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BONNEVILLE creeps up on the viewer. It is a solid marriage of light comedy and sentiment and the somewhat slight story is brought to life by the natural gifts of a trio of superb actors. Why it did not find popularity in the theaters is probably due to the topic of death and the cast of 'older actresses', but it is a solid little film that deserves more attention.

Arvilla (Jessica Lange) has lost her husband of 20 years and promised to scatter his ashes over places the couple loved. Her step daughter Francine (Christine Baranski) demands the 'ashes' be buried next to her mother's grave in Santa Barbara, threatening her stepmother with eviction from her Pocatello, Idaho home if Arvilla doesn't comply. Two of Arvilla's friends - the restless widow Margene (Kathy Bates) and the oh-so-Mormon Carol (Joan Allen) support their friend and plan to fly with Arvilla to take the ashes to Santa Barbara. But circumstances begin to change when the threesome bond tightly and decide to take Arvilla's husband's old Bonneville on a road trip to California. From here on the film is a Road Trip - a time when the three women learn lessons about life and death and love and compassion from each other - and from a young hitchhiker Bo (Victor Rasuk of 'Saving Victor Vargas', 'Stop- Loss' etc) and trucker Emmett (Tom Skirrett). The trip from Idaho to California passes through some of the Southwest's most beautiful scenery, places once shared by Arvilla and her late husband, and slowly the urn of ashes is distributed along the way to the dreaded Santa Barbara funeral.

Christopher N. Rowley directs this sweet story by Daniel D. Davis with great respect for the gifts of the three fine actors, allowing them to show us just why they remain some of our finest talent on the screen. It is not a great film, but it has such a fine heart that we can relax and just ride along with it. Grady Harp

Bonneville is a movie that is more like what Hollywood used to make for films. A movie with a real believable story and not all a bunch of digitized magic. Finally a movie where the actors can act like real people we can all relate to in our own lives.

Lange,Bates and Allan did a wonderful job of portraying three Mormon friends rebelling against her step daughters wishes to fulfill her late husbands desires. A wonderful film with feeling and happiness. Should be more like this..

Christopher Rowley did a wonderful job of directing this cast in a heart felt film. Drop of Water productions should go along way in the future.

Very little in Bonneville differs from numerous other road-trip movies. I watched it mainly for Joan Allen, and she did not disappoint. The three road-trip ladies were all worth watching, and it was good to see a story where most of the people get along and enjoy it with good humor. There's lots of fantastic Western scenery along the way. The bitter daughter was a major stereotype. All in all, glad I watched it but no desire to see it again.

Three of the four leads have strong theatre backgrounds (Jessica Lange has been on stage, but not to the extent of the other actors), all have extensive movie and TV backgrounds, and all four were hung out to dry with a wretched script and inept direction. No surprises in the script - one knew where and how it was going after the first five minutes. The actors were reduced to playing one dimensional characters with no assistance or inventiveness from the director. I live in hope that when the actors signed on, it was done mainly to have the chance to work together and the expectancy that they could bring depth to a shallow work. No such luck. Hope the paycheck was good. For the audience, it was a loooooooong 90 minutes.

I have to write about Bonneville in light of the user comment by some of these other users and critics.. I am sick of reading negative or poor reviews from films from all of these sour men. I read a few sub par reviews and thought to myself, Bonneville can't be that boring and it wasn't. I was happy to see a film that fits an older demographic. I went with my grandmother and it has been about 10 years since she has gone to the movies, she was pleased there was something out there she could relate to and not be offended by everything that is on the screen, without giving away much about the film, it was a warm film that highlighted 3 relationships and went through feelings that affect many woman as they reach older age. Worth the ticket, movies like this don't come around every year... all these old men get off these boards and out of the papers and get a life, take films for what they are and why they are made, don't be a hater just because you are sitting at your desk writing about 3 awesome woman.