Cicely Tyson
Vanessa Williams
Blair Underwood
Keke Palmer

Horton Foote

TV Movie
2014
Drama
Lifetime

TV-PG

Horton Foote’s play “The Trip to Bountiful” was adapted by Foote for Lifetime, the TV network. Foote wrote the screenplays for the superior “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Tender Mercies,” by the way. The play first appeared on television in the 1950s and has had subsequent productions on Broadway, as well (including a production that began in 2013, also starring Cicely Tyson for which she won a Tony award).

This is what you would expect from a television adaptation of a sentimental play set during the 1940s in Texas. Neither Foote’s play nor this adaptation of it addresses race at all, hence the ease of adapting it for an almost completely African-American cast: A white bus station attendant and a white sheriff are also thrown into the mix. You could compare it (unfavorably) to “Driving Miss Daisy,” but that play or film is all about race.

The only reason to watch this is to see Cicely Tyson do what Cicely Tyson does. She’s clear about her intentions during every moment. The rest of the performances are adequate. They include performances from Vanessa Williams, who reprises her role from the 2013 Broadway production; Blair Underwood, who plays Tyson’s son; Keke Palmer, who does what she always does – she needs to learn how to be the character instead of acting the character – as a young woman who meets Tyson at the bus station; and Clancy Brown as the white sheriff who agrees to drive Tyson to Bountiful.

The plot is simple: Tyson’s character, Mrs. Watts, wants to go back home to Bountiful; her son and daughter-in-law (Underwood and Williams) forbid her to do so. The daughter-in-law hen-pecks her husband, who struggles to keep a job that pays well, and wrangles her mother-in-law. The couple has no kids. Watts hides her pension check from them in order to sneak away to Bountiful. She succeeds in taking the bus to Harrison where she convinces the sheriff to drive her to Bountiful. Bountiful no longer has any inhabitants, but Watts feels complete after returning from the trip. Her son and daughter-in-law catch up to her and bring her back to Houston. At the end, before they get in the car to return to Houston, her son calls for peace among them; and his wife allows Watts to keep her pension check.

There are very little dynamics here, especially after Tyson gets on the bus; and the film lags after the first five minutes or so (those first moments actually showed a bit of promise). This version of “The Trip to Bountiful” isn’t bad, though; it’s passable. It just doesn’t provide anything to get excited about. It’ll likely please a church audience, though; it’ll warm that kind of audience’s heart. Anyone who loved “Touched by an Angel” would love this, too.

Verdict: OK to Whatever

About: (Source: bountiful)

Based on Oscar®, Pulitzer Prize, and Emmy Award winning author Horton Foote’s Tony Award nominated play, “The Trip to Bountiful” is a courageous and moving story of liberation, as well as a humor-filled celebration of the human spirit.

In “The Trip to Bountiful,” Carrie Watts, begrudgingly lives with her busy, overprotective son, Ludie and pretentious daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae. No longer able to drive and forbidden to travel alone, she wishes for freedom from the confines of the house and begs her son to take her on a visit to her hometown of Bountiful. When he refuses, Mrs. Watts is undeterred and makes an escape to the local bus station, where she befriends Thelma, a young woman traveling home. When Ludie and Jessie Mae discover she is gone, they call in law enforcement to help, but Mrs. Watts is one step ahead of them and convinces the local sheriff to help her on her journey home to Bountiful.

Foote originally wrote “The Trip to Bountiful” for television in 1953 and it made its Broadway debut in 1954. The play was adapted into a motion picture in 1985, when star Geraldine Page won an Academy Award® for Best Actress and Foote was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. In the 2013 Broadway revival, the play garnered four Tony nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play, Best Sound Design and a win for Cicely Tyson for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Carrie Watts.