Movie Review - 'Bonneville'

Bonneville

Starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen
Directed by Christopher N. Rowley
Rated PG

There are not many films made in Hollywood with one woman over 40 as the lead character, let alone three of them. It would be nice if that weren’t the case, if the dream factory realized that with Julie Christie and Helen Mirren getting the best roles of their lives in their 60s, a significant number of moviegoers still find the good scripts and performances even if they aren’t on 3,000 screens.

Likewise, it would be nice if Bonneville had more to offer than the talking point that Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen are all in the same film. More notable for the cast it assembles than anything the cast does during the film, Bonneville is a road trip ensemble about finding new outlooks on life through the loss of life, albeit an ensemble picture that barely creates a life of its own.

Though the performances by the three leads are appealing, they never plumb the depths of the sea of emotion. Ordinarily, for a small film with modest expectations both for its box office and of its audience, that wouldn’t be something to dwell upon. However, Lange, Bates and Allen have a dozen Oscar nominations and three wins between them; you would hope that on the rare occasion that they share the screen, the material would be up to the challenge.

Unfortunately, Bonneville is dragged down by watching three great actresses stand back waiting to pounce on a brilliant scene that never materializes. Part of that is the stolid nature of road trip movies and part of it is that the movie is ultimately unconcerned with their journey, because it knows the ending of the movie from the very beginning.

It’s strange that, for three characters that choose not to follow the map on this road trip, the movie itself never strays from its charted course.