VividSimon Simply Perfect

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Suradit In Auntie Mame, the theme of which bears some similarity to this movie, a woman who has been used to living the good life suddenly finds herself destitute. She and her nephew Patrick (Patrick Dennis who wrote the story) try to cope through a series of amusing situations as Mame hopes to land a wealthy, loving husband. At one point she tries her hand at working as a salesclerk in a department store with disastrous results.In My One and Only, Anne, who is used to living the good life decides to leave her husband, taking with her limited funds, some jewelry and her two sons, including son George (who supposedly authored the story as a biographical sketch). They head west in a new Cadillac and attempt to cope with a series of not amusing, somewhat absurd situations as she tries to land a husband to support them, evincing little interest in how loving or suitable the men she meets might be as husbands or fathers to her sons and, apparently??, without ever divorcing the husband she left behind. At one point she tries her hand at working as a waitress and picking up random men in a bar with disastrous results. Rosalind Russell, and later Lucille Ball, played Mame, both turning in great performances with a lot of spirit and humor. Renée Zellweger appeared to drag herself through this movie in what can only be described as a flat, unenthusiastic performance. All she did was pucker her lips and squint, whenever anyone told her she was beautiful, which happened every few minutes. All the men she met along the way were flawed in some major, often sinister way. As another reviewer said, every significant older male in the story was presented in a negative way.Since the story was supposedly biographical, I guess what happened must have been at least partially based on reality, but a good deal of it was pretty far-fetched. Once they reach Hollywood they find themselves as extras on a movie set. Anne hurts her foot in one scene, the producer rushes over and based on that he agrees to give her second son a chance to play a lead role in another movie although he possesses no talent or meaningful experience. George intervenes and the rest, as they say, is history, the details of which would require a spoiler alert … although as a hint, things took a turn not dissimilar from events in another great Rosalind Russell movie, Gypsy,as Baby June cedes her place to her sister.Logan Lerman and Kevin Bacon turned in decent performances. The Cadillac was quite nice. Renée Zellweger limped through her role and the rest of the cast phoned it in. The screen play of the biography was illogical, lacked any depth, full of holes, neither amusing nor dramatic, and torturous. A waste of time.

dy158 It seemed like an unlikely road trip on the surface. A mother taking her two teenage sons on the road across the country in search of a husband who is able to fund for her and her two sons. As the film begins, 15-year-old George Devarux (Logan Lerman) began to tell the story of how he would end up in a car showroom with his older half-brother Robbie (Mark Rendall) to the car salesmen.It would turn out that his parents, band leader father Danny (Kevin Bacon) and mother Anne (Renee Zellweger) has gone their separate ways after Anne, who has never taken an interest in her sons' personal lives and interests, caught her husband in an affair with her taking the sons with her away along with the cash from her safe deposit box. The cash was to be used to buy a car to be on the road for both mother and sons, but the salesmen were initially suspicious of George's reasoning even after he had finished telling his story. That is where his mother came into the scene.The road trip would eventually come to pass, with the 15-year-old George driving despite having no driving licence of his own. Mother and sons first arrived in Boston to try their luck before Pittsburgh. Both cities turned out to be disappointments at various levels for Anne as she tried to search for a husband, with her losing her money, being sexually assault at one time, being sent briefly into a jail, and nearly being engaged to a man who is already married.One thing is for certain even if Anne and her sons would end up at her sister Hope's (Robin Weigert) residence in St. Louis when she had exhausted all options. Her younger son George has always wanted to lead a life of his own, but is angry at how his mother does not understand him well, to the extent of not knowing what was his favourite book which his aunt actually knew the answer. Getting frustrated, Anne slapped him and George left the house. He would eventually return and an incident which occurred when his mother and younger half-brother Robbie were on route to Los Angeles had him reuniting with them.It is a film based on actor George Hamilton's early life on the road with his mother Ann and brother, as told to his friend Merv Griffin. What happened to the 15-year-old George Devarux in the end in the film mirrors the real George Hamilton's early days in acting in the early 50s, with a real sense of that decade shown in the cinematography and especially on Renee Zellweger who plays the mother Anne in the film. For those who recalled Zellweger's title role as Bridget Jones in 'The Bridget Jones's Diary' in 2001, there is a sense of déjà vu over a scene where she pretended to be living in the old Hollywood glamour as compared to this film in terms of the timing of when the events in 'My One and Only' took place.In a sense, it feels like one is living in that period of time convincingly.

meaninglessbark My One and Only definitely looks nice. The costumes and sets are sharp, there are lots of good looking actors, and there's a swell car. For the most part the film looks and feels like the era it's set in. The acting varies from adequate to mediocre (Kevin Bacon has been better in TV commercials than he is in this film) with a few bright performances (Robin Weigert's being the strongest of these) that have some depth. My One and Only would be an OK film to come across on TV one Saturday afternoon while you're doing housework. Especially if that housework involves vacuuming or being out of the room as you could miss large sections of the dialog and plot and it wouldn't matter.The reason it wouldn't matter if you missed dialog and plot is because My One and Only is an incredibly unimaginative and obvious film. The characters are so one dimensional they could have had descriptions instead of names (Sassy Black Maid, Flamboyant Gay Son, Brooding But Sensitive Son, Talkative Traveling Salesman...). Almost everything you think will happen does. (A slightly squirmy shifty eyed hitch hiker turns out to be dangerous? No!)The film is "loosely" based on the life of George Hamilton and it's possible that Mr. Hamilton's life was filled with stock characters and some events that seemed like they'd make for a good movie. But more likely the reason for My One and Only being such a broad and obvious film can be found in the DVD's "making of" interviews with cast and crew where almost everyone talks about the characters and story with such typical clichés it begins to feel like a Christopher Guest spoof about movie making.

Gordon-11 This film is about a woman who leaves her unfaithful husband and goes around the country to find another husband."My One and Only" may be a plain story but it is surprisingly engaging. The story is told very well, that it draws me and makes me feel a part of the family. The misfortunes that are bestowed upon Anne Deveraux is sad but mysteriously have a light hearted tone to it. Her determination to search for a new life is inspiring, I admire her courage and her drive to break out of her comfort zone. The two sons are acted well; George successfully radiates a confident and mature feel while Robbie shines as an effeminate individual that makes me smile in several scenes. I enjoyed watching "My One and Only", as it provides an engaging and touching reflection of family and romantic relationships.