Bonneville

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

I loved the great relationships in this buddy movie for gals, and wish I could see more movies about real people in dramatic/comedy- so interesting and a great discussion starter too about life, death and what to do with the remains. All the stars give great performances, Jessica Lange is stunning and sweet and really lovely - she makes her character someone you wish you knew! And how to describe Kathy Bates and Joan Allen? Just the best buddies a girl could ever have. The scenery of Utah, Nevada and California is amazing! In fact, for a great scenic movie with gorgeous shots of the surroundings, Bonneville far surpasses " A Year in Provence" that was so hyped last year. Hope everyone gets a chance to see it!

Bonneville The new film from unknown director is from Christopher N. Rowley and stars Academy Award winners Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and three time nominee Joan Allen. This is the story of three extraordinary women who go on a road trip to bring one of their dead husband's ashes to his spiteful daughter from his previous marriage.

Our film opens up with the introduction of our main character Arvilla who is played marvelously by Jessica Lange whom shows the audience that she still has it in her to be an acclaimed performer. After losing her husband, Joe, while on a vacation, she returns home to cremate her husband and to spread his ashes when his daughter Francine (played by Christine Baranski known for her roles in Chicago and Cruel Intentions) has a will from years prior and orders that his ashes be returned home with her. After Arvilla claims that her will is out of date and he had made a new one she searches all over her house and comes up empty. In Francine's will he leaves his house that Arvilla and Joe lived in to her daughter and Francine is willing to trade her father's ashes in order for Arvilla to stay in the house.

Enters her two best friends; rebellious party animal, Margene (Kathy Bates) and goody prude Carol (Joan Allen) give their two sense and suggest maybe it's better to give the ashes to his daughter in order to keep her home. Arvilla has a week to return the ashes to Francine and here starts our adventure. She decides to fly out along with her friends and half way to the airport in Joe's 66' Pontiac Bonneville makes a decision to drive from her small town in Idaho to a cross country adventure.

These three women are a true delight and a testament to what love, friendship and faith are all suppose to be. This is truly a film for an older crowd of people but as young man myself, I secretly wished for a happy life to come like the one's of these women. It's an uplifting feel which brings a concentrated confidence for all people. With a breakout performance coming from a young Victor Rasuk as Bo, the film plows down the walls of vanity and brings in the sense of adoration and tenderness.

Oscar prospects go for all three women with Jessica Lange going lead and Allen and Bates for supporting. But I have to say that it's Kathy Bates who is the standout of the women and completely steals each scene she speaks in. She'll bring you to tears from her speeches about life to her wishes about death, you can't leave that theater without holding her in your heart. Allen is also great and we all know she is long overdue for her Oscar and we cannot wait for her to make it to a podium soon.

The film is a "Grumpy Old Men" meets "Boys on the Side" with a powerful touch and courageous feeling. The film will likely not hit big the awards contention but could snap and go as awards season approaches. It's playing in Toronto as a gala and could be word of mouth hit.

Grade: ***/****

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.

Road movies with female leads are rarer than I thought. The only ones that come to mind are "Thelma & Louise" (which I never saw) and the 1965 sexploitation flick "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (which, despite being a hetero male, I could only take 20 minutes of). "Bonneville" is the only one I've seen all the way through, and it was an enjoyable experience.

The film is very tame by today's standards, and depending on what you're in the mood for, that could be a good thing or a bad thing. It caught me on a day when I was craving a break from the shocking, disturbing, edgy films of late. And if you're in the same mindset, I think you'll like it, too. It reminded me of the kind of film that might have been made in the late 40s, all about good values & morality. The 3 characters are portrayed as being Mormon which accounts for their "old fashioned" customs like not drinking coffee, no swearing, lying or philandering (if that word can be applied to women). But within those confines, we get the story of a bunch of chicks gone wild.

If you like this type of movie, I highly recommend "Ladies in Lavender" (2004) with Judi Dench. Another good one, though touching on a heavy subject (Alzheimer's), is "Away From Her" (2006) with Julie Christie. And for a morbidly good time, check out the classic "Arsenic & Old Lace" (1944). I seem to have a thing for wild & crazy grandmothers.