Bonneville (2008)

I love this movie so much

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

**********Definitely spoilers about the end!!!!!!************** I really believed I was going to be bored with this film. And I really have no idea why, except that sometimes I try watching a film believing it's going to be great and end up disappointed, so this was one of those that I thought was going to be bad but ended up nothing but fun for me! It's another sweet and simple film about the loss of a loved one (I've been vacuuming these up lately with gusto!). Arvilla (Jessica Lange) has lost her beloved husband. It's not revealed how, except that he died in Borneo, and had been a writer and professor of some sort. He had loved his life and his work, and had refused to retire. He and his wife had lived for 2 decades in a lovely home in Pocatello, Idaho, and had had a great marriage.When he dies, Arvilla is lost, and naturally, her stepdaughter Francine (Christine Baranski) comes to the house not with comforting words or love, but with ultimatums. Dad's ashes will be buried in CA with his FIRST wife, her mother of course, and Dad should never have been cremated. Oh, and one more thing, Dad left the house to HER, and she wanna sell it. So get out. It's easy to think of Baranski's character as a royal bitch, and not much is presented to steer you toward another opinion. Sure, her father is dead, but it's all too apparent that Francince hates Arvilla for marrying her Dad and for their moving away from the CA coast to Idaho. "His real home is Santa Barbara," Francine proclaims.Torn by her promise to the late Joe that she would scatter his ashes somewhere beautiful rather than pickle him and bury him in a sealed box, Arvilla reluctantly promises Francine she will fly Joe's ashes to CA for the funeral. She is so broken up by all of the recent events that her two good friends Margene (Kathy Bates) and Carol (Joan Allen) decide that she needs moral support on her trip to CA. Arvilla packs up her late husband's favorite car, a classic maple-brown Pontiac Bonneville convertible, and away they go, deciding quite quickly that rather than fly, they will drive to CA, and see a few great sights along the way.The cast includes Victor Rasuk, Tom Wopat and Tom Skerritt as a fun-loving trucker who only has eyes for Margene. The pivotal plot-point of the story is that awful promise Arvilla was forced to make regarding Joe's remains, and how she weighs the importance of that against the promise she made to Joe before he died.I thought the end was sad for Arvilla, and I didn't think of Francine as any less of a bitch, really. Did she trip down the steps on purpose or what? It's sad that Arvilla had to lose her beloved home because her stepdaughter had some personal vendetta against her.

Bonneville is a buddy film about three Mormon women on a quest to return the ashes of Lange's husband to his greedy daughter. Lange, Bates, Allen, Baranski, and Skerrit are wasted in this awful film. The acting veers between mind-numbing and melodramatic. The film is predictable and boring. I am appalled at the overwhelmingly positive reviews on this site...anyone who has a healthy respect for talent could not find this film at all "wonderful". The acting was wooden, the plot predictable, and I can imagine the actors sitting around after shooting asking one another "how did we get into this mess?". What a waste.

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.

Bonneville allows you to step away from all the "I have to" things going on in your personal and professional life and takes you on a wonderful, emotional journey, where you share the cross country experiences of Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen. It's a "feel good" movie, with great actors, a story to tell, and outstanding scenery. It's an adventure that everyone can enjoy, whether young or old or male or female. It's also a movie that permits you to imagine how you would handle personal conflicts associated with making the right decisions in life, and then dealing with the consequences, either good or bad. I highly recommend Bonneville and know you'll walk away with a smile on your face and more at peace with the world around you.