My One and Only

George Hamilton's description of traveling with his ditsy socialite mother in his autobiography Don't Mind If I Do (2008) obviously intrigued screenwriter Charlie Peters and director Richard Loncraine, because she's the focus of this amusingly nostalgic screwball comedy. In the summer of 1953, Southern belle Ann Devereaux (Renée Zellweger) decides to forge a new future after returning to her Manhattan apartment and finding her bandleader husband (Kevin Bacon) with another woman. Loading her two teenage sons into a baby-blue Cadillac convertible, she embarks on a meandering road trip from New York to Los Angeles—stopping in Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Phoenix—to search for a new man and a fresh life. While his obliviously gay, older half-brother Robbie (Mark Rendall) obsesses about fashion and theater, 15-year-old George (Logan Lerman), an aspiring writer, just wants to finish school. But first, Ann's disastrous manhunt turns up Wallace (Steven Weber), a Boston businessman; Harlan (Chris Noth), a zealous Army colonel; Charlie (Eric McCormack), a former suitor who now has a much younger girlfriend; and Bill (David Koechner), a paint store owner/serial bigamist. As things deteriorate, an impatient George takes off to stay with Ann's jealous sister, Hope (Robin Weigert), returning to New York's Upper West Side far more self-reliant—and with remarkable tales to tell. Zellweger slyly charms as an unlucky-in-love middle-aged beauty who's always been “kept” by a man but eventually gains some perspective. Recommended. (S. Granger)