Bonneville (2008)
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 40
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 24
The amazing cast of Bonneville is paired up with a basic, predictable script and lackluster direction.
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Critic Reviews: 14
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 8
The amazing cast of Bonneville is paired up with a basic, predictable script and lackluster direction.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 28,786
My Rating
Movie Info
A woman looking to fulfill her late husband's final wish sets out on a transformative cross-country road trip in director Christopher N. Rowley's warmhearted tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the memories that make life worth living even after the ones we love have gone. Arvilla (Jessica Lange)'s husband Joe has recently died during a trip to Borneo, and his ashes have just arrived at her home in Pocatello, ID. Though Joe had previously specified in his will that he would like his ashes
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Cast
-
Jessica Lange
Arvilla Holden -
Kathy Bates
Margene Cunningham -
Joan Allen
Carol Brimm -
Christine Baranski
Francine Holden Packard -
Victor Rasuk
Bo -
Tom Amandes
Bill Packard -
Tom Wopat
Arlo Brimm -
Tom Skerritt
Emmett L. Johnson
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Bonneville Trailer & Photos
All Critics (40) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (25) | DVD (1)
It's depressing to see a deluxe cast wasted on such by-the-numbers material.
Top CriticBonneville is scarcely original and in no way earthshaking, but its notable cast is a pleasure to behold.
When you've got three of the nation's best actresses in leading roles, it doesn't matter if your script is only adequate and the audience really has to squint here and there to believe what's happening on the screen.
There are zero surprises in the road comedy Bonneville, sadly including the fact that three middle-age actresses with three Oscars and nine nominations among them couldn't find anything more challenging to do.
There's no avoiding the fact that Christopher Rowley's feature debut is as uninspired and predictable as your average Lifetime movie.
Yes, the film deals with women of an age who are usually ignored in film, and it further deals with questions of mortality and loss, which are equally overlooked. The problem is, it doesn't deal with them very well.
The story just doesn't do enough to pull the heartstrings.
Unfortunately, it's as flimsy as tissue, and the actresses, all 50+, really do more with the material...than it deserves.
Thank heavens for the practical presence and humour of Bates, and the quiet conservatism of Allen's performance as a pious woman scared of too much freedom.
A film full of emotional false notes, bad dialogue and cardboard characters...
For a film about discovering your own journey, it sure sticks to the main roads.
While the premise of this roadtrip come buddy movie may be based on loss, the journey we take is a vibrant one
Trite road-trip dramedy won't interest most kids.
What happens when you take 3 of the best dramatic actresses of all time and put them together in a road movie? Pretty much a movie that should have wound up on Lifetime.
Bonneville gets by - barely - on the strength of its three leading ladies.
Clearly, this fatiguing femme drama is Lifetime, Oxygen or straight-to-DVD grade level. To put it in theatres is a gross overreach.
The characters, situations and resolutions all are predictable and fit like a warm, stretched-out sweater with holes in the elbows.
... to see all that potential wasted on what's little more than a washed-out, milquetoast road trip comedy for the soon-to-be senior set is just a travesty.
Patronizing an underserved audience with this kind of half-baked fare is a cinematic crime not easily forgiven.
A heartfelt drama about a grieving woman who embarks with her two best friends on a pilgrimage across the West seeking meaning and closure.
... sticks to a soothingly familiar itinerary, providing a welcome showcase for Jessica Lang, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen. As expected, they prove mighty good company along the way %u2014 which is fortunate, because there's nothing much else that qualifies
It's a shame that it's such predictable pablum, full of easy lessons and obvious sentiment. The prodigiously talented Allen, Bates and Lange give it their all, but there's a limit to what even they can do with platitudes and prefabricated homilies.
It's just great to see these three in sizable roles instead of being stuck in Hollywood movies where they pop up briefly to wash the dishes and dispense advice to the hot actress who's the star of the thing.
Audience Reviews for Bonneville
Director: Christopher N. Rowley
Summary: This road trip yarn, follows three friends on a journey across the West after one of them is widowed. Along the way, they learn a thing or two about themselves, one another and life.
My Thoughts: " This film has three very talented leading ladies in it, Kathy Bates being my favorite. Arvilla is the adventurous one, Carol is the goody two-shoes, and Margene is the free spirited one. Together they all make for a good watch. The acting is strong and the story is as well. But there is no action no great adventure. BUT, I still enjoyed it. I felt like I was peeking in on the friendship of three best friends and enjoying the trip with them. Christine Baranski plays the daughter to the deceased and is a very unlikeable character. She has no sympathy for Arvilla Holden and is quite cruel to her. But then you have to sympathize with her just a tiny bit cause she too, is also grieving. This movie is not going to be for everyone, especially those who don't really like character driven stories. But I enjoyed it and thought it was time well spent."
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Latest News on Bonneville
February 28, 2008:
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September 16, 2006:
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Francine decides that Arvilla can keep the house, as long as she returns the ashes to her to be buried with his first wife. Arvilla is in turmoil as she knows this is not what her late husband wanted. She and her two girlfriends take a road trip to revisit some old memories and drop the ashes off to the Francine (or does she....).
It is fairly slight on plot once the roadtrip stuff starts, but it is a nice female buddy movie. I think it has been compared to Thelma and Louise a few times, and I could certainly see that. I dare say T & L is the better of the two, but this is nicely acted and rings true.