Geraldine Page as Mrs. Watts in A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

GERALDINE PAGE

GERALDINE PAGE as Mrs. CARRIE WATTS in A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

An extraordinary year for women. The Fives best actress nominees were:

Anne Brancroft, sensational in AGNES OF GOD. A role that Geraldine Page originated on Broadway.

Whoppi Goldberg – an amazing film debut in THE COLOR PURPLE, right up there with Barbra Streisand in FUNNY GIRL, as the best first feature.

Jessica Lange – Love Jessy to pieces but still wanted Beverly D’Angelo to get the role in the extended movie version of her life in SWEET DREAMS.

Meryl Streep in OUT OF AFRICA, another Signature Role.

And then the Winner – Deservedly so to Geraldine Page in A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL.

A luminous performance by Geraldine Page ( I say luminous because that is a word usually reserved for a more youthful sexy performer but this actress makes this role luminous ) and one of the most touching pictures of the 80’s. The year is 1947; the place, Houston, Texas. Mrs. Watts (Page) is an elderly woman given to humming hymns and living the remaining years of her life with her wimp son, Ludie (the underrated John Heard), and his shrewish wife, Jessie Mae (a fantastic – little seen since, Carlin Glynn, best known as Molly Ringwald’s mother in SIXTEEN CANDLES), in a cramped apartment. Mrs. Watts's heart is weak, she has spells, and she can't get along with Jessie Mae at all. She has but one fervent desire left in her life: she wants to return to Bountiful, the small Texas town where she was born and grew up. The memories of the tranquility of Bountiful haunt her constantly as a reminder of a better time and life. When the stress gets too much for her, Mrs. Watts hides her pension check from Ludie and Jessie Mae and plans her escape. The movie is wonderfully made, and the first-time direction by stage director Peter Masterson is extraordinary. No guns, no violence, no nudity--just a caring story that will wet the driest eye and warm the coldest heart. Every single role is perfectly cast and perfectly played, and Horton Foote's script is a marvel of economy

Geraldine Page inhabits the central role with authority, drive, and of joy and then in a flash pain regarding her past to oppressed present. Her Mrs. Watts is simultaneously hilarious and crafty, sentimental and unexpectedly tough. It's a wonderful role, and the performance ranks with the best things Miss Page has done on the screen, including her definitive Alexandra Del Lago in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, and her EVE as I mentioned previously for INTERIORS.

The movie surprises us: It's not really about conflict between the generations, but about the impossibility of really understanding that you are now a member of an older generation…that decades have gone by. I have a special connection to this film because I have a longing to return to the place I grew up.

Geraldine Page, who somehow always manages to have a hint of girlishness in all of her performances, who always seems to be up to something roguish and not ever quite ready to cave in to age. In the final scenes to tell her son something he might never be able to understand: Someday he will be old, too, and he won't be able to believe it either.

Those moments at the end of the picture when Geraldine has accomplished her small goal of returning to her childhood home are quite simply devastating - we see her body change from an old lady to a young girl then back to old woman again as she swings her legs off the end of her house's porch, and we we watch her spirit leave her body on the drive out. Smart of the director to keep the camera on her face. This is a true actress – let it play out and she bring us into her happiness then to her sorrow back to blissful remembrance then finally back to the unbearable reality of her present existence. It’s the ability to play opposites within a split second. From laughter to tears and laughter in tears, and then in some rare moments… do both at the same time. Not many can do it. She did in her brief role in THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE and did it also here in A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL – hugging her son in both pictures. In “Pope” hugs her son and then pushes him away at the same time. In “Trip” she hugs her son in another way – desperate and yearning ( as if to say ‘I love you but I hate the choices you’ve made’) – without words – just through touch. He knows what she wants. Incredible. In those final moments she is powerless once again, but still it leaves us uplifted in that quiet way, the poetry of her humanity. We walk away thinking: She did it! She made it home. It’s a powerful and magical performance. That image of her in the car. I got the feeling the Geraldine may have been saying goodbye to life – to film - to acting - to everything that came before this moment. It's a small little gem of a movie, great score, great casting – great writing and another signature role from one of cinemas true blue legends. No one sings it better than Geraldine, “Come home…Come home…yey who are weary come home, come home…” Beautiful. And finally the OSCAR, losing her shoes as they announced her name, bringing her purse on stage with her but her OSCAR at last.