Renee Zellweger: Plays as lady seeking her husband

Renee Zellweger: Plays as lady seeking her husband

Hollywood's Renee Zellweger courts a bankrupt businessman, a cruel colonel and a deranged "serial matrimonialist" in a touching new comedy loosely based on the 1950s childhood of Hollywood actor George Hamilton.

Renee Zellweger's character Ann Devereaux leaves her husband when she finds him in bed with another woman and takes her two sons on a road trip across America to find a suitable replacement.

However, Hamilton's experience as a 15-year-old was the starting point, much of the narrative of "My One And Only," during which the flamboyant but flawed mother buys a Cadillac and drives from city to city, is fictional.

Devereaux, at one point, approaches a potential suitor at a hotel bar who turns out to be an undercover detective and is promptly arrested for soliciting.

When asked what experience she brought to the role at a press conference in Berlin, where My One And Only is in the main competition at the film festival, Zellweger joked:

"In terms of research for Mrs. Devereaux, can I just say 'no comment?'"

Renee Zellweger said that starring in the independent picture was as good an experience as any she had had on set, and judging by the warm reaction after a press screening on Thursday in Berlin, My One And Only is a serious contender for the best picture award when the festival winds up on February 14.