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MOVIES / ON DVD / BONNEVILLE
Bonneville

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Bonneville (2006)

42%
100%
70%
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42 %
Reviews Counted: 33 Fresh: 14  Rotten:19 Average Rating: 5.2/10
 
Consensus: The amazing cast of Bonneville is paired up with a basic, predictable script and lackluster direction.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

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 lonely and scared Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) returns home to Pocatello, Idaho, where her... 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]

Genre: Dramas

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

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

DVD Info

Release:

Dec 6, 2009

[DVD Details]
  • DVD Features
  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Dual Side
  • Widescreen - 2.35
  • Audio:

    • Dolby Surround 5.1 - English
    • Subtitles - English, Spanish

    Additional Release Material:

    • Alternate Scenes - Unspecified
    • Deleted Scenes - Unspecified
    • Featurettes - 1. Behind the Scenes
    • 2. Gag Reel
    • 3. Red Hat Society Promo

    Reviews

     
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    1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
    Text View | 1 2 >> >|
    Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
     
     
    Ratings Image
    2/4

    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 | comment Comment
    07/22/08
    Austin Kennedy
    Sin Magazine
    Ratings Image
    2.5/4

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

    Full Review | comment Comment
    06/28/08
    Christian Toto
    Washington Times
    Ratings Image
    3/5

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

    Full Review | comment Comment
    05/30/08
    Kevin Thomas
    Los Angeles Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    Ratings Image
    1/5

    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 | comment Comment
    05/12/08
    Jules Brenner
    Cinema Signals
    Ratings Image
    3/4

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

    Full Review | comment Comment
    04/25/08
    Michele Kenner
    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
    Ratings Image
    2/5

    ... 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 | comment Comment
    04/12/08
    Kim Voynar
    Cinematical
    Ratings Image
    2.5/4

    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 | comment Comment
    04/11/08
    David Wiegand
    San Francisco Chronicle
    Ratings Image
    2.5/5

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

    Full Review | comment Comment
    03/21/08
    Geoff Berkshire
    Metromix.com
    Ratings Image
    3/5

    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 | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
    Spirituality and Practice
    Ratings Image
    B-

    ... 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 | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Carol Cling
    Las Vegas Review-Journal
    Ratings Image
    2/4

    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 | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Maitland McDonagh
    TV Guide's Movie Guide
    Ratings Image
    3/4

    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 | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
    St. Paul Pioneer Press
    Ratings Image
    2/4

    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.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Lou Lumenick
    New York Post
    Ratings Image
    2/4

    There's no avoiding the fact that Christopher Rowley's feature debut is as uninspired and predictable as your average Lifetime movie.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Elizabeth Weitzman
    New York Daily News
    Ratings Image
    2/4

    Bonneville is so bland and predictable, it literally takes two Oscar-winners and a multiple nominee to give it any real entertainment value.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Loey Lockerby
    Kansas City Star
    Ratings Image
    C-

    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.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Tom Long
    Detroit News
    Ratings Image
    N/A

    It's the three leads who really make this material work. Lange is very sympathetic and relatable as Arvilla, while Bates injects some needed humor. And Allen is pitch-perfect as usual, as the film's moral center of sorts.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Jeff Vice
    Deseret News, Salt Lake City
    Ratings Image
    3/5

    Except for Jessica Lange’s silent, expressive close-ups, the women’s journey in Bonneville is aesthetically and dramatically unremarkable.

    comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Matt Zoller Seitz
    New York Times
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    Ratings Image
    1/4

    The '66 Bonneville was a great car, but these talented ladies deserved a better vehicle.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/29/08
    Frederica Mathewes-Green
    Christianity Today
    Ratings Image
    B

    The actresses make certain you understand their motivations and quirks. It helps Bonneville step away from Lifetime Television treacle into something palatable. Perhaps even charming.

    Full Review | comment Comment
    02/28/08
    Brian Orndorf
    eFilmCritic.com
    1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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