Faced with the decision of a lifetime, Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) hijacks her two best friends (Kathy Bates, Joan Allen) and sets off in a vintage '66 Bonneville convertible across the great American West to deliver he... more »r husband?s ashes to her step-daughter. What begins as a simple trip, will end up becoming a chance to rediscover themselves, their friendship, the importance of promises - and of living life to the fullest.« less
Actors:Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Christine Baranski, Tom Skerritt, Joan Allen Genres:Comedy, Drama Sub-Genres:Comedy, Drama Studio:20th Century Fox Format:DVD - Color,Widescreen - Subtitled DVD Release Date: 06/24/2008 Original Release Date: 01/01/2006 Theatrical Release Date: 01/01/2006 Release Year: 2008 Run Time: 1hr 33min Screens: Color,Widescreen Number of Discs: 1 SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Total Copies: 1 Members Wishing: 0 MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Languages:English Subtitles:English, Spanish
Lots of actresses and actors you know in this and a cool classic car. A deep thoughts movie! For the rest of us, hit the 120X FF with a quick eject or don't make the mistake of getting this!
Sharon F. (Shar) from AVON PARK, FL Reviewed on 6/21/2021...
I absolutely ADORED this movie. It was a slightly modern version of Thelma and Louise (but ended much differently). These three women will have you laughing and crying. A MUST SEE for all women.
1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Michel D. (michelann) from WALNUT GROVE, MO Reviewed on 8/24/2013...
When it comes to female “buddy” films you can’t beat this one! It is a chick flick yet has so much more to offer! Tom Skerritt is the secret ingredient that makes this a romantic comedy. He and Cathy Bates are perfect together! Joan Allen is happily married yet is drawn by friendship to take an adventurous trek with her two best pals. And Jessica Lange is the widow who has her own plans for her deceased husband’s remains…. thus the trek down through some of the most beautiful country in the world (from Idaho to California)! The Bonneville (a classic just like these three women) takes them on a most memorable trip to deliver the ashes to the old mans daughter (Christine Baranski) who hates her father’s second wife so much she wants the remains along with the home of the woman her father loved the past 20 years. Just how much of those ashes will remain by the time they get to California? And where are the rest? This is a fun memorable trip that makes a thoroughly enjoyable movie!
2 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Andrea G. from GLENDALE, AZ Reviewed on 1/16/2010...
Open road and great 60-70s music!! Perfect cast. Loved this movie!
1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Starr B. (vtcountrygirl) from BROOKSVILLE, FL Reviewed on 11/2/2009...
I enjoyed this movie greatly. Very funny in spots and then very sad in others. The bonds of friendship were heartwarming....
1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Angie Kathleen L. from OREM, UT Reviewed on 9/17/2009...
This is a gentle movie with many laugh-out-loud moments and clear changes to the three main characters. It tells the story of a recent widow who, along with two friends, drives her husband's treasured red Bonneville from Idaho to California. The purpose is to deliver the deceased's ashes to his daughter by an earlier marriage--for burial by his first wife. Because the man's will was not updated after the second marriage, the couple's home of 20-years now legally belongs to the first wife's daughter. She promises to take the house unless the recent widow gives her the ashes for burial. The conflict comes from the second wife's promise to scatter the ashes.
2 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Sharon C. (sharonc9630) from KNOXVILLE, TN Reviewed on 9/4/2008...
Very pleasant and enjoyable film. Love those three leading ladies!
2 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.
Movie Reviews
A Little Film with Heart: Appreciating Fine Actors
Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 07/03/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"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, July 08"
A Rare Gem
Vittoria de Artemisia | California | 06/22/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Bonneville is that rarest of gems; an intelligent, wonderful movie that stars women over the age of 50. Jessica Lange plays Arvilla, a recently widowed woman who has promised to deliver her husband's ashes to her hostile step-daughter, Francine (Christine Baranski) in California. Her two friends, played by Kathy Bates and Joan Allen, won't let her make the trip alone. They set out in Arvilla's late husband's Bonneville convertible intending to drive to the airport, but Arvilla changes her mind and decides to drive to some of her late husband's favorite places. This is a great road trip/female buddy movie with flawless performances, beautiful scenery, laughter and tears, even a little romance mixed in along the way. Bonneville only recieved limited release in theaters apparently because of the common Hollywood belief that people only want to see movies that are loaded with special effects and violence. So, even if you've never heard of this movie, buy it! You won't be disappointed."
Bates, Lang, Allen, Baranski....a great movie with the top d
Shannon L. Yarbrough | St. Louis, MO USA | 07/14/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I picked up this movie through Netflix as a recommedation for liking Kathy Bates. I'd never heard of it, but I'm a sap for "Thelma and Louise" type movies so I gave it a try. And I'm glad I did.
Thelma and Louise fans will definitely relate to this one, despite there being three ladies in the convertible this time. The similarities are astounding...right down to them picking up a cute hitch hiker and coming into possession of a lot of money, and wearing the signature scarves and sunglasses with the top down. But, Bonneville definitely stands on its own and has it's own completely different storyline.
Yeah, it's a bit of a sappy movie. Two women driving cross country with their recently widowed sister to deliver her dead husband's ashes to his demanding daughter (a small part played by Baranski). But anyone who has lost a loved one, or possibly had to deal with overbearing family members who weren't always around when the person was living, will definitely relate.
The ending is completely predictable, and plays out just as I expected it would but with a nice simple twist at the end. But just as the overall theme of the movie resonates, sometimes it is more important to just throw up your hands, shrug it off, and accept what life hands to you today. You'll always have your memories, and no one can take that away from you.
A true gem of a movie that will make you laugh and cry, and an all star cast that does it justice!!"
Charming Film
Kelly Klepfer | Iowa | 05/23/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Armed with an amazing cast and a sweet story line, Bonneville, hits the road with the sudden death of Arvilla's (Jessica Lange) husband and the demand by his snotty daughter that his ashes be delivered to his memorial ceremony several states away. Arvilla is not ready to give him up and feels a little overwhelmed so her friends insist on flying with her. Plans change enroute and the journey becomes a road trip in Arvilla's classic convertible. Arvilla and her friends discover far more about each other and themselves and begin to glimpse that there is hope even when the summer of life turns into autumn.
A definite girlfriend flick with a more mature angle than the usual offering. Flashes of giddiness, heartfelt conversation, poignant situations, horrible moments and sweet acceptance fill the film. The slower pace and the people along the way, the experiences that cement the friends, and the resolution make for some thought-provoking viewing. Bonneville is squeaky clean and entertaining. After all two Mormon ladies and a recent widow can't get into too much trouble, right?"
A Trio of Superb Actresses Try to Keep a "Thelma & Louise &
Ed Uyeshima | San Francisco, CA USA | 07/29/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Casting three powerhouse actresses of a certain age in a road movie may sound like a promising concept, but I was disappointed by how insular and monotonous the film feels for a shared journey supposedly focused on self-discovery. Director Christopher N. Rowley and screenwriter Daniel D. Davis, both first-timers to feature films, don't really offer the intimidating trio of Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen much to work with in terms of character or story development, and were it not for the three actresses, this little-seen 2008 movie would have surely ended up on Lifetime TV where it most obviously belongs.
The plot focuses mainly on Arvilla Holden, who just lost Joe, her husband of twenty years while on vacation in Borneo. Back home in Pocatello, Idaho, it doesn't take long for her resentful stepdaughter Francine to stake a claim on her father's ashes to transport them back for a funeral service the following week in Santa Barbara where she lives. Arvilla, however, promised Joe to scatter his ashes at various places that meant something to them. Francine threatens to take away Arvilla's house unless she complies. Under emotional duress, Arvilla agrees but only if she can deliver the ashes herself. She then turns to her friends, sassy Margene and uptight Carol for support as they head out on a road trip to California taking Joe's beloved `66 Bonneville convertible. The rest of the movie follows their various adventures, which include picking up a young hitchhiker looking for his birth father, flirting with a smitten truck driver, and making the typical stops one would make west of the Rockies.
With her shopworn beauty compromised a bit by surgery, Lange is still able to convey the tethered fragility of her early-career work in Frances and Tootsie. She inhabits Arvilla with that lost, Blanche DuBois-like quality that fits the character's delusional aspects very well. Bates (About Schmidt) is in familiar territory as Margene, supplying comic relief and surprising poignancy through her trademark salt-of-the-earth persona. As the hopelessly prim Carol, a devout Mormon, the versatile Allen (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Upside of Anger) uses her vast arsenal of talent to bring life to a relatively cardboard role. Doing a 180-degree turn from her surgically-inclined cougar in Mamma Mia!, Christine Baranski is saddled with a no-win role as Francine. Tom Skerritt relies on his familiar toothy charm as the truck driver, while Victor Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas) appears to be channeling early Brad Pitt as the low-key hitchhiker.
While the various locations - Bryce Canyon, Bonneville Salt Flats, Joshua Tree - are nicely filmed by Jeffrey L. Kimball, those expecting a post-menopausal version of Thelma & Louise will likely be disappointed since the film's energy level sputters with every curve of the road, especially as it veers toward a predictably drawn ending. At the same time, when are you likely to see actresses of this caliber share the screen again? The 2008 DVD is short on extras - a standard ten-minute making-of featurette with gushing testimonials by the actresses, several deleted/alternate scenes of varying quality, a one-minute gag reel, and a promotional spot for The Red Hat Society, a social organization for women over fifty."