From the book "Rocket Boys" (now republished as "October Sky") by Homer H Hickham. It's the classic "small town home boy makes good" tale - but true. The film holds close to Hickham's book in all but one passage, which reinforces the "once down-trodden but now triumphant" success story beloved of audiences. It is, however, a truly inspiring yarn, more so because of its basis of fact, and is not without a sense of pathos. Some coal miner's sons, inspired by Sputnik in 1957, set about building their own rockets. Initially almost blowing themselves up, they become, by degrees over four years, more and more sophisticated in their creations. Opposed by parents and school authority figures at their West Virginia coal mining district high school (a producer of under-achievers, cannon fodder for the mines, and footballers) but helped by the science mistress (Laura Dern), they overcome adversity. Homer, representing the group, triumphs at the 1961 US National Science Fair. Their final rocket, launched in 1961, attains an altitude of 75,000 feet(!) The group all get to college (virtually the only ones from their town ever to have done so except through football scholarships). Homer ends up a NASA engineer and part of the Space Shuttle design team.

When the mother of Ellen, a tough New Yorker (Zellweger), is stricken with a serious illness, she is forced to quit her job and her relationship with her boyfriend to take care of her. She finds out a lot of things she didn't know about her mother (Streep) and father (William Hurt) and her life along the way. Her father is a gifted professor and English department head, but he is an unrealised novelist. His novel, "Come Back Inn", is still unfinished after many years of torturous self-editing and rewrites long after the advance he received from his publisher is spent. Her mother is dying of cancer at only 48, loves life, and loves her children and husband. When her suffering finally ends from an overdose of morphine, the District Attorney suspects Ellen of having helped her mother to end her life.
The main problem with One True Thing is that you really cannot empathise with the characters until the end of the movie. The movie feels distant and cold at the beginning. While the concept is believable, the entire film is presented in flashback. This gets a little tiresome as the audience loses focus as we switch from present day to the events that build-up to it. However, Streep delivers a stellar performance.
This movie will not have you feeling good when you leave it, or as you watch it, but it will get you thinking about yourself, and your relationships with others. I wouldn't recommend coming to this film on a date, but if you are already in a relationship, then go see it ... just bring along the tissues, as while there is little empathy for the characters, when it hits, it hits hard and if you have been reflecting back into your own relationships, it can turn into a gusher.