballard Lesemann
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