Casting three powerhouse actresses of a certain age in a road movie may sound like a promising concept, but I was disappointed by how insular and monotonous the film feels for a shared journey supposedly focused on self-discovery. Director Christopher N. Rowley and screenwriter Daniel D. Davis, both first-timers to feature films, don't really offer the intimidating trio of Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen much to work with in terms of character or story development, and were it not for the three actresses, this little-seen 2008 movie would have surely ended up on Lifetime TV where it most obviously belongs.
The plot focuses mainly on Arvilla Holden, who just lost Joe, her husband of twenty years while on vacation in Borneo. Back home in Pocatello, Idaho, it doesn't take long for her resentful stepdaughter Francine to stake a claim on her father's ashes to transport them back for a funeral service the following week in Santa Barbara where she lives. Arvilla, however, promised Joe to scatter his ashes at various places that meant something to them. Francine threatens to take away Arvilla's house unless she complies. Under emotional duress, Arvilla agrees but only if she can deliver the ashes herself. She then turns to her friends, sassy Margene and uptight Carol for support as they head out on a road trip to California taking Joe's beloved '66 Bonneville convertible. The rest of the movie follows their various adventures, which include picking up a young hitchhiker looking for his birth father, flirting with a smitten truck driver, and making the typical stops one would make west of the Rockies.
With her shopworn beauty compromised a bit by surgery, Lange is still able to convey the tethered fragility of her early-career work in "Frances" and "Tootsie". She inhabits Arvilla with that lost, Blanche DuBois-like quality that fits the character's delusional aspects very well. Bates ("About Schmidt") is in familiar territory as Margene, supplying comic relief and surprising poignancy through her trademark salt-of-the-earth persona. As the hopelessly prim Carol, a devout Mormon, the versatile Allen ("The Bourne Ultimatum", "The Upside of Anger") uses her arsenal of talent to bring life to a relatively cardboard role. Doing a 180-degree turn from her surgically-inclined cougar in "Mamma Mia!", Christine Baranski is saddled with a no-win role as Francine. Tom Skerritt relies on his familiar toothy charm as the truck driver, while Victor Rasuk ("Raising Victor Vargas") appears to be channeling early Brad Pitt as the low-key hitchhiker.
While the various locations - Bryce Canyon, Bonneville Salt Flats, Joshua Tree - are nicely filmed by Jeffrey L. Kimball, those expecting a post-menopausal version of "Thelma and Louise" will likely be disappointed since the film's energy level sputters with every curve of the road, especially as it veers toward a predictably drawn ending. At the same time, when are you likely to see actresses of this caliber share the screen again? The 2008 DVD is short on extras - a standard ten-minute making-of featurette with gushing testimonials by the actresses, several deleted/alternate scenes of varying quality, a one-minute gag reel, and a promotional spot for The Red Hat Society, a social organization for women over fifty.
The plot focuses mainly on Arvilla Holden, who just lost Joe, her husband of twenty years while on vacation in Borneo. Back home in Pocatello, Idaho, it doesn't take long for her resentful stepdaughter Francine to stake a claim on her father's ashes to transport them back for a funeral service the following week in Santa Barbara where she lives. Arvilla, however, promised Joe to scatter his ashes at various places that meant something to them. Francine threatens to take away Arvilla's house unless she complies. Under emotional duress, Arvilla agrees but only if she can deliver the ashes herself. She then turns to her friends, sassy Margene and uptight Carol for support as they head out on a road trip to California taking Joe's beloved '66 Bonneville convertible. The rest of the movie follows their various adventures, which include picking up a young hitchhiker looking for his birth father, flirting with a smitten truck driver, and making the typical stops one would make west of the Rockies.
With her shopworn beauty compromised a bit by surgery, Lange is still able to convey the tethered fragility of her early-career work in "Frances" and "Tootsie". She inhabits Arvilla with that lost, Blanche DuBois-like quality that fits the character's delusional aspects very well. Bates ("About Schmidt") is in familiar territory as Margene, supplying comic relief and surprising poignancy through her trademark salt-of-the-earth persona. As the hopelessly prim Carol, a devout Mormon, the versatile Allen ("The Bourne Ultimatum", "The Upside of Anger") uses her arsenal of talent to bring life to a relatively cardboard role. Doing a 180-degree turn from her surgically-inclined cougar in "Mamma Mia!", Christine Baranski is saddled with a no-win role as Francine. Tom Skerritt relies on his familiar toothy charm as the truck driver, while Victor Rasuk ("Raising Victor Vargas") appears to be channeling early Brad Pitt as the low-key hitchhiker.
While the various locations - Bryce Canyon, Bonneville Salt Flats, Joshua Tree - are nicely filmed by Jeffrey L. Kimball, those expecting a post-menopausal version of "Thelma and Louise" will likely be disappointed since the film's energy level sputters with every curve of the road, especially as it veers toward a predictably drawn ending. At the same time, when are you likely to see actresses of this caliber share the screen again? The 2008 DVD is short on extras - a standard ten-minute making-of featurette with gushing testimonials by the actresses, several deleted/alternate scenes of varying quality, a one-minute gag reel, and a promotional spot for The Red Hat Society, a social organization for women over fifty.