My One and Only

My One and Only is based (very loosely, I believe) on the episodes in the life of Mr. Tan, George Hamilton. It's a road picture, and it begins with George's purchase of a beautiful sky-blue 1953 Cadillac convertible. George's mother has finally had enough of his band-leader dad's philandering, so she leaves him, taking her two teenage sons along.

It's typical of her that she gives George a handful of cash and sends him to buy the car because she's a bit ditsy and doesn't really know how to cope. Her first thought is that she has to get married again because that's how a woman got along in the '50s. She needed a man to take care of her. The men she has in mind all turn out to be real losers, but she's not discouraged. She always believes that things will work out, that something will turn up. George isn't so sure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Renée Zellweger is just plain wonderful as the mother, and everyone else is nearly her equal. Mark Rendall almost steals the movie from her as Robbie, George's gay brother. Castle fans will enjoy Molly Quinn's bit as a young girl George knows briefly, and David Koechner is great in his scenes, especially when he gives George the best fatherly advice any kid ever got. All the vignettes work well, and each one shows us a little more about the characters.

I may be alone in my opinion of this movie, since it seems to have sunk without a trace at the box office. If you give it a try, though, maybe you'll like it, too.