Ellen Burstyn stars as a grandmother in the early stages of dementia. She has cared for her grandson since his parents were killed in a car crash. When the school starts to notice odd behavior in the kid (Ryan Todd), social services starts to investigate. Granny and the kid hit the road and have a series of adventures mostly related to her failing memory and growing confusion.
Back home, a close friend (Walter Matthau) tries to intervene to keep social services from taking the kid, while Granny's daughter-in-law's creepy brother thinks he's going to get her money and house. He doesn't care about his nephew.
After confusing Salinas for Salida and almost out of money, Granny and the kid make it to San Francisco before she falls off the trolley and ends up in the hospital. Matthau arrives and marries her, in part to save the kid from the creepy uncle.
Busrtyn and Matthau are solid in a decent story about real-life problems, but the film is undermined by a bunch of bad actors in supporting parts, most notably the uncle and his cheap wife. My guess is that a lot of locals were also employed as actors.
