The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry review – pensioner’s 600-mile quest is a tall tale

Jim Broadbent’s Harold goes on a 600-mile quest in Rachel Joyce’s sad and quirky story that is undermined by its implausibility

Despite being impeccably acted, sincerely intended and often beautifully shot, there is something basically unsatisfying in this quirky/sad movie, adapted by Rachel Joyce from her own Booker-longlisted novel; it is undermined by issues of tone and plausibility connected with that word “unlikely” in the title. The film presents partly as a sentimental oldie heartwarmer, but also asks us to believe in it as something more serious and even tragic: an emotional investment made harder by the unreality of what we’re seeing.

Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton play Harold and Maureen, a retired couple living a life of quiet boredom and desperation in Devon. Out of the blue, Harold gets a letter saying that an old work colleague of his is now in a cancer hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed. This is Queenie, played all-too-briefly in flashback by Linda Bassett, and Maureen looks far from pleased to hear her name.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/oK6iOfD