CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
FirstWitch
A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Martin Bradley
Geraldine Page finally picked up a long overdue Oscar as the cantankerous widow longing to see her hometown of Bountiful one more time before she dies in Peter Masterson's fine and understated adaptation of Horton Foote's play "The Trip to Bountiful". Foote himself did the screenplay and there's really very little to it but Foote was a master of making the small, inconsequential things of life seem important. Unfortunately there is nothing small about Page's performance; this is acting with a capital A. Never the most subtle of performers, Page deploys every mannerism in the Method Actor's Handbook pulling out all the stops in a shameless bid to finally get that Oscar. The best performance comes from John Heard as the son torn between a nagging wife, (an excellent Carlin Glynn), and an overpowering mother. It's just a pity we don't see more of him
MartinHafer
Back in the 1950s, "The Trip to Bountiful" was a very successful stage play. I mention this because the film is a bit slower than many movies and it's easy to imagine it being performed live...much of it because the film has quite a few monologues. This is NOT a complaint....and I really enjoyed the picture...even if it's a bit of a downer at times.When the film begins, Mrs. Watts (Geraldine Page) is living with her adult son (John Heard) and his god-awful wife, Jessie Mae (Carlin Glynn). Jessie Mae is a very controlling and nasty lady and she seems to go out of her way to make Mrs. Watts feel like she isn't wanted. Oddly, she also doesn't necessarily want her to leave, either! In fact, Jessie Mae just seems to like complaining and making everyone miserable. As for her husband, Ludie is a wimp who wants everyone to get along but allows his wife to make the household tense. Within this atmosphere, Mrs. Watts has a strong desire to leave...not permanently, but to visit her old home town of Bountiful. While this seems like a reasonable thing, especially since Mrs. Watts is elderly and has a heart condition, Jessie Mae insists that she is not ALLOWED to make the trip...and that is that! Well, Mrs. Watts knows the only way to make this one last trip is to sneak off on her own...and she does.What follows is a long and leisurely film where Mrs. Watts meets several nice folks...nice folks who take the time to listen to her prattle on and on. It's obvious that no one has been listening to her...and she is making up for lost time! So what happens? See the film.The reason to see this film is the acting. Geraldine Page is delightful and I can see why she earned the Oscar for Best Actress. But I also thought that Carlin Glynn was also terrific. After all, I really, really wanted to throttle her...and she and the director did a great job in creating a strong emotional reaction in viewers. A nice character study and a film that might just make you shed a few tears...so have some Kleenex handy.
jungophile
I have read the first few pages of the reviews for this wonderful movie, and no one seems to notice a little touch that Geraldine Page, or perhaps the director, made at the end of this movie that made me smile.First off, though, let me just say I found out about "The Trip to Bountiful" when I was going through some old Siskel and Ebert shows on youtube to find something new to watch I hadn't heard of. I miss these reviewers so much these days; it was always a pleasure to hear them give a glowing review, to argue intelligently about some film, or to stab an awful movie with cutting remarks that always made me laugh.Anyway, as you can imagine, "Bountiful" got a two thumbs up rave review, and the clips they previewed looked amazing. I knew immediately I had to see Geraldine Page in this movie, and I was not disappointed. She nailed this part so beautifully I was just awestruck. (Another movie Horton Foote is associated with, "Tender Mercies," has this same quiet force of pure emotion and three dimensional characters that burst with life and spontaneity, and Robert Duvall deservedly won an Oscar for his performance as Mack Sledge).Now here's the kicker I mentioned earlier. Watch closely at the end when Page has her fingers in the dirt and you will see her put the government check on the ground, but fail to pick it up when she retrieves her purse and gets up to go back to the car. Isn't that a subtle piece of mischief? I bet Jessie Mae had a heart attack herself when she found out she wasn't going to be able to get those new shoes she was no doubt already scheming to buy.One final note: "A Trip to Bountiful" was remade in 2014 with Cicely Tyson in the lead role. I haven't seen this version, but it also received very strong praise. I'm not surprised; the script is flawless.
Syl
Geraldine Page won an Academy Award as Best Actress for her role in the Horton Foote drama, "A Trip To Bountiful," about a widowed woman living with her son and his wife played memorably by Carlin Glynn in Texas. She yearns for one last trip back to Bountiful which is a dying town. She meets Rebecca DeMornay, a fellow traveler, and they bond. The most interesting scenes are when she tries to escape her son's apartment and go to the bus station. All she wants is one trip to Bountiful before she dies. When she gets there, it's more of a ghost town or cemetery than a town itself. She has to convince others of her quest for one last trip to Bountiful before she goes.
