Bonneville
Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen
When Arvilla Holden promises her husband that she'll cremate him and scatter his ashes, she doesn't expect her promise to be called so soon. Neither does she expect a high-stakes fight with her step-d...( read more
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DVD Released: July 8, 2008
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Top Flixster Reviews
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August 10, 2008A great cast, the movie was enjoyable enough, but dare I say it, it was at times a little.....mmm, a little to mundane. Not enough action, almost like a Thelma and Louise, the menopausal years. I love Lange, Bates, and Allen, but there needed to be more action. Acting was good, ... ...( read more )
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March 5, 2008Thelma & Louise + The Bucket List + P.S. I Love You + Mormon sensibilities = a movie your grandmother should find positively raucous.
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June 26, 2009I enjoyed this movies very much. One needs to do what ever it takes when one dies and a promise is made. what a great trip plus love in the air. funny also.
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July 27, 2008Definitely not a film for the young crowd, but a good one for those who've experienced loss, especially that of a life mate and who are in the process of figuring out who they are without their loved one. It was a nice change to see a "road trip" movie featuring seasoned and mat... ...( read more )
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February 28, 2008I know NOTHING about this film, but I'd see this film based solely on the cast. I would pay to watch these ladies churn butter.
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Bonneville
reviews at RottenTomatoes.com
February 27, 2008
Armond White, The New York Press
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March 15, 2008Christopher Rowley and Daniel D. Davis' road movie about three women of a certain age in a sexy car is what THELMA & LOUISE (1991) would have been had the sexy young hitchhiker not been a light-fingered hustler, if the guy in the oversized truck had been an aw-shucks gent rather than a pig, and if the winding road to self-discovery and freedom hadn't ended, well, quite so permanently.
Widowed after 20 years of deeply fulfilling marriage, free-spirited Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) finds an ugly surprise awaiting her at the Pocatello, Idaho, home she shared with her late husband, Joe. A born adventurer who didn't always attend to the mundane details, Joe never got around to redoing his will, which means that the house will go to Francine (Christine Baranski), the tight-lipped, flawlessly polished daughter of his first marriage. But Francine is willing to bargain: If Arvilla will agree to have Joe's ashes interred in the Holden family plot in Santa Barbara, Francine will give her the house. Unfortunately, Arvilla swore to Joe that she'd scatter them –- he wanted to be "out in the world," she explains. Arvilla eventually agrees –- she's too old to start over. She and her best friends, straight-talking Margene (Kathy Bates) and prim-and-proper Carol (Joan Allen), pile into Joe's lovingly maintained, cherry-red 1966 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, supposedly for a short trip to Salt Lake City airport. But Arvilla has a secret agenda, and before they know it her friends are taking a wild ride down the open highway. The fellow travelers whose paths cross theirs include a gentle young man (Victor Rasuk) looking for the father he never knew, a widowed truck driver (Tom Skerritt) with a gallant streak as wide as his smile, and some larcenous white trash who fail to get the better of the three increasingly revitalized women. -
March 15, 2008
Burdened with obvious voice-over narration (in the form of Arvilla's explanatory letter to Francine –- and explanation is called for after the fiasco of Joe's funeral) and graced with stunning locations that range from the eerie Bonneville Salt Flats to Joshua Tree, the film is clearly designed as a celebration of older women. So it's a shame that it's such predictable pablum, full of easy lessons and obvious sentiment. The prodigiously talented Allen, Bates and Lange give it their all, but there's a limit to what even they can do with platitudes and prefabricated homilies. --Maitland McDonagh -
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February 25, 2008I just saw this film at an invited screening earlier this evening. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will recommend it, without hesitation, to friends. It has many wistful moments, to be sure, but it is ultimately a very funny movie and goes on my list of "feel good" films to enjoy. If you don't tear up or choke up at least a couple of times, check your heart for "petrification". The three "women in the car", played by Lange, Allen and Bates are each totally believable, and Kathy Bates is terrific in a role that would seem to have been written for her. Baranski is strong in the only role not well-written; her character is too one-dimensional. This is unfortunate, as Baranski is a talented actress. Tom Skerritt is, also, totally at ease in this one and, therefore, completely believable. Why don't we see more of this inordinately talented actor?
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