Teasing a page from the teenage life of Hollywood legend George Hamilton, this lifelessly pat seriocomedy follows absentee-mom Ann (Zellweger, on Big Accent autopilot) and her sons—the fey Robbie (Rendall) and the Salinger wanna-be George (Lerman). She pulls the kids out of their prep academy and enrolls them in the school of life—that is, the trio hit the road so Ann can find a new rich daddy. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of wealthy “gentlemen” to be found: Those who aren’t violent, crazy or some combo of both are solely interested in younger female specimens. Ann’s humiliations at the hands of ineligible bachelors stack up, as the film marches toward its moral with After-School Special subtlety: Single moms really shouldn’t date.
If any star’s life should lend itself to a grade-A guilty-pleasure biopic, its Hamilton’s, but My One and Only dodges the dirty details (the affair the actor claims to have enjoyed at age 12 with the woman who broke up his parents’ marriage is conspicuously omitted). At one point, the boy who’ll grow into the world’s most famously tanned man tells Mom he’s leaving Los Angeles because “there’s too much sun.” What you wouldn’t give to watch this celebrity tell-nothing have more fun with its own tongue-in-cheekiness.