Mrs. Carrie Watts, portrayed by Cicely Tyson, is the kind of person you'd like to spend the day with and listen to all those wonderful, nostalgic stories about the past. Sometimes the memories aren't so wonderful, but achieve a rosy sort of afterglow with the passing of many years. A determined Carrie Watts makes a last ditch, concerted effort to return to the place of her youth for one final, melancholic look, not so much at a place, but at a time in her life when future possibilities were yet to be determined. As her son Ludie (Blair Underwood) suggests, time and distance has a way of making the places of our youth somewhat smaller than we remember them, as our perceptions become altered by the inevitable consequence of decades passing by. The central story of Carrie's wistful memories and her obsession to return to Bountiful, Texas is what drives the picture, book-ended by the unhappy marriage of her son to a bitter and discontented wife (Vanessa Williams) who seems immune to personal happiness. The story suggests the idea that choices made during one's life may not always result in happiness, and that it's one's attitude that allows us to rise above those circumstances.
Review of The Trip to Bountiful
