He writes a postcard in reply, walks to one postbox, then the next, then decides to keep on walking, he doesn’t know why. She’s in a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed and is saying goodbye. Then, one morning, Harold receives a letter from his old workmate, Queenie (Linda Bassett).
Nothing is spelled out – the script is astutely bare – but we understand that the marriage is grimly frigid and has suffered from what hasn’t been said down the years. Harold and Maureen live in suburban Devon with net curtains and unironic china dogs and the peach carpets she seems to vacuum daily (a Miele wise choice). Broadbent plays Harold while his wife, Maureen, is played by Penelope Wilton, who is also inevitable casting of the kind that’s ideal. The film is directed by Hettie Macdonald ( Normal People) with a screenplay by Joyce and it stars Jim Broadbent in a role that has ‘Jim Broadbent’ written all over it even if Timothy Spall could have had a crack at it, to be fair. I cried, possibly twice, but I don‘t think it was three times, whatever anyone might say.īroadbent is a wonder, so real and sincere it doesn’t feel like acting, and Wilton equals him It could have been twee or sentimental (that was the fear) but instead it is spare and restrained and while there are occasional jarring moments it is still wonderfully tender and full of feeling. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is an excellent adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s bestselling novel (2012) about a retired old fella who traverses England on foot in the belief he can save a friend dying of cancer.
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