The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry

3
Worth the journey

The Plot: Harold Fry (Jim Broadbent) is an unremarkable man living in South Devon with his frequently exasperated wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton). There is an initially unspoken distance between them involving a past trauma about their son, but they get on with everyday life. He hears from his friend Queenie (Linda Bassett), who is ailing from cancer and now living in a hospice at the other end of England. He replies with a short note and goes to post it, but then comes across a girl in the petrol station whose aunt went through a similar experience with cancer. He changes his mind and decides being there in person is what is really needed. And so begins his lengthy pilgrimage north, one step and one day at a time…

The Verdict: The venerable road movie can come in different forms – car, bicycle, motorbike, on foot – but they are essentially about a character learning something about him/herself along the way and becoming a better person for it. That’s an essential part of the character’s arc, to move from one place to the next both physically, mentally and perhaps spiritually too. It’s not so much about the destination, but about the journey and the people the main character meets along the way – touching their lives with a thought. The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry follows that theme in its depiction of one man’s slow-moving journey by foot to visit a dying friend. It shares more than a few similarities to David Lynch’s own unlikely Disney road movie The Straight Story in that it’s a slow-motion travelogue across a country’s heartlands, with a wry sense of humour about it too.

Rachel Joyce adapts her own 2012 novel for the screen and it’s a natural progression in the adaptation process, given that it originally started out as a radio play. Each version has its own merits therefore, with the film widening out the story and weighing up the physical and emotional toll on Harold and Maureen as each day and week passes. Harold’s journey solely on foot across the length of England takes him through many towns, fields and varying environments. It never occurs to him to take the train, but perhaps that would be cheating from his perspective. He needs to do this on foot because, as one character puts it, the world needs a little less sense and a bit more faith. He’s not a man of faith, but he comes to believe that he can keep Queenie alive with each step he takes. It’s admittedly a rather twee concept to hang a film on, with flashes of heavenly light appearing at key moments and a belief in the inherent goodness of people. Cynics beware then, but director Hettie Macdonald’s sympathetic film does have its heart in the right place.

A lot of the film’s relatability is really down to Jim Broadbent, who couldn’t give a bad performance if he tried. It’s not the first time he’s played an unremarkable character in a remarkable situation and one imagines it won’t be his last. That’s not a complaint – keep it up Jim. He’s so good at playing the everyman, but here he also brings deep regret and raw, unprocessed grief about past mistakes when playing Harold. It’s all etched on his weatherbeaten face, as he’s perceived by the many characters he encounters on his travels: an immigrant lady dealt a hard hand by post-Brexit Britain; a young man who is inspired by Harold’s journey and joins him; even a perceptive dog who senses that Harold needs company to keep him going (and knows when someone else needs company too). Harold also gets some groupies along the way, as he goes viral. The structure is therefore episodic and a bit random and rambling at times (like Harold himself), but the end sight is very much in mind.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry is perhaps a little too low-key for its own good, underplaying the big moment itself and going for something more sentimental. But then again, Macdonald and Joyce are understandably underlining that thought about it being the journey that matters, not the destination. With that thought in mind then, this amiable and heartfelt English road movie is worth the cinematic journey.

Rating: 3 / 5

Review by Gareth O’Connor

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry
Worth the journey
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry (UK / 15A / 108 mins)

In short: Worth the journey

Directed by Hettie Macdonald.

Starring Jim Broadbent, Penelope Wilton, Monika Gossmann, Linda Bassett.

3
Worth the journey