If you've thought of George Hamilton only as a B-celeb with a Day-Glo perma-tan, think again. My One and Only loosely chronicles Hamilton's teen years in the 1950s, when his mother, a Southern belle out of touch with the times, left her philandering bandleader husband and set out to find a more suitable provider for her two boys.
The odyssey mostly dots along Route 66, with a stint in Boston. Miscues arrive in the form of a paint-fortune heir who's delusional and an unwarranted arrest for solicitation — and then there's the scheme to make money by taking on "day riders" (hitchhikers). As George's mom, Anne Deveraux, Renée Zellweger gives the performance of her career.
Logan Lerman proves equally game playing George. And the film, executive-produced by Hamilton and beautifully shot and staged under Richard Loncraine's direction, never veers into the maudlin.