> My One and Only
3 stars (out of 5)
Director: Richard Loncraine
Cast: Renee Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Mark Rendall, Eric McCormack, Chris Noth, Nick Stahl, Steven Weber, Kevin Bacon.
Rating: (M)
My One and Only is a particularly difficult film to sum up.
Based loosely on the memoirs of American actor George Hamilton, the film never really announces its raison d'être, though in some respects, that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
Ann Deveraux (Renee Zellweger) is married to Danny (Kevin Bacon), a band leader with an appetite for young blonde singers.
After one marital indiscretion too many, Ann decides to pack her two sons into a convertible Cadillac and hit the road in search of a new husband, setting in motion a peculiar take on the road-movie genre.
Finding a job and settling into the suburbs never seriously crosses Ann's radar.
Zellweger perfectly encapsulates Ann's shallow values and dreadful taste in men.
Kevin Bacon is hardly recognisable as a jive-talking weathered Lothario, and Chris Noth as potential husband No 1 makes American Dad look positively left-wing.
The real success of My One and Only is 15-year-old George Deveraux (Logan Lerman).
Wise beyond his years, George recognises that his mum is a flake and his dad will only ever disappoint.
Alongside his amusing effeminate thespian half-brother Robbie (Mark Rendall), George's attempt to bring a modicum of order to life is essentially what drives the film.
My One and Only is charming precisely for what it doesn't try to be.
Fortunately, it does not play for cheap laughs or impose moralising judgements on the characters.
It is the type of film that, in hindsight, is not nearly as vacuous as it originally seems to be.
Best thing: The duck-blue Cadillac Eldorado
Worst thing: Waiting for a revelation that never materialises.
See it with: Any enthusiast for '50s Americana.
- Mark Orton
