The Trip to Bountiful

Peter Masterson's 1985 film rests on a screenplay Horton Foote adapted from his own play. Carrie Watts lives in a small Houston apartment in the 1940s with a controlling daughter-in-law and a son who cannot stand up to her. She wants one thing: to see Bountiful, the town of her youth that she still calls home, once more before she dies. When her family refuses, she boards a bus alone and in secret. The film is almost entirely that journey, and the point is not the arrival but a woman having a say over her own life one last time. Geraldine Page won the Academy Award for this performance after many nominations, and the film's weight rests entirely on her. The scene of arrival does not ask whether the expectation was met; it shows something else. Who it's for: viewers who like character-led American drama and adaptations with stage origins. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a fast narrative; the film moves at the pace of a bus journey.