Bonneville

46

SenArt/Scranton-Lacy Films (93 minutes)
and Christopher N. Rowley
Jessica Lange , Joan Allen , Kathy Bates , Tom Skerritt , and Christine Baranski

Rating: PG for some mild language and innuendo

Summary: Three friends "come of age" for a second time on a trip across the great American West. Faced with the decision of a lifetime, Arvilla Holden loads up her 1966 Bonneville convertible and, with her friends in tow, sets out from Pocatello, Idaho, en route to Santa Barbara, California. As they make detours to such spots as Bryce Canyon and Las Vegas, it doesn't take long for the women to realize Arvilla has something unexpected in store. But no one realizes that what began as a simple trip will end up becoming a chance to rediscover themselves, their friendships, the importance of promises--and of letting go. (SenArt Films)

Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times:
(70) Scarcely original and in no way earthshaking, but its notable cast is a pleasure to behold.

John DeFore
The Hollywood Reporter:
(50) Put three old friends in a convertible for a cross-country road trip to a loved one's funeral, and what do you get? Very few surprises, in this feel-good fluff that, despite offering nothing novel, could do well with older audiences who rightly feel that too few films are being made with them in mind.

David Rooney
Variety:
(50) A bland road movie running on empty. It's depressing to see a deluxe cast wasted on such by-the-numbers material -- from predictable plot to fabricated Hallmark sentiment to strenuous milking of warm-and-fuzzy laughs from the irrepressible spirit of three women whose youth is behind them.

Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly:
(50) Ladies! Thelma and Louise drove a '66T-bird, remember?! They picked up a young male hitchhiker 17 years before you did, and they too, um, interacted with a trucker and admired magnificent American sunsets -- is it coming back to you? Nope, it's not, which is exactly why the tires are so low on this creaky vehicle.

Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide:
(50) 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.

Matt Zoller Seitz
The New York Times:
(50) Except for Ms. Lange’s silent, expressive close-ups, which render flashbacks unnecessary, the women’s journey is aesthetically and dramatically unremarkable.

<< Home