The Trip to Bountiful
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Movie Reviews of The Trip to Bountiful
Movie Review: The Trip to Bountiful is a Cornucopia
Summary: 5 Stars
What more can be said about this perfectly acted story? Geraldine Page's character (Carrie Watts) is cooped up with her son and daughter-in-law in a small apartment. Her constant hymn-humming drives the in-law nuts, while the latter's selfish, tyrannical demands make Page's life a cramped hell. The in-law is more interested, it seems, in Watts's Social Security check than in her welfare, and takes every precaution to ensure that Watts never leaves the apartment alone.
Watts is old now, and in her anguish wishes to visit her childhood home in Bountiful one last time. She schemes to hide her check and light out for the bus station. She's not gone long before her relatives are in hot pursuit. She meets several characters along the way, including Rebecca de Mornay's sweet, pretty bus traveler. You'll be hard pressed to not wipe away a tear when Watts reveals, ever so briefly and without histrionics, the unhappiness of her life and the man she loved.
She finally makes it to the end of the bus line in the middle of the night, not far from Bountiful, but needs to somehow arrange a ride. Unhappily in the morning the sheriff arrives to take her, and you can feel her claustrophobic frustration and sorrow to be denied her last dream. The sheriff is a kindly man, though, and he is the one who takes her home, to the abandoned house sitting in the midst of trees and overgrown weeds and grass. If you've ever visited the ruins of a place you once inhabited, or that of another family, you might be able to guess at the strength and type of emotions that surge through Watts. Geraldine Page portrays all of this beyond acting, to the point where you think this homecoming is really happening.
In this pretty little spot with the run-down house, the sheriff ruminates as to the people who lived in Bountiful, before cotton and carelessness used up the soil and everyone moved on. The son and his wife arrive. There is no soaring climax, no glorious finale, just life going on, which makes this movie so true to life. Mother and son talk as the breeze rustles through the old house and the plants, and they return to the car. There is an understated hope of greater understanding and reconciliation between the two women, just like you might think could happen in the real world. The movie ends with Carrie Watts in the back seat of the car as it leaves Bountiful, with a beautiful rendition of the beautiful hymn "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling."
Such a moving and perfectly observed movie and ending. When everything clicked, Hollywood could really do it right sometimes. Page's masterful performance alone makes this one of the great movies of our day.
Movie Review: In This Case The Academy Got It Right
Summary: 5 Stars
Put together a piece that has both a beautiful heartwarming story set in a slower more gracious time than now and the greatest actress to ever act on the American stage or movie screen and you have THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL. The 1940's was a time when older people didn't have the option to be sent to nursing homes in America so that family members didn't need to be responsible for their elderly's welfare or for assuring that their last days could end with a certain amount of dignity.
Carrie Watts, played perfectly by Geraldine Page had moved in with her lone surviving son and his wife because she had left her girlhood home when the land there was too worn out to provide her with a living after the death of her husband and two of her children. After twenty years of being away from the tiny Texas town called Bountiful and six years of being cooped up in a two-room apartment in Houston, Texas, Carrie yearned to return to her "home" where she could dig in the dirt and make something grow again. She has made several failed efforts at getting there already before the movie's opening and the strange dance that ensues between her and her son and daughter-in-law is her struggle to make her dream come true while the two of them make every effort to prevent it.
TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL was Page's final performance as she died shortly after receiving the academy award for 1985's best actress. Hers was an epoch of actresses who were trained to "overact" especially in movies. I once heard Bette Davis say near the end of her life that the trouble with actors and actresses today was that they brought too much realism to their roles. She and the actresses of her day were told to make their characters "larger than life", to maintain a certain distance from the audience. Too much realism was frowned upon by directors of the day. Geraldine Page though started out as a stage actress and her performances always rang true at their very core. She never did or said anything on stage or screen that struck a wrong chord. I believed her in every role and she was never better than she was in this her last movie. The Academy got it right that time.
Movie Review: WHY ISN'T THIS MASTERPIECE ON DVD???
Summary: 5 Stars
As a fan of many of Geraldine Page films, I find this one to be her best. She took home the Best Actress Oscar for her work as an elderly woman who wishes to return to the place of her childhood one last time before she dies. I don't know of any critic or cinema fan who feels she did not deserve this well-earned recognition. Bountiful exists just as it did when the film was first shot. I was there two years ago just to take pictures of some of the spots where the film took place. Anyway, to my point:My concern is that nearly every studio known to mankind is willing to produce and sell ABSOLUTLY TRASHY DVDs that NO ONE even wants to buy. It seems all the good movies that need to be released on DVD are just gathering dust in some vault where the master negative is slowly deteriorating. Before long, this Oscar winning film will only be a dream to those of us who remember its beautiful story of spirituality, passion, memory, and most of all family.
If I were Geraldine Page, I would be not only be turning in my grave but scratching my way to the surface to haunt the STUDIO EXECUTIVES (Opps, I meant to say, FOOLS) who have FORGOTTEN her and the artistry she brought to this wonderfully adapted stage play!!!
I DEMAND that anyone reading this review go to the DVD site for this film and vote to have it placed on DVD as soon as possible. Better yet, DEMAND that it be REMASTERED by the group of producers who release films on the Criterion Collection label!
I will talk about this movie with anyone as well as ANY other horrendous crimes against film if you would like to email me.
Get this on DVD if and when you can. Unfortunately, we true fans of Page's talent must settle for a VHS copy that does NOT compare with the beauty of its initial theatrical release. I cannot say FOR SHAME! FOR SHAME! enough to convey my strong feelings for this film and the disgraceful oversight it has received. DVD NOW! DVD NOW! DVD NOW! DVD NOW...
Movie Review: Horton Foote Remakes a His Classic TV Show
Summary: 5 Stars
This film started out as a television special in 1953. Then it was adapted for the stage. And then finally in 1985 it became a film version.
The film deals with the Watt family. Ludiie (John Heard) is married to Jessie Mae (Carlin Glynn) and they share their one bedroom apartment with his mother Carrie (Geraldine Page). The Watts are just making ends meet. And Jessie Mae treats Mother Watts as a domestic.
Carrie wants to return to her childhood home in Bountiful, Texas. While Jessie Mae is out with her friends getting her hair done and shopping, Carrie escapes to the train station and finds that there is no train to Bountiful. She then goes to the bus station and again, no bus to Bountiful. She take a bus to Harrisburg. On the bus she meets Thelma (Rebecca DeMornay). She is going home to stay with her family while her husband is oversees. Thelma decides to watch over Carrie while she can and they become friends.
When she arrives in Harrison, she finds that her friend Calley Davis died the day before. The sheriff arrives and finds out that she is there and notifies Ludiie. But all Carrie wants to do is see her home. The sheriff decides to take her out to the farm. Eventually, Ludiie arrives to take her home.
This is not a movie about words but emotions. It's the little things that make this film great. Masterson has gathered a perfect cast headed by Geraldine Page (This is her Oscar winning role.) But the surprise is Rebecca DeMornay. She shows that she has than just looks. Unfortunately she is seldom given the chance to show what is capable of. Well if you are lucky, she does get chances on stage.
DVD EXTRA: Return to Bountiful - A 22 minute lookback at the film and its origins with the cast of the 2003 50th Anniversary stage production cast, Carlin Glynn and John Heard from the movie, author Horton Foote and director Peter Masterson
Movie Review: The Best of the Best
Summary: 5 Stars
This film was written by Horton Foote, that magnificent southern writer who also wrote the screenplay for, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Need I say more? Well, yes, I do.I remember a time when you went to the movies to be emotionally moved by something--an idea, a time and place, a remembrance of your past, a great story, and you were enriched for having partaken in a vision of life you might never have known if you hadn't seen it on film. We can have atrocious, uncaring parents and teachers, but if we see movies rich with life affirming substance, somehow they influence us to believe that we can experience the greatness of mind we need to live our lives with emotional richness. That's why we still go to the movies.
I was right there with Geraldine Page every step of the way in her struggle, and finally her triumph, to return to her beloved Bountiful. The brilliance of her acting shows her absolute mastery of the craft even in one small scene at the bus station when she is reminiscing about how the town used to be when she was a young girl. Watch the way she moves and the way she holds her sandwich. In that one scene, I saw her character's love of the past, regret for the past that no longer exists, and uncertainty of her own future. She summed up what we will all come to know before we depart from this earth. When my time comes, I will want to go back to my "Bountiful" in Indiana. I hope someone will volunteer to take me there. If not, well, Geraldine showed me how to do it. I need this DVD. My children and grandchildren need this DVD. Everyone who is a member of a family needs this DVD. We do not need the blockbuster Hollywood thrusts at us for a weekend and quickly bores even those who like this kind of film. We need the Trip to Bountifuls that last forever and will sell forever if only someone would produce it on DVD.