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‘Bonneville’ stars Joan Allen, Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange in a scene from the road-trip movie shot on location in the American West.

At previous screenings of “Bonneville,” which opens this weekend in the Wilkes-Barre area, movie-goers have told producer Robert May the plot rings true.
“Women have come up to us afterward and said they know people going through the same situation” as Arvilla Holden, the fiftysomething protagonist who has just lost her husband of many years.
While most recent widows are probably not setting off on extensive road trips with two girlfriends and their husbands’ ashes in tow, as the character played by Jessica Lange does, they’re still dealing with grief and realizing the importance of friendship, May said.
“This isn’t a Hollywood, trumped-up version of real. It’s just real,” said the producer, who lives in Franklin Township and established SenArt Films in 2000.
“The projects I tend to gravitate toward are character pieces, with subtlety or poignancy about the journey through life. This is a story about women of a certain age – and Hollywood really does define age as 35-plus – who are literally and metaphorically on a journey. Ultimately, it’s about coming of age.”
The 1966 red Bonneville convertible that takes a trio of characters – Arvilla, Margene and Carol, portrayed by Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen — from Pocatello, Idaho, to California, lends its name to the title of the movie.
“The Bonneville was the pride and joy of Arvilla’s husband. They took their honeymoon in this car, from Santa Barbara to Pocatello, and always intended to go back,” May said.
“They do – but they do it in a way they couldn’t imagine. She’s literally delivering her husband’s ashes to her so-called ‘wicked stepdaughter.’ ”
Besides being the name of the car, Bonneville is also the name of salt flats in Utah, which form a dramatic backdrop for part of the film, but the movie doesn’t emphasize that, May said.
“To the writer (Daniel D. Davis), who was born and raised in Pocatello, there’s a whole connection between the Bonneville car and the Bonneville Salt Flats,” he said. “But those are things that might only come out after you’ve seen it a few times.
“It’s a very subtle portrayal. The more times you see it, you see the levels and depth built into the script.”
The film, which May co-produced with Dickson City native John Kilker, includes such stunning vistas of the American West as Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell.
The latter location, partly in Utah and partly in Arizona, is “like another planet,” May said. “I’ve never seen anything like the way the sun hits the mountains and the way the water reflects.”
As for the salt flats, “all you can see is white, and the mountains in the far distance appear closer than they are.”
Reviewers have compared the film to “Thelma and Louise,” and May concedes “Bonneville” may be “a kinder and gentler version” of what he calls “one of the greatest road movies.”
“Our car doesn’t go off a cliff at the end,” he said.