I haven’t been well lately, well for the last year and a half if I’m honest, and it’s curtailed my travelling to see a lot of movies. Most days I am just not physically able to sit through a movie but when I feel like I can then I will. The thing with being sick is that people, well meaning as they are, and as loving as they can be, treat you as though you are made of glass. I have a wonderful love, great true friends, and a resilence to shrug off the bad days but not the terrible days, so I never want people to feel bad for me. This film struck a cord with me because of that recent experience.
Edie has been looking after her husband on her own for thirty years, he had a stroke and couldn’t walk or talk for all that time. She raised her daughter who is content to send her to a nursing home so she doesn’t have to feel guilty about her living on her own. Fighting against this she packs her old camping gear and sets out for that adventure that she needs for her soul. It’s a simple tale that suffers from the cliché trademarks of storytelling based on the elderly overcoming a final challenge. That is what is wrong with the film. After that I cannot fault it.
Sheila Hancock plays Edie who struggles within herself to not live in regret anymore despite knowing that she is physically not able to perform this journey up a mountain. She strikes an unlikely and grumpy friendship with Inverness local Johnny who is played by Kevin Guthrie. Sheila and Kevin have a beautiful multigenerartional chemistry that butts heads against one another as much as they get along. Kevin has his own problems in his life going on with an overbearing girlfriend who is pushing their small camping business to compete with the big boys of the industry. He’s unsure of this move, and you can also feel that he worries about their relationship too, which is why Edie is both a blessing and a curse. He learns about her life and how regret is more dangerous than the prospect of defeat from following your dreams. Hancock is the best she’s ever been but then again most of Edie’s character is beautifully written.
The shooting of the film and the Inverness landscape is just epic in the feel, almost like those grand sweeping westerns my Dad would force us to watch back in the 80’s. The theme of the film is conquering ones own life choices and learning from those who have taken steps to rectify these choices. As the problems left me a little bewildered and the almost Rocky feeling you have with Edie had me walking out the cinema feeling hopeful I would tell anyone who is, at the minute, looking inward on their life to give this a shot. I hope that I have Edie’s strength down the line.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Director:Â Simon Hunter
Writers: Simon Hunter (based on an idea by),Edward Lynden-Bell (story by), Elizabeth O’Halloran
Stars: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan & more… See full cast & crew
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- I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!
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