THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

US, 2013, 100 minutes, Colour.
Cicely Tyson, Blair Underwood, Vanessa Williams, Keke Palmer, Clancy Brown.
Directed by Michael Wilson.

The Trip to Bountiful began life as a play, was filmed in 1985, winning Geraldine Page an Oscar for Best Actress. The playwright was Horton Foote. He wrote many plays and screenplays including Baby, the Rain Must Fall and On Valentine’s Day.

Foote adapted his play for the stage after 25 years, making it a star vehicle for an African- American cast.

Cicely Tyson, impressive in so many films like Sounder, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman, embodies Carrie Watts, an old lady living in Houston, yearning for her old house in the town of Bountiful. Her son, Ludie (Blair Underwood) has been ill and is in no mind for his mother to travel. The house is dominated by his wife, Jessie Mae, (Vanessa Williams).

One day, the old lady decides to go, taking a pension cheque, having to pay in coins for the bus trip only to find that there is no stop at Bountiful. Her son and daughter-in-law try to find her at the bus station. She has made friends with a young woman whose husband has gone off to war, Thelma (Keke Palmer).They talk together on the bus, each revealing the happiness of their lives, Carrie saying she never loved her husband but respected him.

When they arrive at Harrison, and Carrie recovers her lost purse, she wants to walk to Bountiful. The sheriff wakes her in the morning and she persuades him to take her to her home, walking the grounds, remembering, going inside – when her son arrives to take her home and she shares memories of his life with him. Jessie Mae is also there, continually self-centred and impatient, but the two women agree on some rules for future life at home and Carrie returns, satisfied that she has visited Bountiful, and her son admitting that he should have taken her there years earlier.

1. A classic story? Film version, stage versions, this television version?

2. Horton Foote and his stories of the South, screenplays, plays? The re-adapting his play for this television version?

3. An African- American version, cast, Cicely Tyson as Carrie?

4. Family, family portrait, joys and sorrows, regrets?

5. The date, World War II? The story of Thelma and her husband gone to war?

6. The locations, Houston in the 1940s, the city, homes, bus station, the countryside, the Gulf Coast, the dilapidated house? The musical score?

7. Carrie, age, health, trotting around, not being able to sleep, singing hymns, sitting on her chair? Yearning for Bountiful, the absence of 20 years, the memories of her husband, not loving him but having respect, Ludie as a boy, as a man, his illness, her care? Jessie Mae and her exasperation, self-focus, nerves, irritability, demanding, the effect on Ludie, Carrie?

8. Ludie, son, age, work, illness, time off, the domination of his wife, the new job, the interview, possibilities for promotion? Jessie Mae and her concern, Ludie refusing his mother the trip to Bountiful, sitting with her during the night, talking, the bond between mother and son?

9. Jessie Mae, wife of 15 years, place in the house, self-centred, controlling, her friend outside, quoting her, the drugstore, going to meet her, the preoccupation with the cheque?

10. Pension cheque, Carrie hiding it, the decision to go, the pretence of collapsing, going to the bus, the ticket with the coins, no stop for Bountiful? Meeting Thelma, friendliness, the talk, confiding? Ludie and Jessie Mae going to the station, asking Thelma, her telling the truth?

11. Sitting on the bus with Thelma, the talk about their marriages, illness love, Carrie’s respect? Thelma’s care for Carrie, getting off the bus and concerned about the purse?

12. The ticket seller and his exasperation? The bus driver and his shrugging the man at the depot, the talk, the lost purse, finding it? The arrival of the Sheriff?

13. The knowledge of Bountiful? 12 miles? Carrie waking, the sheriff, the phone call from Ludie, the sheriff’s decision to take Carrie?

14. Bountiful, the house, the town gone, the old track, the dilapidated house? The memories of the prosperous times? The effect on Carrie, going back in time, memories, feelings? Going inside? Ludie’s arrival, sharing with him, his admitting he should have done this before? Carrie reminiscing with stories
about him? Jessie Mae, her reaction, nerves and anger? Her four rules and both women agreeing to abide by them? Carrie giving Jessie Mae the cheque?

15. The importance of the Bountiful goal for Carrie, its effect on her, the consequences?