By Steve Dinneen
Having stolen art to highlight the plight of the elderly in The Duke, Jim Broadbent is back being a lovable eccentric in this adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
He plays the title role of Harold, a retired man lacking purpose until he receives a letter from an old friend in hospice care. Unable to find words of encouragement, he decides to walk five hundred miles from South Devon to Berwick Upon Tweed as a symbolic gesture that she shouldn’t give up hope.
The journey progresses much as you might expect, as Harold meets colourful locals, gets into mishaps, and exasperates his wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton) as she follows him through phone calls and TV coverage. A subplot involving Harold’s grief from the past gives the film some substance away from the performative pluckiness, but has a lot ofparallels to similar moments in The Duke. The script seems uninterested in scraping beneath the surface of its hero, or the spotlight he unwittingly attracts, as it pushes toward a broad, trailer-friendly message about hope.
With his bouncy delivery and innocent expression, Broadbent sticks to type and is as charming as always. Capable of making his character’s conviction believable, he’s aided by the terrific Wilton who brings a serious side to the story. Far from the flat supporting character she might have been, her love and concern add just enough weight to prevent it from being swallowed up by mawkishness.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry has moments of grit, but is too quick to run back to the cosiness that the movie will be sold on. It’s not the worst film of this type, but it also rarely strays from its well-trodden path.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is in cinemas from 28 April.
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