Fridae

I fell head over heels in love with Renee Zellweger in Miss Potter. It might have had something to do with her portrayal of a very butch-dressing Beatrix Potter, though I prefer to put it down to her eccentric charm that makes her the queen of left-field romantic comedies.

While Miss Potter turned out to be a more or less conventional romance, Renee Zellwegger’s eccentric charm is a better match for My One and Only. The movie gives a somewhat accurate account of veteran actor George Hamilton’s childhood as an unwilling passenger in a road trip across America in the 1950s, undertaken by his mother Anne Deveraux (played by Zellweger). The well mannered but very impractical southern belle, newly separated from her philandering hubby, is on a husband-hunting expedition to find the perfect father for her two teenage sons, and a willing fat wallet for her expenses. After all, she thinks it’s improper for a woman to work!

This of course, is an invitation for a series of very bad dates. While the comedy is premised on Anne’s romantic misadventures, it is made much funnier because of its 1950s cusp of feminist liberation setting, and then even funnier because of Zellweger’s unexpected portrayal of a southern belle who isn’t quite the airhead or the eccentric kook she appears to be.

Being a road trip movie, this film does offer an insight into the American psyche back in the 1950s and the social climate of the various landscapes visited by Anne and her sons, from the urbane New York to the creative ferment of Hollywood, to the small town feel of St Louis and inner city life of Pittsburgh. It also has wickedly funny observations about the dating life, rituals and folk wisdom of that era – which make the romantic misadventures and botched husband-hunting even more fun.

While this film is ostensibly about George Hamilton’s childhood, and while it boasts of an ensemble of comic and dramatic talent, this movie belongs entirely to Renee Zellweger, whose offbeat charm seems to suit her role here perfectly.