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Bonneville

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Bonneville (2006)

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Reviews Counted:41

Fresh:16

Rotten:25

Average Rating:5.1/10

Consensus: The amazing cast of Bonneville is paired up with a basic, predictable script and lackluster direction.

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Writer-director Christopher N Rowley makes a strong directorial debut with BONNEVILLE, a different kind of road movie. After her adventurer husband, Joe, suddenly dies while they are in Borneo, a... Writer-director Christopher N Rowley makes a strong directorial debut with BONNEVILLE, a different kind of road movie. After her adventurer husband, Joe, suddenly dies while they are in Borneo, a lonely and scared Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) returns home to Pocatello, Idaho, where her husband's daughter from a previous marriage, the snooty Francine Holden Packard (Christine Baranski), is waiting to bring her father's body back to Santa Barbara, California, and bury him next to her mother. But Arvilla has already had him cremated, so Francine makes a deal with her: If Arvilla will bring her husband's ashes to Santa Barbara in time for the funeral service, she will allow Arvilla to keep the house. However, Arvilla had promised Joe before he died that she would scatter his ashes to the wind. So Arvilla and her two best friends, the loud and boisterous Margene Cunningham (Kathy Bates) and the prim and proper Carol Brimm (Joan Allen), set off in Joe's 1966 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, ostensibly to get to the airport to fly to Santa Barbara, but Arvilla has something else on her mind, leading to a funny and poignant road trip across the beautiful American West as the three mature women learn yet more about life, love, and death. Two-time Oscar winner Lange, Oscar winner Bates, and Oscar nominee Allen are terrific as the three friends, with fine support from Tom Skerritt as cool trucker Emmett L. Johnson and Victor Rasuk as a young hitchhiker named Bo who seemingly appears out of nowhere. The locations, beautifully shot by cinematographer Jeffrey L. Kimball, include the Bonneville Salt Flats, Bryce Canyon National Park, Las Vegas, and lots of open road. Mixing in elements of such road-trip films as THELMA & LOUISE, ABOUT SCHMIDT, and LAST ORDERS, and with a country folk soundtrack that features songs by Donovan, Amos Lee, Pete Droge, and Nik Kershaw, BONNEVILLE is a sweet, sincere ride. [More]

Starring: Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Christine Baranski

Starring: Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Christine Baranski, Victor Rasuk, Tom Amandes, Tom Wopat, Tom Skerritt

Director: Christopher N Rowley

Director: Christopher N Rowley
Screenwriter: Daniel D. Davis
Story: Daniel D. Davis, Christopher N Rowley
Producer: Robert May, John Kilker
Composer: Jeff Cardoni

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Reviews for Bonneville

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

It's depressing to see a deluxe cast wasted on such by-the-numbers material.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
David Rooney
David Rooney
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The story just doesn't do enough to pull the heartstrings.

Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | comment Comment
08/31/08
Jason Di Rosso
Jason Di Rosso
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

Unfortunately, it's as flimsy as tissue, and the actresses, all 50+, really do more with the material...than it deserves.

Full Review Source: Courier Mail (Australia) | comment Comment
08/29/08
Des Partridge
Des Partridge
Courier Mail (Australia)

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.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
08/29/08
Paul Byrnes
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald

A film full of emotional false notes, bad dialogue and cardboard characters...

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
08/29/08
Jim Schembri
Jim Schembri
The Age (Australia)

For a film about discovering your own journey, it sure sticks to the main roads.

Full Review Source: The Australian | comment Comment
08/29/08
The Australian

While the premise of this roadtrip come buddy movie may be based on loss, the journey we take is a vibrant one

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
08/23/08
Louise Keller
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile

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.

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
07/22/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

Bonneville gets by - barely - on the strength of its three leading ladies.

Full Review Source: Donne Tempo | comment Comment
06/28/08
Christian Toto
Christian Toto
Donne Tempo

Bonneville is scarcely original and in no way earthshaking, but its notable cast is a pleasure to behold.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
05/30/08
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Clearly, this fatiguing femme drama is Lifetime, Oxygen or straight-to-DVD grade level. To put it in theatres is a gross overreach.

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
05/12/08
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

The characters, situations and resolutions all are predictable and fit like a warm, stretched-out sweater with holes in the elbows.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
04/25/08
Michele Kenner
Michele Kenner
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

... 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.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
04/12/08
Kim Voynar
Kim Voynar
Cinematical

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.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
04/11/08
David Wiegand
David Wiegand
San Francisco Chronicle

Patronizing an underserved audience with this kind of half-baked fare is a cinematic crime not easily forgiven.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
03/21/08
Geoff Berkshire
Geoff Berkshire
Metromix.com

A heartfelt drama about a grieving woman who embarks with her two best friends on a pilgrimage across the West seeking meaning and closure.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
02/29/08
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

... 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

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal | comment Comment
02/29/08
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

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.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
02/29/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

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.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
02/29/08
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press
 
 
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