George Hamilton, Pre-Tan

George Hamilton is best known for being tan. Secondarily, for being good looking. Thirdly, for having appeared on television and in some movies. He was immortalized in the comic strip, Doonesbury, because the character, Zonker, worshipped Mr. Hamilton and was always trying to win the fictional George Hamilton Pro-Am Cocoa Butter Open. It's a little difficult to believe that Mr. Hamilton's teenage years would make for an interesting screen biopic. And yet...

"My One and Only" is loosely based on a story about George Hamilton's early life on the road with his mother and brother. Hamilton had once related the story to Merv Griffin. Griffin liked the idea of turning the tale into a feature film and it was a project he pursued with great vigor. Hamilton serves as Executive Producer for the production.

Richard Loncraine directs this light-hearted look back at Hamilton's youth. It concentrates, in particular, on one year during high school. At times it is all just too campy for words to describe, and it took me a half hour to get used to the tone that Loncraine was setting. Finally, I came to terms with the idea that he was not trying to recreate the depth of a Dickens novel; his goal was to make breezy entertainment and at that he succeeds. It was when he attempts to evoke heaviness that he fails. Thankfully, he does not attempt too many scenes of that nature.

The teenaged George Hamilton (Logan Lerman) has a stereotypical bandleader father Dan Devaraux (Kevin Bacon) who likes to play gigs on the road and play with floozies everywhere. His mother, Anne Devaraux (Renée Zellwegger), is a woman who accepts her husband's shortcomings because she is enjoying their lucrative lifestyle. One day she comes home to find her hubby in bed with a young lady and she finally decides to call it quits on the marriage. She packs up a few things, including George and his half-brother Robbie (Mark Rendall), and drives into the sunset. Robbie is as flamboyantly homosexual as I've seen in quite some time on the silver screen. Almost all of the great lines belong to him. Despite Anne leaving her husband, there is not a shred of bitterness. She plays it as if she had put as much thought into leaving as she might have put into buying a gallon of milk. Anne lives by the belief that you must always look forward, never backward. This includes never checking your rearview mirror when driving. From there it is on to find another husband. Her attempts include, Harlan (Chris Noth, who spends far too little time onscreen to justify his billing here), and a chap who runs a paint store (or so we are all led to believe).

"My One and Only" is all posturing, and seems to take delight in being stupid and sweet at times. Eventually I settled into my seat and accepted it for what it is. While it will never be confused with a screen classic, it does serve to entertain and, in these dog days of summer, it was a welcome break from serious issues. It's not worthy of its title but it is worth a viewing.