Edie

[zico]

4/10. Yet another drama about old people doing stuff late in life starring Sheila Hancock.

Some really good ideas for a film in this, but it’s very messily put together, though there are lots of panoramic shots of North-West Scotland, if you like that sort of thing.

85 year-old Sheila Hancock stars as Edie, who’s had a long sadly wasted life with a rotten husband who first controlled her life, and then stifled it when he needed full-time care. She decides she wants to fulfil a long-held dream to climb Suilven (which is quite a tricky mountain) to try and recapture the joy of her youth, but agonises over whether or not she’s just being a silly old woman and should just accept it’s too late for that kind of thing. She’s quite crotchety and difficult but nevertheless strikes up a relationship with a young guy who offers to help her up the mountain, and then, as befitting a story with a climbing setting, there’s lot of ups and downs.

Very slow paced with lots of languid (though pretty) shots of North-West Scotland, which makes me think the Scottish Tourist Board had a big hand in this film, but you have to suspend disbelief in the film more than your average Star Wars film, to stop thinking “Yes, but that wouldn’t happen like that” and “that character hasn’t behaved like that before, why now?”. The theme tune is particularly irritating, being repeated ad nauseum throughout the film.

Generally both predictable and unconvincing. Disappointing. Sheila Hancock is good though, doing the best with what's she given.