The Trip to Bountiful (1985)

Directed by Peter Masterson. Starring Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Rebecca De Mornay, Kevin Cooney, Richard Bradford. [PG]

Musty, leisurely-paced drama set in post-war Texas with stubborn old broad Page determined to return to her hometown of Bountiful, which (unbeknownst to her) has become a ghost town since the days of the Depression. Director Masterson and photographer Fred Murphy’s tawny-toned images of bygone days and small-town America brush the fringes of nostalgia, with specificity ultimately surrendering to plainsong (heck, characters even delight in singing a hymn at one point), but even with some passages deadened by too much rosy decorum, the dialogue puckers with patches of wit and wisdom. Page picked up a “career Oscar” for a feisty portrayal that periodically drifts into mush; the fact that she’s unsympathetic is one of the shrewder decisions made by screenwriter Horton Foote, who’s adapting his stage play from the 1950s. Heard’s browbeaten son and De Mornay’s sincere fellow traveler are given a moment or two to shine as well. Foote also co-produced.

66/100