After staring at the Netflix envelope for a week, I finally settled in to watch One True Thing last night. Having read the book, I was really looking forward to see it portrayed on film. After all, Meryl Street was nominated for four awards in 1999 for her portrayal of Kate Gulden. It was an all-star cast rounding out with Renee Zellweger and William Hurt.
It tells the story of a woman who is forced to put her life on hold in order to care for her mother who is dying of cancer.
Unfortunately, the parts of the book that shaped the characters were completely left out of the film script.
In the book, Ellen Gulden starts the book from inside her jail cell. She has been charged, tried, and is awaiting the verdict for the murder of her mother. The story then unfolds, in flashback, as she is telling us about the six months she spent caring for her mother, what she's learned and who she's become. There were two main characters of the book that were completely written out of the film script because the film didn't even elude to a murder trial; which is the bulk of the story. What the film portrayed was actually a very small part of the book as most of the writing is done after Kate Gulden is gone.
I'm still trying to figure out how Meryl Street got four nomination nods for Oscars and Golden Globes for her portrayal of Kate Gulden. The pain Kate feels in the book isn't even close to how Ms. Streep performed.
I was really disappointed with the film {almost as much as I was with Twilight -I still want those two hours back} and I guess the story remains the same - books are better.
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