The Trip to Bountiful

Plots: Carrie Watts is an elderly woman who decides to visit her childhood home in Bountiful one last time. There, she meets a young woman with whom she shares her secrets and memories. Carrie Watts lives the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish is revisit, just once before she dies, Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as “home.” The trouble is that her son Ludie is too concerned for her health to let her travel alone, and her petty daughter-in-law Jessie Mae insists that they don’t have money to squander on bus tickets. This prompts “escape” attempts every month that coincide with the arrival of Mrs. Watts’ Social Security check. Mrs. Watts finally makes a successful escape and a last trip home. Carrie Watts might be old, but she suffers no shortage of spirit. When her carping daughter-in-law and overprotective son (John Heard) forbid her to travel alone from Houston to her childhood home in Bountiful, she strikes out anyway. Learning that trains no longer stop there, she takes a bus instead, and on the way she meets a young woman with whom she shares both secrets and memories. Little does she know that her family has alerted the police.