Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Mark Rendall

Late-studio-era Hollywood was full of George Hamiltons -- moderately talented, fabulously bronzed contract players whose sense of humor about their place in a fast-dimming firmament was often their best weapon.

Remember "Love at First Bite" and "Zorro, the Gay Blade"? Well beyond the point at which Hamilton graduated from the promising-juvenile ranks into a mystical realm of eternal middle age, the man with the tan dived into those idiotic comedies like someone with nothing to lose, except his comic shame.

Hamilton's name may mean zip to the average 20-year-old except as someone who executed a pretty fair tango on "Dancing With the Stars," but he's a peculiarly hardy character. His devil-may-care zest represents ... something. An attitude, a merrily louche state of mind. Or maybe just the benefits of a particular skin tone.

Set in the early 1950s, "My One and Only" is a minimally factual account of Hamilton's improbable upbringing. Now in theaters and available via video on demand, it stars Renee Zellweger as the young actor-to-be's Auntie Mame-style mother.

Director Richard Loncraine's diversion has more on the ball than it initially lets on: For a while it's dominated by one of Zellweger's standard, archly conscientious attempts at period style. Gradually, however, the actress leaves the play-acting behind her and settles into her role. She may not be ideal for a reckless figure of glamour who says things like "We're going to have fun!" while zigzagging across the U.S. with her two sons, homosexual Robbie (Mark Rendall), who wants to be an actor, and heterosexual George (Logan Lerman, more Andy Hardy than future George Hamilton but engaging all the same), who wants to be a writer. But even if Zellweger's face lacks natural mobility -- why do these women do this to themselves? -- her performance nonetheless offers reminders of why she caught people's attention in the first place.

Executive producer Hamilton worked with Merv Griffin for years developing this project, which Hamilton refers to as "a fictional story based on a real story loosely about me." This means "My One and Only" doesn't include the juiciest bits found in his 2008 memoir, such as his affair, at age 12, with his own stepmother. Instead, the film glides along its surfaces.

Screenwriter Charlie Peters sets up one ex-beau and ill-suited suitor after another for Zellweger's character en route to George's destiny. Brothers with different fathers -- Kevin Bacon, with a thick but plausible Texas accent, is very good as the philandering bandleader husband -- George and Robbie grow weary of their mother's madcap act. "Do you think Mom is crazy?" George asks. His brother's reply: "I can't tell. She's the only one I've had."

Alone at a hotel bar, the oft-divorced Ann strikes up a conversation with a man she doesn't know. Where that scene goes, and the unexpected truthfulness with which Zellweger plays it, keeps the big-screen fable from becoming entirely frivolous. Here, deftly, we're shown what unconventional women were up against in 1953.

Director Loncraine (last represented on the big screen by the 2006 Harrison Ford vehicle "Firewall") certainly could've used a few dozen more extras and a truer sense of locale -- set all across America, including New York and Los Angeles, the picture was shot mainly in the Baltimore/D.C. area and New Mexico. But if you have any curiosity at all about how a fellow like George Hamilton became a fellow like George Hamilton, "My One and Only" answers the question by looking, fondly, at his primary caregiver.

 

"My One and Only" Movie Trailer

 

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MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexual content and language).

Running time: 1:47.

Starring: Renee Zellweger (Ann Hamilton Devereaux); Kevin Bacon (Dan Devereaux); Logan Lerman (George); Mark Rendall (Robbie); Eric McCormack (Charlie); Chris Noth (Harlan); David Koechner (Bill Massey).

Directed by Richard Loncraine; written by Charlie Peters, inspired by the life of George Hamilton; produced by Aaron Ryder and Norton Herrick. A Herrick Entertainment release.

 

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