Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 108 mins
UK Distributor: eOne
WHO’S IN THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY?
Jim Broadbent, Penelope Wilton, Linda Bassett, Earl Cave, Joseph Mydell, Monika Gossman, Maanuv Thiara, Manoj Anand, Nina Singh, Bethan Cullinane
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Hettie Macdonald (director), Rachel Joyce (writer), Juliet Dowling, Kevin Loader and Marilyn Milgrom (producers), Ilan Eshkeri (composer), Kate McCullough (cinematographer), Jon Harris and Napoleon Stratogiannakis (editors)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A middle-aged man (Broadbent) sets out on a cross-country walking journey to visit a dying friend…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY?
If any movie out right now is going to dissuade anyone from taking up walking as a pastime hobby, it’s surely going to be The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Now, that isn’t to say that walking itself isn’t a rewarding activity, since it gets the body moving and the heart pumping in all the ways that it probably should, but the way that this rather moving British drama shows its emotional as well as physical toll is enough to make anyone think twice about going out, because once you do there’s no telling how far you might end up going.
Based on the book of the same name by Rachel Joyce, who also provides the screenplay for director Hettie Macdonald’s adaptation, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry opens with middle-aged couple Harold (Jim Broadbent) and Maureen (Penelope Wilton), who live out a quiet and uneventful marriage in Devon, receiving a letter in the post from far up north in Berwick-upon-Tweed. The letter informs them that Harold’s old friend and former co-worker Queenie Hennessey (Linda Bassett) is dying of cancer and has been placed in a local hospice to live out her remaining days.
Harold sets out initially to post a bland response, but soon becomes inspired to actually walk the entire length from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed to see Queenie herself, hoping that his commitment will give her the strength to live longer than she’s expected to. So begins, of course, the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry, who walks for days on end, sleeping either in cheap B&Bs or the wilderness, washing in tiny streams, and graciously accepting hospitality from strangers and growingly devout followers, who grow and grow as news of Harold’s journey goes viral, all while he also deals with some unresolved trauma involving his troubled son David (Earl Cave).
There are echoes of David Lynch’s The Straight Story in this particular tale, namely the inexplicable cross-country journey being made by a middle-aged to elderly fellow for reasons that only later become apparent. There is a nice simplicity to this movie as well in how it establishes clear goals, character motivations, and its slight episodic structure all within the first few minutes, before cutting back and forth on occasion to flashbacks that provide some much-needed context to some things.
Rachel Joyce’s script and Hettie Macdonald’s direction make the journey feel appropriately long, difficult, rural, and hugely challenging from both a physical perspective (Harold’s feet quickly develop blisters and sores, due to only walking in his comfier lounge shoes that weren’t meant for long hikes) and a psychological one too. All the while, it’s a surprisingly pleasant experience that makes you really want this person to reach his goal but also to stop and realise the gravity of the situation; he’s somewhat deluded to think that his multi-mile walk will cure his friend’s cancer, even if it’s in good faith, but he’s also carelessly left his long-suffering wife behind in a pseudo-abandonment that she does not appear to be taking very well.
It’s hard to ignore some of the holes in this journey – for one, we hardly learn the connection between Harold and his dying friend, which apparently is so significant that he’s willing to walk for days just to see her – but the one you’re on is no less gripping, primarily because the central performances are quite excellent. Jim Broadbent delivers some of his finest dramatic work in years as a guy who’s equally lovable but also filled with deep feelings of grief and regret, and Penelope Wilton – long one of our most secret of weapons when it comes to portraying believable middle-aged strife and tragedy – is hugely effective in the number of scenes she features in.
You truly feel for both characters in different ways, especially as we see how their marriage has been hit hard by severe tragedy which has led theirs to be a union of limited passion, and as they individually experience different forms of overwhelming anxiety – she facing the prospect of being alone all of a sudden, he dealing with a rising number of devout followers who walk with him but end up holding him back in many ways – there is a sharp recognition of the underlying devastation that exists between them.
It is deeply moving, and while I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t an aspect of that emotion which feels a tad manipulative (a climactic sequence of magical realism perhaps goes a bit too far in its heavy-handedness), I was still engaged by how this particular story would end. I liked these characters enough to want to know if they eventually make it, and I was enjoying the straightforward simplicity of the story that jumps right into it without wasting much time.
Not everything about it works, but The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry felt like a long walk that felt good being made, even if – again – the distance covered might just put you off it for a long while.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a moving drama that hits many of the right emotional targets, mainly thanks to a straightforward script, intimate direction, and some great performances by Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton, which are enough to cover some of the larger holes in this cinematic journey.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is now showing in cinemas nationwide
