My One and Only (2009) - Loncraine's delightful under-the-radar gemstone

♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year + Road Movie of the Year

 

Star Renée Zellweger, blonde and in heels, holds up a gilded frame, surrounded by men, on this uninformative poster for Richard Loncraine's My One and Only

 

In 1957 a glamorous mother of two has had it with her cheating husband in New York, and she packs up and leaves with her sons in a new car to find a better life. But it isn't readily available to her, and the life for a single mother on the road is not a bed of roses.

 

My One and Only is written by Charlie Peters (Paternity (1981)), based on anecdotes from actor George Hamilton's early life, and directed by great British filmmaker Richard Loncraine (Slade in Flame (1975)).

It is an unexpectedly great film, marvelously scored by Mark Isham (A Dog's Journey (2019)) and directed by Loncraine: The film esteems itself with several multi-dimensional characters and a compelling story, which picks some of the varnish off the 1950s, as the decade has often been presented, and stays realistic and natural.

'Delightful' seems like a word that could have been created to sum up this picture. Renée Zellweger (Love and a .45 (1994)) is unsurpassed and has never been better than she is here; and Logan Lerman (The Patriot (2000)) is devastatingly good-looking, as well as a fine actor. Also commendable are Mark Rendall (Sam Sam (2007-13)) as his older brother, Robin Weigert (Jessica Jones (2015, TV-series)) as Zellweger's sister and Kevin Bacon (The Darkness (2016)) as the let-down father.

My One and Only is a wonderful film. 

 

Related post:

 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 3.1 mil. $

= Uncertain (but likely a mega-flop)

[My One and Only premiered 12 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 108 minutes. George Hamilton was one of the film's executive producers. Shooting took place in New Mexico, including Albuquerque and in Baltimore, Maryland from June - August 2008. The film opened #40 to a 58k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 256 theaters (different weeks), grossing 2.4 mil. $ (77.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 366k $ (11.8 %) and Australia with 98k $ (3.2 %). If made on a realistic, low 10 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film won an award in Berlin. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Loncraine returned with The Special Relationship (2010, TV movie), Playhouse Presents (2012, TV-series) and theatrically with 5 Flights Up (2014). Zellweger returned with a voice performance in Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) and physically in Case 39 (2009). My One and Only is fresh at 68 % with a 6.24/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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