Review of 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'

Harold Fry (Jim Broadbent) is living out his retirement with his wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton) in south Devon when he receives a letter informing him that a former work colleague Queenie (Linda Bassett) is in a hospice, unlikely to recover. Shaken by the news, he goes to post a letter in response but, instead, walks a bit further. He resolves to walk all the way to see Queenie…in Berwick-upon-Tweed, about 500 miles distant, saying to himself that she cannot die as he walks to her. He ends up shedding most of his belongings, including money, not wanting to be “encumbered” and feeling all the better for it as he relies on the friendliness of strangers and sleeping, for the most part, out in the open. He meets a number of different people who are generally very kind to him and at one point following news interest in his story, he is joined by a large group of religious “pilgrims” and he befriends a young man while a stray dog befriends Harold. Despite it being a pilgrimage, Herold is clear it is not religious in any way, he just wants to achieve his goal. As he travels, his memory returns to the tragedy of his son who was involved in drugs and the effect it had on his small family.

This is a bitter-sweet, slow paced film based on the book of the same name by Rachel Joyce. It is a story of a man struggling to come to terms with his past but embarking on an unusual, and extreme, fit of endurance. The end is sad and understated with a few not entirely surprising revelations.

The amazing Jim Broadbent is incredible as the troubled rambler while Penelope Wilton equally shines as his wife struggling to understand why her husband has taken on the long walk when he only ever previously “walked to the car”. These are both terribly intense performances with the emotion of the situation they find themselves in. They bring the characters to life in a way that seems like it is hardly acting at all with not only their words but their facial expressions and movements. These are two in the later years of their life and this is a huge part of their performance.

It is shot beautifully along the roads (busy and not so much) of England, taking in a number of cities along the way which English viewers, such as myself, found rewarding to identify though, for the most part, they are unnamed in the film itself. There are many scenes of Harold stopping to appreciate the view of the stunning scenery of rural England. Of course, he also walks along a number of busy highways following a dirty, polluted path alongside so this is not entirely a romantic view of the country.

This is a story about tragedy and loss and relationships as a man in the twilight of his years struggles to come to terms with his life. Though it does get a bit draggy in parts, that is part of the story and part of the experience, so bear with it and take it all in. Bring tissue paper.

Rating: “I have absolutely no complaints”

Review Date: 2026-06-30

Directed by: Hattie Macdonald

Studio: Essential Cinema

Year: 2023

Length: 108 minutes

Genre: Melodrama

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14097206/