The Trip to Bountiful (1986)

A "richly textured" (Leonard Maltin) and triumphant tale of an elderly woman's journey home The Trip to Bountiful stars Geraldine Page in "the performance of a lifetime" (Variety) and a role that won* her an Academy Award®. "Funny adventurous suspenseful but ultimately uplifting as a demonstration of the human spirit" (Los Angeles Times) The Trip to Bountiful is "perfect on just about every level" (Boxoffice)!Carrie Watts (Page) is an elderly woman with a weak heart but of strong determination. Trapped in a tiny apartment under the care of her cowardly son and his shrewish wife Carrie is determined to escape and return to her girlhood home. Seizing her chance and her meager Social Security check Carrie sets out on an unforgettable quest to make peace with her past and the secrets of her heart that draw her ever homeward.System Requirements: Running Time 108 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 027616921888 Manufacturer No: 1008150 Product Description

Oscar-winning performance . . .

Written for TV in 1953, this wonderful play by Horton Foote was revived for film in 1985 with Geraldine Page taking the role originated by Lillian Gish. All resemblance to that first production must have ended even before Page's first line, for she gives the role the stamp of her distinctive style - restless and mercurial, shifting through shades and nuance of emotion several times in a single line of dialogue - and often when it's somebody else's line. Understanding her role as that of a tough and difficult woman, not a sweet old lady, Page put a career's worth of stage and film experience into what turned out to be an Oscar-winning performance.

After more than 20 years, however, what also emerges are the fine performances of the other actors in the film, particularly John Heard as her son and Rebecca Demornay as a traveling companion on the bus. Both bring a stillness to the scenes they share with Page, and when Heard finally lets us see some of the anguish inside his character, it tears your heart out. As Foote devotes his loving attention to the lives of ordinary people whose life crises are universal, we see ourselves in the struggles of a Texas family to deal with age, mortality, and the unfairness of life. The DVD includes interviews with several members of the cast, the director, producer, and others. Of particular interest are their recollections of what it was like to work with Page. July 14, 2008

A Trip to Bountiful

I purchased this DVD for a friend who was looking for it for her husband as a gift. I will give it to them soon and I know it will be much appreciated. June 19, 2008

The Trip to Bountiful is a Cornucopia

What more can be said about this perfectly acted story? Geraldine Page's character (Carrie Watts) is cooped up with her son and daughter-in-law in a small apartment. Her constant hymn-humming drives the in-law nuts, while the latter's selfish, tyrannical demands make Page's life a cramped hell. The in-law is more interested, it seems, in Watts's Social Security check than in her welfare, and takes every precaution to ensure that Watts never leaves the apartment alone.

Watts is old now, and in her anguish wishes to visit her childhood home in Bountiful one last time. She schemes to hide her check and light out for the bus station. She's not gone long before her relatives are in hot pursuit. She meets several characters along the way, including Rebecca de Mornay's sweet, pretty bus traveler. You'll be hard pressed to not wipe away a tear when Watts reveals, ever so briefly and without histrionics, the unhappiness of her life and the man she loved.

She finally makes it to the end of the bus line in the middle of the night, not far from Bountiful, but needs to somehow arrange a ride. Unhappily in the morning the sheriff arrives to take her, and you can feel her claustrophobic frustration and sorrow to be denied her last dream. The sheriff is a kindly man, though, and he is the one who takes her home, to the abandoned house sitting in the midst of trees and overgrown weeds and grass. If you've ever visited the ruins of a place you once inhabited, or that of another family, you might be able to guess at the strength and type of emotions that surge through Watts. Geraldine Page portrays all of this beyond acting, to the point where you think this homecoming is really happening.

In this pretty little spot with the run-down house, the sheriff ruminates as to the people who lived in Bountiful, before cotton and carelessness used up the soil and everyone moved on. The son and his wife arrive. There is no soaring climax, no glorious finale, just life going on, which makes this movie so true to life. Mother and son talk as the breeze rustles through the old house and the plants, and they return to the car. There is an understated hope of greater understanding and reconciliation between the two women, just like you might think could happen in the real world. The movie ends with Carrie Watts in the back seat of the car as it leaves Bountiful, with a beautiful rendition of the beautiful hymn "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling."

Such a moving and perfectly observed movie and ending. When everything clicked, Hollywood could really do it right sometimes. Page's masterful performance alone makes this one of the great movies of our day.

April 17, 2008

Trip to Bountiful (DVD)

A magnificent movie about the limits of age, and how they can be overcome with love, joy and determination! February 22, 2008

ONE KISS THAT WAS WORTH AN OSCAR!

There's a moment near the end of this priceless movie when Geraldine Page totally unscripted and out of the blue gives her 'daughter in law from hell' played by Carlin Glynn a kiss on the cheek. NOT a dramatic kiss, not a 'meaningful' kiss, just a spontaneous 'affectionate' kiss.

The actress was so floored by getting this kiss you can see the tears start in her eyes and her 'reading' of the following lines reflects the impact of that kiss - all as I say unscripted and captured on film.

If one speaks of Geraldine Page's greatness as an actress this is the supreme example. On the DVD comments, the writer Horton Foote and the actress, Glynn, both verify this stunning improvisation that literally changed the meaning of the entire film.

The obvious 'Hollywood' ending would have been for the old woman to have died at Bountiful. A little too pat. Page intuitively picked up the Christian redemptive message implicit in all of Foote's writing and brought it to fruition with a 'kiss of peace'.

Carrie Watts must go back to her crowded ugly little apartment but there is hope for healing, some anyway, and all from that kiss and the fact that the kiss reached the heart of her bitter and superficial daughter in law. September 24, 2007

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