Bonneville (2008)

38% of critics liked it
(42 reviews)
41% of users liked it
(28,633 ratings)

A woman looking to fulfill her late husband's final wish sets out on a transformative cross-country road trip in director Christopher N. Rowley's warmhearted tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the memories that make life worth living even after the ones we love have gone. Arvilla (Jessica… More A woman looking to fulfill her late husband's final wish sets out on a transformative cross-country road trip in director Christopher N. Rowley's warmhearted tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the memories that make life worth living even after the ones we love have gone. Arvilla (Jessica Lange)'s husband Joe has recently died during a trip to Borneo, and his ashes have just arrived at her home in Pocatello, ID. Though Joe had previously specified in his will that he would like his ashes scattered by his beloved wife, the well-intending Arvilla soon becomes locked in a heated battle of wills with Francine (Christine Baranski) -- Joe's well-to-do daughter from a previous marriage. Francine is determined to see her father laid to rest next to her mother in Santa Barbara, and she's threatened to sell the house that her father and Arvilla have lived in since marrying to ensure that she gets her way. Now Arvilla has lost Joe's will, leaving no way to confirm either what he wanted done with his remains or what Arvilla is to receive upon her husband's death. Defeated, Arvilla sets her sights on Santa Barbara to surrender the ashes to Francine and attempt to come to terms with the loss of her husband. When Arvilla's sassy best-friend Margene (Kathy Bates) and uptight pal Carol (Joan Allen) agree to join their recently-widowed friend on her journey and offer some much-needed moral support, the trio soon sets out in Arvilla's vintage '66 Pontiac Bonneville for a journey of a lifetime. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 42 min.
Directed By: Christopher N. Rowley
Written By: Daniel D. Davis
Genres: Drama, Comedy

In Theaters: Sep 11, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Jul 8, 2008
Studio: Senart Films Releasing

Critic Reviews

David Rooney, Variety
It's depressing to see a deluxe cast wasted on such by-the-numbers material.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Bonneville is scarcely original and in no way earthshaking, but its notable cast is a pleasure to behold.
David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle
When you've got three of the nation's best actresses in leading roles, it doesn't matter if your script is only adequate and the audience really has to squint here and there to believe what's happening on the screen.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
There are zero surprises in the road comedy Bonneville, sadly including the fact that three middle-age actresses with three Oscars and nine nominations among them couldn't find anything more challenging to do.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
There's no avoiding the fact that Christopher Rowley's feature debut is as uninspired and predictable as your average Lifetime movie.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Yes, the film deals with women of an age who are usually ignored in film, and it further deals with questions of mortality and loss, which are equally overlooked. The problem is, it doesn't deal with them very well.
Jason Di Rosso, MovieTime, ABC Radio National
The story just doesn't do enough to pull the heartstrings.
Des Partridge, Courier Mail (Australia)
Unfortunately, it's as flimsy as tissue, and the actresses, all 50+, really do more with the material...than it deserves.
Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald
Thank heavens for the practical presence and humour of Bates, and the quiet conservatism of Allen's performance as a pious woman scared of too much freedom.
Jim Schembri, The Age (Australia)
A film full of emotional false notes, bad dialogue and cardboard characters...
, The Australian
For a film about discovering your own journey, it sure sticks to the main roads.
Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
While the premise of this roadtrip come buddy movie may be based on loss, the journey we take is a vibrant one
Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media
Trite road-trip dramedy won't interest most kids.
Austin Kennedy, Sin Magazine
What happens when you take 3 of the best dramatic actresses of all time and put them together in a road movie? Pretty much a movie that should have wound up on Lifetime.
Christian Toto, Donne Tempo
Bonneville gets by - barely - on the strength of its three leading ladies.
Jules Brenner, Cinema Signals
Clearly, this fatiguing femme drama is Lifetime, Oxygen or straight-to-DVD grade level. To put it in theatres is a gross overreach.
Michele Kenner, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The characters, situations and resolutions all are predictable and fit like a warm, stretched-out sweater with holes in the elbows.
Kim Voynar, Cinematical
... to see all that potential wasted on what's little more than a washed-out, milquetoast road trip comedy for the soon-to-be senior set is just a travesty.
Geoff Berkshire, Metromix.com
Patronizing an underserved audience with this kind of half-baked fare is a cinematic crime not easily forgiven.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A heartfelt drama about a grieving woman who embarks with her two best friends on a pilgrimage across the West seeking meaning and closure.

Read all 21 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Nicki M

This is more a movie aimed at older women (no comments that I am not that far off. haha), but I didn't mind it. It follows Arvilla, (Jessica Lange), who has recently lost her husband. I thought it dealt very well with her grief and it felt very real and sad. She ends up in a… More
This is more a movie aimed at older women (no comments that I am not that far off. haha), but I didn't mind it. It follows Arvilla, (Jessica Lange), who has recently lost her husband. I thought it dealt very well with her grief and it felt very real and sad. She ends up in a situation where she discovers her husband did not update his will and his old one specifies that his daughter, Francine, from a previous marriage, gets the house. Christine Baranski is horrible as Francine. I mean that in a good way, it is a horrible character - Christine does a great job with it! One of the things that made me laugh was the awful shriek ringtone Arvilla had set on her mobile for when she calls. Francine decides that Arvilla can keep the house, as long as she returns the ashes to her to be buried with his first wife. Arvilla is in turmoil as she knows this is not what her late husband wanted. She and her two girlfriends take a road trip to revisit some old memories and drop the ashes off to the Francine (or does she....). It is fairly slight on plot once the roadtrip stuff starts, but it is a nice female buddy movie. I think it has been compared to Thelma and Louise a few times, and I could certainly see that. I dare say T & L is the better of the two, but this is nicely acted and rings true.
♥˩ƳИИ &

Cast: Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Tom Skerritt, Christine Baranski, Victor Rasuk, Tom Amandes, Tom Wopat, Robert Conder, Jayson Creek, Arabella Field, Kristen Marie Hullinger, Ivey Lloyd, Bruce Newbold, Steve O'Neill, Laura Park, Jodi Russell Director: Christopher… More
Cast: Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Tom Skerritt, Christine Baranski, Victor Rasuk, Tom Amandes, Tom Wopat, Robert Conder, Jayson Creek, Arabella Field, Kristen Marie Hullinger, Ivey Lloyd, Bruce Newbold, Steve O'Neill, Laura Park, Jodi Russell Director: Christopher N. Rowley Summary: This road trip yarn, follows three friends on a journey across the West after one of them is widowed. Along the way, they learn a thing or two about themselves, one another and life. My Thoughts: " This film has three very talented leading ladies in it, Kathy Bates being my favorite. Arvilla is the adventurous one, Carol is the goody two-shoes, and Margene is the free spirited one. Together they all make for a good watch. The acting is strong and the story is as well. But there is no action no great adventure. BUT, I still enjoyed it. I felt like I was peeking in on the friendship of three best friends and enjoying the trip with them. Christine Baranski plays the daughter to the deceased and is a very unlikeable character. She has no sympathy for Arvilla Holden and is quite cruel to her. But then you have to sympathize with her just a tiny bit cause she too, is also grieving. This movie is not going to be for everyone, especially those who don't really like character driven stories. But I enjoyed it and thought it was time well spent."
Red L

This movie is Thelma and Louise with less theatrics. Not as good as T & L, but fun nonetheless.
jay n

Three wonderful actresses working together is reason enough to see this road movie. The script is nothing special and at times doesn't make the most sense but the ladies make it worth seeing and the scenery along the way is beautiful.
Mark A

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. A gal-pal road flick. Three friends set off to deliver one woman's (Lange's) dead husband's ashes to the shrewish step-daughter (Baranski). Along the way, they bond, discover what is truly important, and learn to enjoy life all over again.… More
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. A gal-pal road flick. Three friends set off to deliver one woman's (Lange's) dead husband's ashes to the shrewish step-daughter (Baranski). Along the way, they bond, discover what is truly important, and learn to enjoy life all over again. Yes, it was tame by Hollywod's standards, but it was interesting to watch the characters grow. So they went from spitting out coffee all the way to sipping vodka (!) and did not engage in drunken all-night orgies. The film felt real and the viewer feels priviledged to watch the interplay between these three great actresses. This film struck all the right notes and was a pleasure to watch. The story is what matters.
Jeff B

Far be it for a man to stop and ask for direction but Bonneville charted this reviewer on a familiar but sometimes welcome course, diverted away from a tourist trap called popcorn blockbusters. The movie does not aspire to reverse the effects of Global Warming or end the conflict in… More
Far be it for a man to stop and ask for direction but Bonneville charted this reviewer on a familiar but sometimes welcome course, diverted away from a tourist trap called popcorn blockbusters. The movie does not aspire to reverse the effects of Global Warming or end the conflict in Darfur. Rather, in a film age brimming with expensively drawn superheroes and bullet-ridden sequels, it simply sets out to tell an original feel-good tale and does it kinda sorta well. This soul-searching road trip movie does, however, employ a lot of formula and not a lot of dramatic punch, focusing on a largely ignored demographic. In this PG-13-rated drama, a newly widowed Idaho woman (Lange) sets off on a road trip with her friends (Bates, Joan Allen) to deliver the ashes of her deceased husband to a mean-spirited stepdaughter (Christine Baranski). It begins amidst death, yes. But debut writer/director Christopher N. Rowley quickly (and smartly) whisks moviegoers away from this maudlin fog and sets the wheels a-turning early on. Humor proves to be the best medicine and the script injects the action with just enough to douse the funereal setting. The story ultimately conveys that honoring life is, perhaps, more important than honoring death. But the age of the characters makes this lesson timelier. Though far from ‘old,’ the mature casting rejects any notion that road tripping is only for the young. All involved drive home the point that the search for oneself is a lifelong quest. Unfortunately, the standard material sometimes makes this viewing experience FEEL like a lifelong quest. Bottom line: A road to nowhere special.
Panta O

[size=6][size=5][color=red][b]BONNEVILLE (2006)[/b][/color][/size] [/size] [i][img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/coverv/27/1881127.jpg[/img] [/i][color=blue][b][i]Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates i Joan Allen su nerazdvojne drugarice koje rešavaju da, pod… More
[size=6][size=5][color=red][b]BONNEVILLE (2006)[/b][/color][/size] [/size] [i][img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/coverv/27/1881127.jpg[/img] [/i][color=blue][b][i]Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates i Joan Allen su nerazdvojne drugarice koje rešavaju da, pod rediteljsko-scenarijskom palicom Christopher N Rowley-ja krenu na putovanje koje æe svima doneti razrešenje životnih dilema. Ne znam zašto su distributeri u Australiji èekali cele dve godine da nam predstave ovaj film... baš bih hteo da znam koga da pitam! [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1192441/photo_07_hires.jpg[/img] Nakon smrti svog muža avanturiste koji iznenada umire u Borneu, usamljena i uplašena Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) se vraæa svojoj kuæi u Pocatello-u, gde joj æerka njenog muža iz prvog braka saopštava da æe izgubiti kuæu ako ispoštuje zadnju želju svog muža... [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1192441/photo_05_hires.jpg[/img] Razmažena bogatašica Francine Holden Packard (Christine Baranski), postavlja ultimatum koji posle dužeg vremena bude prihvaæen... ali neæe baš sve da ide kako se oèekivalo! Umesto leta do Santa Barbare u Kaliforniji, tri drugarice kreæu Bonneville-om, prelepim kolima pokojnika na životno putešestvije... [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1192441/photo_02_hires.jpg[/img] Film koji može da se smesti u drame, ali sa veoma toplom notom koja æe vas ispunjavati polako, kao neka dobra stara prepeèenica i širiti se lagano do srca! [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/gallery/1192441/photo_01_hires.jpg[/img] Možda ocena 6-10 jeste malo previsoka, ali nisam mogao odoleti , a da ne poklonim bar pola ocene... za prekrasnu glumu! [/i][/b][/color]
Yinalí R

Loved it!
William G

Thelma & Louise + The Bucket List + P.S. I Love You + Mormon sensibilities = a movie your grandmother should find positively raucous.
Erin C

It was cute, but not great. Good cast, but it wasn't really anything special.