I saw "The Trip to Bountiful" on stage at Chicago's Goodman Theatre with Lois Smith in the role played by Geraldine Page in the film. I thought it was touching if not deeply affecting, and my principal interest in seeing the movie was to see Page's Oscar-winning interpretation of the role. I did not expect to be punched in the gut by the film, but man was I reduced to a puddle by the time this film was over.
Page gives an astonishing performance as Carrie Watts. I first reacted to her the way I do all of Page's creations -- I was put off by her mannered line deliveries, and I thought she was playing the role too broadly, turning Carrie into a tantrum-throwing child. But as the movie unfolds, Page's mannerisms calm down and her character matures before our eyes the farther she gets from her unhappy present and the closer she gets to her ruminative past, and the history she has accumulated along the way. "The Trip to Bountiful" is about, among other things, valuing and remembering the past, even when it hurts to do so. For it's our pasts, like it or not, that shape who we become. John Heard, who I never hear anyone talk about but who is equally wonderful in this film as Page's son, has a marvelous scene with Page at the movie's end where he finally stops dismissing his batty mom and listens to her and her advice, and discovers that there's a lot to learn from those who have been on this planet longer than us.
I was afraid "The Trip to Bountiful" would be mawkish and maudlin, and I suppose it might be to some -- maybe it would seem so to me if I had watched it in a different mood or at a different time in my life. But I instead found it to be bittersweet and painful in a cathartic way. It literally made my heart hurt, but the sensation was weirdly pleasant, if that makes any sense at all.
Grade: A
Page gives an astonishing performance as Carrie Watts. I first reacted to her the way I do all of Page's creations -- I was put off by her mannered line deliveries, and I thought she was playing the role too broadly, turning Carrie into a tantrum-throwing child. But as the movie unfolds, Page's mannerisms calm down and her character matures before our eyes the farther she gets from her unhappy present and the closer she gets to her ruminative past, and the history she has accumulated along the way. "The Trip to Bountiful" is about, among other things, valuing and remembering the past, even when it hurts to do so. For it's our pasts, like it or not, that shape who we become. John Heard, who I never hear anyone talk about but who is equally wonderful in this film as Page's son, has a marvelous scene with Page at the movie's end where he finally stops dismissing his batty mom and listens to her and her advice, and discovers that there's a lot to learn from those who have been on this planet longer than us.
I was afraid "The Trip to Bountiful" would be mawkish and maudlin, and I suppose it might be to some -- maybe it would seem so to me if I had watched it in a different mood or at a different time in my life. But I instead found it to be bittersweet and painful in a cathartic way. It literally made my heart hurt, but the sensation was weirdly pleasant, if that makes any sense at all.
Grade: A