WILLIAM WATANABE

“The Trip to Bountiful” is not a movie I would have deliberately taken time to watch—on TV or in the Theater. However, last night, while still trying to get a grasp on how to send a damn Text on my iPhone without the help of a three-year-old, “Bountiful” was showing on “TCM”; albeit on mute, as fooling with an iPhone and trying to think cancel each other out. So, I look up at the TV and there was something inexplicable about Fellow Ohio Native, Carlin Glenn (Geraldine Page’s supporting actress) which catches my attention—She was Hot!!! Mute off and for the next hour or so, I could not move—mesmerized by Carlin and utterly overwhelmed with Geraldine!!—And despite having a beer too many, extremely needing to rush to the restroom; I held back! I ain't gonna try to be clever or slightly intelligent, Page more than deserved her Best Actress Oscar as well as the Medal of Freedom, the Noble—and possibly the Medal of Honor. Hoke Smokes, Bullwinkle!! Was she ever brilliant!! And if there was a script for her character, Geraldine never bothered. She was not ACTING she was LIVING!! I needed oxygen!! There’s no way you can write such pure-life lines as she delivered with the totality of Life’s Essence as one lives! But, also, too, equally as brilliant was Carlin!! Don’t know who got best supporting actress that year, but if not Carlin, then dammit, I do not want to know!! Think of all the similar roles of Mothers and Daughter-in-laws down through the History of Film: all pale in Bountiful’s Luminosity! I never felt so bad—or elated in the same instance. Bad; feeling I had not done enough for my wonderful late Mom!! Miserable, as scenes of Texas so unabashedly recalled the year, I spent in Texas one night. Look at the scenery, when it appears—especially those Greyhound Bus Stop scenes. No explanation required. Texas is huge!! It took me seven days to drive from Ohio to San Diego and only two weeks to cross Texas. Cross Texas: whose scenery is not unlike that savannah in Africa. Texas gave me political aspirations. Thought about running for President and instead of overcrowding prisons, just send offenders to Texas and use that WALL Fund to encompass the whole. (To think I once thought Montana was off-limits to my sensibilities and need for urban spawl??) “Bountiful” in Texas?? C’mon, man!!