That was an excellent one.

How sad is this?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One True Thing (1998): Dir: Carl Franklin / Cast: Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham: Drama about sacrifice and hanging on even when your last breath hangs in balance. Meryl Streep plays an ambitious housewife busy preparing her husband's birthday. Renee Zellweger plays her daughter who arrives home to discover that her brother flunked out of college. When it is learned that Streep has cancer Zellweger reluctantly puts her job on hold. William Hurt plays Streep's husband, a university professor who acts as if nothing has changed. Zellweger distances herself when she catches him in the midst of an affair. Plot bares too many similarities to another Streep film Marvin's Room and it follows too many predictable developments. Fine directing by Carl Franklin who also made One False Move. Strong performances by Streep who focuses on family as oppose to her illness. Zellweger is excellent as the frustrated daughter trying to maintain emotions and sanity. Hurt is well cast as a husband fleeing from his emotions. Tom Everett Scott as the son who flunked out of college provides comic relief. Aside from the family, other roles are less interesting and limited at best. We all know where this is all going to end up but it examines trauma and the important things we often take for granted. Score: 7 ½ / 10

A story of a family coming together in the hardest of times, Meryl Streep gives another amazing performance as a mother who is stricken with cancer, she is a doting housewife and the family begins to fall apart as she is the glue that holds the family together. As Meryl's character, Kate, gets sicker the family's problems are unravelled.Meryl Streep is an exceptional actress and her emotional range in this movie is amazing to see. She goes from a fun-loving, outgoing mother to a more withdrawn and frightened but strong character through out this film's journey. Though the film does focus on Ellen, Kate's daughter, the performances by all the main and supporting actors are very strong. This has remained a top favourite of mine since i saw about 9 years ago. This is a film worth watching!

Written by someone who has been there, you can tell, but only if you've been there. Excellent performances by Meryl Streep (of course!), Renee Zellweger and William Hurt.Many people have said that it is about a dysfunctional family, I think every family is dysfunctional when they are facing this kind of torment. To NOT be dysfunctional would be dysfunctional! You are losing your family as you know it, can anything be worse? People need to see this movie so when they are faced with this nightmare maybe they will change how they do it. Maybe they will see that the father is denying himself valuable time he'll never get a chance at again. Maybe they will realize how hard it is to die, or to watch someone you love die. They didn't miss much of the nightmare, it's hard to forget.

Be prepared for a film that deals with parental dying and death and looks closely at how one family handles the ordeal. Meryl Streep gives one of her most outstanding performances as Kate Gulden, the dying wife of a National Book Award-winning professor of English George Gulden (William Hurt) and uber mother of Ellen (Renee Zellweger) and Brian (Tom Everett Scott). The story is from the viewpoint of Ellen, who must bear the brunt of caring for her mother (and father) while coming to terms with the father she once adored.Renee Zellweger gives a great performance as the ambitious magazine writer torn between her desire to advance her career, and her father's need for her to care for her mother as her death approaches. William Hurt does a great job playing the self-absorbed academic who tries to keep his life going as smoothly as when his wife was well.This movie offers an very real portrayal of the forces and dynamics that shape the relationships of a family and community during a time of hardship and ending. I highly recommend this film.