Bonneville (film)
6.4 /10 1 Votes6.4
Director Christopher N. Rowley Initial DVD release June 24, 2008 Duration Language English | 6.2/10 Genre Comedy, Drama Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date September 11, 2006 (2006-09-11) (TIFF)February 29, 2008 (2008-02-29) (US) Writer Daniel D. Davis (screenplay), Daniel D. Davis (story), Christopher N. Rowley (story) Cast (Margene), Evan May (Robert Brinn), Erin May (Lauren Brimm), (Carol), (Emmett), (Francine)Similar movies Kathy Bates appears in Bonneville and The Family That Preys |
When her husband dies, Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) wants to scatter his ashes per his request. However, the daughter from his previous marriage intervenes, demanding that her fathers remains be placed in the family crypt in California. Arvilla decides to take a road trip there from her home in Idaho, along with her two very different friends, Margene (Kathy Bates) and Carol (Joan Allen). On the way, they scatter some of her husbands ashes at various places visited during the marriage.
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Bonneville is a 2006 American comedy-drama film directed by Christopher N. Rowley. The screenplay by Daniel D. Davis is based on a story by Davis and Rowley.

Three women take a road trip to Santa Barbara in order to deliver the ashes of one of their dead husbands to his resentful daughter. Faced with the decision of a lifetime, Arvilla Holden hijacks her two best friends and sets off in a vintage '66 Bonneville convertible.
Plot
When Arvilla Holdens considerably older husband Joe dies while the two are vacationing in Borneo, she has his remains cremated and returns with them to their home in Pocatello, Idaho with plans to scatter them as he wished. Joes resentful daughter Francine from his first marriage demands Arvilla relinquish the ashes so they can be buried in the family crypt in Montecito, California and threatens to sell Arvillas home, which was left to Francine in her fathers original will, unless she cooperates. Arvilla grudgingly agrees and invites her best friends, single and lonely Margene, a former teacher who lost her job because she advocated birth control to her students, and married Carol, a devout Mormon, to accompany her to the memorial service.
The three women drive to Salt Lake City International Airport in Holdens refurbished 1966 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, but Arvilla decides to detour to the Bonneville Salt Flats, a place she and Joe had visited on their honeymoon. As they race across the flats, the top of the urn containing the ashes falls off and some of them are scattered in the wind. Arvilla decides to honor Joes last request and scatter his ashes at other places they visited throughout their twenty-year-long marriage. This change of plans results in a road trip that takes the women to Bryce Canyon National Park, Skull Valley, Lake Powell, Las Vegas, and the desert near Palm Springs. During their journey they encounter Bo Douglas, a young man searching for the father he never knew, and Emmett, an aging long-distance truck driver who has devoted his life to the road ever since his wife died, in addition to exploring their friendship and themselves as they come of age for the second time.
Production
The film was shot on location throughout the Western United States.
The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and was shown at the Deauville American Film Festival in France, the Film by the Sea Film Festival in the Netherlands, and the Malmesbury Film Society in the United Kingdom in 2007 before being given a limited theatrical release in the US on February 29, 2008. The film eventually grossed $488,393 in the US and $765,592 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $1,253,985.
Cast
Similar Movies
Kathy Bates appears in Bonneville and The Family That Preys. Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). Tumbleweeds (2000). Kathy Bates appears in Bonneville and Fried Green Tomatoes. Jessica Lange appears in Bonneville and Normal.
Critical reception
The film was essentially a box office and critical failure.
David Rooney of Variety called the film "a bland road movie running on empty" and added, "Its 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 . . . theres a big difference between a filmmaker who can actually convey with real feeling the pain of loss or the courage required to carry on, and one who merely connects the dots to illustrate it."
Matt Zoller Seitz of the New York Times said, "The 50-something leads and meandering pace distinguish Bonneville from other movies of its type" and added, "[T]he film has many tiresome elements . . . Except for Ms. Lange’s silent, expressive close-ups . . . the women’s journey is aesthetically and dramatically unremarkable."
References
Bonneville (film) WikipediaBonneville (film) IMDb Bonneville (film) themoviedb.org