Movie: Annie's Point

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love Betty White? Although she’s been well known to my generation since her role as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, her career has spanned more than seventy years. And she’s still going strong, having recently been honored as the oldest person to host SNL, for which she won an Emmy.

I loved her in The Golden Girls, and her ditsy reprise on Boston Legal cracked me up. How can I not appreciate a ninety year old actress who encourages my warped sense of humor? I love her comedy, respect her spunk and appreciate her work for animal rights. I was pleasantly surprised to discover, watching the 2005 movie Annie’s Point, that she’s also a fine dramatic actress.

Annie’s Point is a story of a recent widow who is determined, against the advice of her doctor and her son, to make a cross-country trip to fulfill her husband’s last wish. She and her initially reluctant granddaughter, Ella (played by Amy Davidson, who I remember as the redheaded daughter on Eight Simple Rules), take off in Annie’s classic red convertible to travel from Chicago to California.

Their often-humorous adventures (including getting arrested for skinny dipping – Annie’s idea!) provide a structure for the film’s deeper messages of forgiving family, honoring grief, following one’s dreams and taking risks. The interplay of emotions and unresolved issues between Annie, her son (played by Richard Thomas, John-Boy of The Waltons) and granddaughter Ella are multi-layered and well played. Although this movie was made for the Hallmark Channel, there is too much humor to be cloying; there are too many fine performances to dismiss it as simply a TV movie.

One of the best surprises of the movie is Amy Davidson’s beautiful singing voice, displayed when Ella, at Annie’s urging, overcomes her anxiety to perform at an open mic.

Betty White is one of several senior actors who are providing role models for those who would wrap our elders in cotton batting and assume they are closed-minded, over-the-hill and out of touch with the real world. In both her real life and in this film, White challenges stereotypes with an impish delight that I suspect is very much a part of her personality, not just part of a role written for an actress. I recommend her and this film.